'Gran Torino may be an exciting action film but it does present some important messages
to the viewer'
Discuss
Clint Eastwood directs and stars as (Walt Kowalski) the main character in the 2009 film Gran
Torino, the film is based around a sour, discriminative, old man who develops an unexpected
relationship with his Hmong neighbours. The film presents some very significant messages to the
viewer and explores the extent of discrimination in everyday society. It exposes the various types
of discrimination such as gender, racial ethnicity, violence and age; it also uses specific film
techniques such as low-angle shot, long-shots and aerial shots to emphasize the atmosphere of
the film. However, some may argue that the messages conveyed in the film are not important,
they are wrong, society has an impression that discrimination based on the ignorance and pre-
judgements we make actually define the characteristics of an individual.
Throughout the film Walt, the main character repeatedly displays discriminative traits such as
violence; [talking to gang members] We use to stack fucks like you five feet high in Korea this
demonstrates how Walt had been exposed to very violent environments before and was not
ready to cower away. Another instance would be the scene where Walt has an altercation with a
member of the gang for hurting Thao, the camera angle used in this shot was the low-angle shot,
by initially shooting the scene in this particular angle we establish who is more dominant and has
all the power, in this case, it would be Walt. We also get to familiarise ourselves with the extent of
violent behaviour Walt posses. This justifies that violence is a growing problem in society
nowadays and that you can never really know what someone is capable of.
The film demonstrates many types of discrimination, [Sue talking to Walt] Hmong girls over here
fit in better, the girls go to college and the boys go to jail this is a demonstration of discrimination
against ones gender and portrays how society has a way of manipulating how one thinks by
simply using bias terms so often that people start to believe its true. In this particular scene the
film angle used would be the full shot; this film technique was used in order to show their body
language towards each other. This scene reveals how ignorance and pre-judgement is often the
basis of discrimination in society and outlines the gravity of this problem.
The film establishes how people, often the younger generations, do not show respect to the older
generations because they assume that all old people boring, this is called age discrimination.
[Walt talking to three young black men] Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a
while you shouldnt have fucked with? Thats me in this scene Walt has come to the rescue of
Sue and finds that her harassers think he is just an weak, old man, in this scene the point of view
shot was used enabling us to see Walts point of view and establish the audiences reaction, in
this case the three young black men. This determines how we assume things about people
without even knowing the facts and that we shouldnt underestimate or judge people purely
based on their age.
One of the most repeatedly displayed behaviour of discrimination in Gran Torino would be
racial discrimination. [Walt talking to his barber] Jesus Christ, Marty. What are you? half Jew or
somethin? this is an example of racial discrimination against Jewish people, this scene shows
us how discrimination is often used as humour and shows how they just laugh it off as if it were
nothing. Racial discrimination is used a lot in society nowadays and can be displayed just about
everywhere, from school to work and so on, but a lot of people do not take into consideration the
feelings of other people before they discriminate against the colour of an individuals skin. This
raises a very important issue and reveals the degree of how bad discrimination can be.
Gran Torino is a very exciting and moving action film that exposes very serious and important
messages to the viewer based on discrimination. The film clearly justifies the fact that
discrimination in society has grown and shows many examples of discrimination. The film
teaches everyone that we should not make pre-judgments based on what we presume about
others.
By Eliza Faaosofia 10F
