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Gran Torino

Gran Torino was titled after the car which plays a surprisingly small, but integral role.

Before I watched the film, all I had really known about it was that there was a grumpy old man who sat on his porch and threatened some people with a gun. Watching the film, I realized it was exactly that and more. It’s really about a man who finds a family to belong to and making amends to the wrongs that he felt he committed in the war.

Walt Kowalski, a retired and recently widowed veteran of the Korean war, has a horrible family. One of his sons, and his family, tried to send Walt to a retirement home so that they could have his home and possessions. His granddaughter (after having been very inappropriately dressed for her grandmother’s funeral), rather bluntly, asked for his Gran Torino when he dies. They despise talking to him, whether in person or on the phone. The only time Walt is seen to really try and connect with his son is after his hospital appointment, and his son brushes him off.

He forms an odd friendship with Sue after saving Thao from being taken by Spider. She brings him into their home and introduces him to the Hmong culture. While at first, when Walt wants nothing to do with them, the offerings left on his porch are bothersome and inconvenient. He quickly becomes drawn to Hmong cuisine when she lures him in with the promise of food and beer. After-which the doorstep offerings were quick to enter the house. I think Walt’s and Sue’s bond is the best thing about the movie. He is really heartbroken that so much has happened to her.

Walt’s time with Thao is spent in a mentorship type of role. He gets him into doing construction around the neighborhood and eventually get him a job. He gives Thao advice on how to be a man, and deals out dating advice so that “Toad” and “Yum Yum” can start dating. He really takes care of Thao and his family, as well as he can, as the initially reluctant hero of Hmong community.

I am really glad that Mr Kowalski give the Gran Torino to Thao. I thought it was sweet. He gave it to someone who would really take care of the car, and isn’t a total shark like his granddaughter.

I also thought it was a bit cute that Clint Eastwood got his sons involved in the film. One of his younger sons played Sue’s date when she was being manhandled before being rescued by Walt. His oldest son did the musical score for the film.

Hello Gran Torino

torinoClint Eastwood, every now and again you remind me of how much of a badass you are.

The standard way to read this I’m sure would be to criticize the ‘white savior’ complex that abounds in the storyline. Only Mr. Kowalski can save the day. How convenient that the Lor family doesn’t have a father around. Blah blah blah blah blah.

What if there was another way to look at it? What if we saw the larger metaphor for the immigrant experience? Think about it. Mr. Kowalski is clearly other Americans, Thao is the immigrant, Spyder is the troubles that immigrants face in their journey to the country and their acculturation, and the Gran Torino is the promise of the American Dream. Sure, the racism is there in America. Nobody’s doubting that. Yet, begrudgingly if nothing else, America gradually brings new people in the fold. And in the final scene, we see the reward passing over the people who constantly criticize it and take it for granted and instead awarded to the people who cherish it the most, who have had to fight tooth and nail to get it.

It’s certainly not the movie I thought it was going to be, and I’m very glad for that.

Orientals ix-105

The first few chapters of Robert Lee’s book Orientals was very informative as to define the names that Asians were labeled. It reminded me of Walt in Gran Torino and how he would call his neighbors “gooks” all the time. It was, of course, meant to be very derogatory towards the Asians; however, later in the movie Thao ends up doing these chores for Walt. As Walt gets comfortable having Thao doing a few things for him I think Walt begins to see Thao as the “model minority” type, the perfect worker. The further I read, the more I understood that having Asians in that time was like a double-edged sword for the U.S.

I understood that having Asian was useful to the economy by labor getting done, but also threatening to the superior white race of the country. Asians were needed to work the fields, railroads, mines, and other various work places to build the U.S. However, the immigration of Asians gave the whites nostalgia. They felt intruded and that the Chinese ruined the nice “tone” of California (28). Thus, having the Asian immigrants come to the U.S. was bittersweet.

Asians eventually began to gain their rights to citizenship; however, this was like an invitation to the whites to study the Chinese culture. This lead to U.S. white citizens to make assumptions about the Chinese and their appearances. “Oriental sexuality was constructed as ambiguous, inscrutable, and hermaphroditic; the Oriental (male or female) was constructed as a ‘third sex’” (85). The term “third sex” was constructed specifically for the Chinese. “Sexuality does the political work of defining and regulating desire as well as the body, determining whose bodies and what body parts are eroticized…what privilege, rewards, and punishments accompany sexual behavior”(86).  Defining one’s sexuality was just another political vehicle to categorize racial identities. This tactic, I have never thought of, or read of before.

Unfortunately, some of these terms like “gook” and “model minority” are still used in today’s society. However, the new way to refer to someone as a model minority is to simply ask, “You’re Asian, right?” Implying that when asking an Asian that that they are good at math, know “kung-fu,” for eat with chopsticks. After reading this first part of the section, I realized how some things might have changed, but how some things are simply altered to modern day communication.

a thousand silhouettes dancing on my chest

Gran Torino

For the duration of the film, I had this overwhelming sense that the dog, Daisy, would die at some point. I felt that this would be the key redemption point for the main character, and it would teach him to appreciate people regardless of their race.

