A great film that is occasionally let down by its slow pace

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2013)

Gran Torino centers around its main character, Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), a Korean War veteran that is trying to cope with the loss of his wife and his past transgressions. Over time, he sees more Hmong families move into his neighborhood, including the Vang Lor family moving in next door. While initially holding disdain for Thao (Bee Vang), Sue (Ahney Her), and the rest of the Vang Lors, he eventually comes to like them, as he sees he has more in common with them than his own family. When Thao and Sue are pestered by the local gang(s), Walt decides to step in and help.
The main theme of this film is people must deal with -- and ideally, overcome -- generational and cultural gaps on a daily basis. In Walt's case, he was a Korean War veteran and a proud American. Not only was there an age gap between him and Thao and Sue, but there was also the cultural gap. In addition, spending years in Korea being shot at by Asians shaped his world view, as he came to dislike all Asians because of it. We see this when the Hmong gang shows up at the Vang Lors house. Walt comes out of his house and points a gun in their faces, as he speaks about how he stacked corpses of people just like them in Korea. At the end of the scene, we see that he wasn't coming to the aid of the Vang Lors, as all he wanted was for them to get off of his property.
Throughout the film, we see Walt deal with these gaps, and is mostly able to overcome them. We first see him start to question his views when he sees Thao run across the street and help an old lady with her groceries. This continues when Thao offers to work for Walt to make up for the fact that he tried to steal the Gran Torino. It isn't until Walt spends time with the Hmong people that he realizes not all of them are bad. The only thing that keeps him from completely overcoming these gaps is the fact that he still refers to every Hmong person by a racial slur, as those words were not frowned upon when Walt was younger.
The theme of this film reminds me a lot of the film Avatar. In that film, character Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) must infiltrate the Na'vi people on the moon Pandora. As he spends time with the Na'vi, though, he comes to sympathize with them and gets along with them. This is not unlike Gran Torino with Walt eventually sympathizing and getting along with the Hmong people. Despite what the characters in both films were led to believe, Jake and Walt ultimately realized that the Na'vi and Hmong, respectively, are not bad.
Gran Torino's theme is represented by multiple film techniques throughout the movie. The first of which is the motif. Walt is a war veteran and a proud American, and because of this he frowns upon anything that is not American. The motif we see is the color used in the film. In several scenes, there is always some representation of the American flag -- red, white, and blue colors -- in the scene with Walt, such as the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer he drinks. This helps further the theme that Walt is a little out of touch with today's society, as he is still overly patriotic, frowning upon anything that isn't American.
The angles used for various scenes in the movie are the second film technique that pushes the theme forward. When Walt points his gun at the Hmong gang, the angle used for the scene shows the anger and disgust he feels towards the Hmong. Later in the film, we see similar angles, such as when Walt takes Thao to get a construction job, and the viewers are able to see that his demeanor towards the Hmong has changed. Not only does he now sympathize with them, but he also enjoys their company.
All in all, Gran Torino is a good movie with plenty of unintentional -- and certainly racist -- humor. However, the film does suffer a bit from what is, at times, slow pacing. That being said, I believe the slow pacing was deliberate, as the film takes its time to dive deep into the core theme of the film of people having to fight the generational and cultural gaps on a daily basis. We see every side of the theme in the film, as well as a bit of a redemption for the Walt character, as he not only makes peace with his past transgressions, but also comes to tolerate the generational, and especially cultural, gaps that he was faced with. This is a film that I think everyone should watch, as the humor throughout the film helps relieve the tedium of the slow pacing this movie uses.