Clint is Walt

Rating: Null/10 (29 October 2011)

I saw Gran Torino several years ago and loved it then. I was looking forward to watching it again for a class assignment. After seeing it again, I realized it was Clint's performance, he plays Walt Kowalski, a retired Polish American Ford automobile assembly line worker and a Korean War veteran, lives with his dog Daisy in a changing neighborhood which is dominated by immigrants, this is a man you do not want to mess with. Walt has the perfect growl, he sounds just like a pit-bull dog that wants you out of his yard. Clint as a : writer, director, and an actor, presents Gran Torino with such grace that as a old man that has just lost his wife and it seems that society has forgotten about a veteran that seems to always have a bad mood, but deep down he is a very good and thoughtful and caring man. This part seems to be the perfect part for Clint, if this isn't him in real life, he sure can act. The movie starts with Walt attending his wife's funeral, in attendance also is his two sons, Mitch (played by brain Haley) and Steve (played by Brian Howe) he seems to have little or no patience for his own family, as they seem to have little feeling's for the loss of their mother, as their children are so spoiled. Walt has new neighbor's a family Hmong family from Korea. Which he has great hate for, since he was in the Koran war, and he seems to be an all out raciest. Walt's neighbors, a shy teenage Thao Vang Lor (played by Bee Vang) tries to get into a Hmong gang and his initiation is to steal Walt's prize car, a 1972 Gran Torino. Walt's catches them in the act and points a rifle at Thao and that forces them all to run off. After a few days, Spider and his gang return to Thao's home, with his sister Sue at his side Thao manages to confront the gang and tell them that he wants no part of them. The gang then drags Thao off his porch and in attempts to beat him, while his family grandfather and all attempts to stop them. While in this assault they wrestle onto Walt's lawn and he then confronts them all with a rifle he had while serving in the army. He tells them to get off his lawn while pointing the rifle directly at the leader of the gang, Spider, which they then leave but tell Walt to watch his back. Walt soon has to rescue Sue, Thao's sister from a gang of blacks on the corner while they are harassing her with her boyfriend watching. Sue gets to know Walt and invites him to their family barbecue on his birthday. He soon realizes that he has more in common with this family then his own. Thao must work for Walt to pay for his attempt to steal his car and they soon grow very close as Walt shows the teenage Thao the way's of American men. Mean while the gang keeps pressuring Thao to join them but he keeps refusing and they go as far as assaulting his sister, and Walt then realizes that this family will not be safe until justice is served.
The motif theme is this film is the racism and how soon we can realize how people are not that different then we are, and that when given a chance we can see that we are very much alike.
This film is very similar to the film crash, how though out the film that racism dominates the characters and then they realize how they can be helpful to one another no matter what their race is.