I was extremely wrong about it. Walt still had a redemption of sorts, but Daisy was fine, driving off into the metaphorical sunset with Thao. I spent the duration of the film feeling very little empathy for Walt, and rightly so, given his unpleasant demeanor and attitude.

Walt didn’t become less racist as he became close with Thao’s family. He was still mean and unpleasant, but I do believe he became a little more human in his interactions with them. And of course, we have Daisy, one of his main humanizing factors. Daisy is with him at all times, Walt sees her judging him for smoking in the bathroom, and before Walt leaves, he makes sure that she’s in a safe place, much to her discontent. Daisy represented the missing influence that his wife may have had in his life.

At the end of the movie, however, I was genuinely surprised by Walt’s choices. He did the best thing he could have done, which was make sure that Thao didn’t get involved in his suicide mission, thereby saving his life. In this he also made sure that Thao didn’t see him being gunned down. Not only that, but he made sure Thao’s cousins went to jail, and that they would (hopefully never) hurt someone again.

This film was a lot different than what I was originally expecting. I’m still getting used to the idea of the “white savior complex” in films, as it was something that was only introduced to me a year or two ago, and I’m on the fence about whether or not this film falls under that classification. What do you all think?

Week 3, Tuesday. Gran Torino

Gran Torino really “zooms” into all sorts of uncomfortable situations. (Har har, a lot like that pun!)

Our first stop on the road of analysis takes us to a problem that can be seen in many entertaining mediums: complex characters with simple titles (think: good guy and his best friend, bad guy). When characters with a range of emotion and endless moral options are represented to the viewer as good OR bad it’s easy forget that good can also be bad and bad can also be good. Therefore, we are watching the film and thinking “or” instead of “and”. This gets tricky when we decide that one character is most definitely bad and then naturally assume that the other characters must be good; as long as our role of “evil villain” has been filled it is easier to forgive and forget other characters.

For instance, using the illness of a not-so-nice character as a way to gain sympathy allows us to be more compassionate and forgiving. So even if a character say… constantly stereotypes, discriminates, and even points a gun at other humans just for being on his lawn the viewer may find it easier to sympathize with him if he is coughing up blood and his son is also seen as a trivial bad guy, too. Similarly, if that character shows a progression of compassion we too find ourselves growing in our fondness of him. But does that change who he was or what he’s done? At the end of the movie, Walt (Clint Eastwood) finally foes to Confession and his confession is quite telling– how much have his views (the viewer sees him “grow out of” or learn from) changed if he feels no need to repent them? So, this complex character looses his complexity in our assigning him the role of “bad guy turned good”. His is our Martyr (literally falls to the ground in a pose like Jesus on the cross, let’s be real), our White Savior, our changed man who makes it all better for this Hmong community. Is this where I’m supposed to swoon…?

Our second stop is one not too far from our last and involves the same dangerous bumpiness. This film definitely illustrates racism  but the obviousness of it overrides the more subtle racism and sexism. When Walt meets Youa (Choua Kue) he intentionally calls her Yum Yum. By the ages of those around her, I believe it safe to assume she’s around 15-17.  Walt is well past half-century age. So with his “ha-ha look, I’m nicer” attitude it’s easy to overlook his intentional botching of her name because it’s “funny” and “innocent”. But. Not really. In calling her Yum Yum he is exhibiting his feeling of entitlement in sexualizing her. And, as an elder white male he gets away with it. Even others who hear him call her Yum Yum accept it and laugh.

Our third and last stop: more sneaky racism (when juxtaposed with the more in-your-face racism), what does the movie leave out? What stereotypes does it accidentally perpetuate? Notice how the two other groups represented (three Black males and a group of Latino males) were represented as “Gangbangers” or “thugs”. When we see other white people in the movie represented we see them as vapid and vulgar (Walt’s family, his barber) however when you compare  this kind of representation there is a major difference. Being vapid and vulgar is innocent and forgivable; their personality is more of a statement on “American culture” (in and terms of the barber “the way to be a man”), whereas with both the Black and Latino representations are stereotypes that are not innocent. By internalizing the gang/thug/criminal stereotype both of these marginalized groups are put into danger in true reality.

This film was predictably entertaining but I’m not looking to be entertained by it gain.

Stereotypes, Masculinity, and (Mis)representation

I was immediately drawn to themes across movies. Both The Debut and Gran Torino feature main characters who are quiet, and studious young Asian American men. In the case of Gran Torino, we are presented with three archetypes of masculinity: Walt, white hypermasculinity, Spider who represents “gangster” masculinity, and Thao who is quiet, introverted, and is repeatedly seen doing domestic labor, or “women’s work” around the house. Walt attempts to indoctrinate Thao into hypermasculinity, taking him under his wing and teaching him how to “be a man”. He steps in to save Thao from his apparent emasculation by the Hmong women of his family. Thao resists gang violence by silently taking insults, while Walt actually escalates the cycle of violence by intervening with his hypermasculine code which requires retribution for insult. Thao’s stereotype of the geeky emasculated Asian man sits in sharp contrast to the Asian gangster role played by his cousin, Spider. In The Debut this gangster/cousin role is played by Augusto, who acts as a foil to Ben. Unlike Gran Torino, in The Debut there is no white savior. In the face-off with the gangster cousin, there is no Walt to save him, instead Ben’s family supports him and Augusto is publicly shamed for bringing a gun to the party.

