Social Issues In Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino

Throughout the history of film making, there has been many great films. One of the greatest films ever made is Clint Eastwood’s film Gran Torino. Gran Torino stars Clint Eastwood as the main character named Walt Kowalski. Walt is a racist, lonely, troubled Korean War veteran, and a retired auto worker from a Ford Motor Company factory. After losing his wife, the only important things he has left in his life are his dog, Daisy, and his prized possession car, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino. Throughout the film, Walt has to put his racist views aside to help his Hmong immigrant neighbors stay safe from the local gang in their crime filled neighborhood in Detroit. At first Walt can not stand his neighbors, especially their teenage son named Thao. His hatred of Thao grows even stronger when Thao his forced by the local gang to try and steal Walt’s Gran Torino, and ends up getting caught. Since he got caught and his family found out, Thao was forced to work for Walt to make up for what he did, this was because of his family’s strong Hmong culture. At first Walt didn't want to have Thao working for him, but as the story develops, however, Walt eventually takes in Thao, and in Walt’s words, teaches him how
to be a man. Towards the end of the film the gang violence got worse and worse. The gang did a drive by and shot up Thao’s house, while also kidnapping and raping Thao’s sister. This angered Walt, and with all of the other troubles Walt already had, this set him over the top and he knew he had to do something. Before revealing what his final plan was, Walt goes to his local barber shop to get a haircut, goes to buy a tailored suit, and goes to confession at his local church to fulfill his wife's dying wish of him going to confession. He goes back to his house to finally reveal his plans to Thao, but instead of actually doing so, he locks him in his basement, and told Thao he needed to do this alone. Walt goes to the house of the rage filled, trigger happy gang members, and confronts them. After saying a few words to them, Walt reaches into his jacket pocket as he looks like he will be pulling a gun out, and the gang members immediately open fire on him and shoot him repeatedly. We see Walt fall to the ground, while we get a look at what he was actually reaching for in his pocket; his lighter from when he was in war to light the cigarette he had in his mouth. The entire neighborhood saw this event, and all of them were willing to testify when the cops got there so they could put away the gang members once and for all. The film ends with the reading of Walt’s will. His family is all there, along side is Thao and his family. The scene starts with it being said that they only have one more item to discuss, and that was Walt’s prized possession car, his Gran Torino. As the lawyer reads on, he announces that the car would go to Thao instead of someone in Walt’s family. The final scene in the film then shows Thao driving down a long road in the Gran Torino, with Walt’s dog along side him in the passenger seat. There are a lot of different social issues and themes throughout the film.
From bad social issues like racism and loneliness, to themes of courage and protecting thy neighbor. Social issues are often used in movies by modern filmmakers to show their concern in movies that expose social vices and follies or criticize social institutions (Petrie, and Boggs 22). The racism and loneliness helps shape the story because this is what helps develop Walt Kowalski as character, as being lonely and racist is who he is. The underlying message of courage and protecting thy neighbor is shown through the ending when Walt gave his life to improve the well being for his neighborhood. This helps show the viewer that despite our prejudices, we should always be there to help the ones that need
us. Throughout the film there is a lot of character development that happens. Creating convincible characters is said to be one of the toughest aspects about filmmaking today (Kelly). However, this film does quite a good job with the development of it’s characters. This development is mostly shown from the two main characters, Walt and Thao. Walt goes from being a racist, grumpy old man, to a more accepting and positive role model. Thao goes from a young boy that doesn't know much about life, to an independent young man who is starting to get his life figured out. The setting is particularly important in this film. The film takes place in a crime filled neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. As stated in the film, the neighborhood use to be predominantly white, but now is filled with the Hmong immigrants, while Walt is the only white person left in the neighborhood. Because of the strong presence of the Hmong people in the neighborhood, this is where the Hmong local gang hangs out. This affects the characters because they are heavily exposed to the gang violence and activities that occur since the gang is always around. The plot in this film was done exceptionally well. It may not be the fastest to develop, but it definitely keeps you interested the entire time. The director used both external and internal conflicts in the film. He used internal conflicts by showing how Walt is still suffering with his trauma from the Korean war, with the loss of his wife, and with cancer due to his life long smoking. External conflicts are shown with the confrontation between the Hmong people and the local gang on multiple occasions. This got the worst when the gang shot up Thao and his family’s house, and also raping his sister. While this is one of the most intense parts in the film, I would not consider this the climax. I would consider when Walt when to the gang member’s house to confront them and ends up getting shot to death as the climax. This impacts the story greatly because this helped to resolve the issue the Hmong people had with the gang as the gang would now go away for a long time because of their actions. Considering the three different theories of artistic intent, I would have to say that Gran Torino was made mostly with the affective intent. Throughout the film there are many things that occur that would cause the viewer to feel a specific emotion about the event that happened, whether it be anger, sadness, or happiness. Many of the events in the film could even cause a viewer to change his or her own views on something after seeing how it was portrayed in the film. The film does a really good job of taking advantage of the viewers emotions. It does this well in the final scene of the film when it shows Thao driving the Gran Torino as we hear Clint Eastwood’s voice singing a song he wrote for the film titled “Gran Torino” and we are reminded of what Walt did by giving everything to improve the lives of those around him.