Gran Torino Oral Presentation from Perspective of Clint Eastwood
Gran Torino
Hi, my name is Clint Eastwood and I’m the director and protagonist of the film Gran Torino. My character Walt Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, Korean War veteran who has an intensely strong opinion on different races because of experiences from the war that haunt him from his past. Having also directed the film I was able to express the character Walt in such a way that emphasized three particular themes; racism, religion and family. I also used a wide range of cinematic and film techniques to help portray each theme. Essentially this is what made this film successful.
Racism is a major theme that is shown particularly throughout the first half of the film because of Walt’s hatred towards foreign races, or as he calls them; swamp rats, gooks, hooks, slants, and many other names. What we are exposed to throughout our lives shapes us; our beliefs are established biased on our experiences. Walt is strongly closed-minded at the beginning of the film because of his experiences and he just wanted to be left alone, he believed he was at piece in his own mind. An example of this is when he says to the foreigners when they offer him food, “can’t you people just leave me alone,” this showed Walt was stubborn and racist. I used a particular straight on camera angle when Walt is talking about the ‘swamp rats’ that move in next door, asking himself “how many swamp rats can you get in one room?” The medium portrait shot I used shows Walt standing in front of his house with the American flag in the background, a large depth of field is used to keep both Walt and the flag in focus, this cinematic technique contributes to emphasizing Walt’s stereotypical American war veterans ‘racist personality’. Walt always came up with unnecessary racist comments but manage to overcome his hatred. There was a sense of satisfaction and joy the audience found from seeing Walt overcome his racism with an almost relieving forgiveness.
My character Walt, was exposed to one set
Hi, my name is Clint Eastwood and I’m the director and protagonist of the film Gran Torino. My character Walt Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, Korean War veteran who has an intensely strong opinion on different races because of experiences from the war that haunt him from his past. Having also directed the film I was able to express the character Walt in such a way that emphasized three particular themes; racism, religion and family. I also used a wide range of cinematic and film techniques to help portray each theme. Essentially this is what made this film successful.
Racism is a major theme that is shown particularly throughout the first half of the film because of Walt’s hatred towards foreign races, or as he calls them; swamp rats, gooks, hooks, slants, and many other names. What we are exposed to throughout our lives shapes us; our beliefs are established biased on our experiences. Walt is strongly closed-minded at the beginning of the film because of his experiences and he just wanted to be left alone, he believed he was at piece in his own mind. An example of this is when he says to the foreigners when they offer him food, “can’t you people just leave me alone,” this showed Walt was stubborn and racist. I used a particular straight on camera angle when Walt is talking about the ‘swamp rats’ that move in next door, asking himself “how many swamp rats can you get in one room?” The medium portrait shot I used shows Walt standing in front of his house with the American flag in the background, a large depth of field is used to keep both Walt and the flag in focus, this cinematic technique contributes to emphasizing Walt’s stereotypical American war veterans ‘racist personality’. Walt always came up with unnecessary racist comments but manage to overcome his hatred. There was a sense of satisfaction and joy the audience found from seeing Walt overcome his racism with an almost relieving forgiveness.
My character Walt, was exposed to one set