I’m noticing that there is a consistent theme of emasculation, and navigating  masculinity across  Better Luck Tomorrow, Gran Torino, and The Debut. Perhaps this is due to these films being coming of age stories about young men. Adolescence is the time when young people begin to confront the adult masculine roles they are expected to fill, and I suspect there is another layer of complexity when race comes into play, especially given the way that Asian men are often seen as emasculated parodies of white hypermasculinity.

T.W. Language ‘Gran Torino’

I am going to define the following words in the way that www.urbandictionary.com defines them. You’ll have to excuse the spelling errors as this website allows for anyone to define a word, however they want. These definitions were the top rated definitions voted by those who have visited the site.

Maybe this style  of defining words will look familiar to you guys as well.

Zipperhead: 

A derogatory term used in reference to people of Asian descent.

It is said to have been coined during the Korean war by frontline troops whom had run over enemy troops in jeeps.

2,751 people liked this.

Gook:

A derrogatory term used for the purpose of describing a korean. (Obtained form the korean pronunciation of their country, Hangook.)

3,668 people liked this.

Chink:

A racist term used to describe the Chinese.

7,027 people liked this.

Nip:

A Japanese person (derogatory, from Nippon, the Japanese word for Japan)

1,071 people liked this.

The reason I included the number of likes a definition got is because I think it paints a sad picture of language within our society. The fact that anyone can attach the word ‘like’ to a word that so many of us have been called in a hateful manner paints a grim painting for the future. Now, people could have ‘like’d the words purely because it is the closest definition to the word and paints the most accurate portrayal of that word and there will always be reasons but I guess that in some sense this relates to pop culture because sometimes we aren’t really sure why we ‘like’ the things that we like that pertain to our pop culture and we just might ‘like’ things purely for the fact that they are just there. Not adding any weight to anything.

I tried to keep count how many times Walt and any other white characters used a derogatory term towards or about Asians. The total was 27 but I may have missed some words. It doesn’t sound like that much especially considering how prejudiced Walt was but that’s still 27. To some people, those words are just words, but for people like me, for the people like the Hmongs, that sort of language, carries so much depth and pain. 27 words could easily equally to 2700 times that we have been called that, 2700 times we felt we weren’t welcomed because of what we look like, 2700 times just in one year, 27,000,000 times throughout our history in the United States, starting from now to when we first landed on the shore of the Land of the Free.

Gran Torino – Impressions

Gran_Torino_poster

POP !

This movie is pretty interesting, mostly due to the metamorphosis that Walt goes through. At the start of the story, Walt seems like a relic from an old time – lost in the modern age and disconnected from the progression of the world. His friendship with Thao and Sue allows him to break through these old war-time prejudices and embrace new aspects he never thought were possible. His need to protect Thao and Sue serves the need to fill a gap in his life – he is the “man of the house”, the fix it dude. With his wife gone and his relationship with his sons rocky at best, his two neighbors fill the void left in his life.

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I think Walt saw in Thao the relationship he desired from his sons, which is why I think he left the Gran Torino in the end. His need to sacrifice himself made for a very powerful scene, and I’m glad the story took a different turn with the whole ‘revenge’ angle. Instead, Walt solves a problem without violence, something that spoke volumes about his personal changes considering he spent much of the film pointing his guns in the faces of others. All to all, I really enjoy this movie. It was only the 2nd time I’ve seen it but I appreciate it more now that we’ve studied more of the Asian American history.

 

Trigger Tuesday

“Your birthday today, Daisy. This year you have to make a choice between two life paths. Second chances comes your way. Extraordinary events culminate in what might seem to be an anticlimax. Your lucky numbers are 84, 23, 11, 78, and 99. What a load of shit.”

The “American Dream” is something many people strive for. White picket fence, wife and loving children, even a puppy dog might exist within this dream.  This was the dream of the son of Walt Kowalski. You might wonder why I bring him up at all. He’s neither a central character to the plot of the story, nor does he show up often. It isn’t him that I even really want to discuss, but more the idea of him. A man, raised by a racist war vet, trying hard to live the “American Dream”. But these people end up being quite important, as they set up the show. They bring the audience to a place of understanding, ask them to look at it critically, and then starkly contrast it with the Hmong culture next door. Its a film which wishes to base itself within the idea of cultural understanding and acceptance.

It is important to note that the film begs the audience to accept American culture just as much as Hmong culture, even though it isn’t specifically mentioned. We are brought into the story of a crotchety old man who has just lost his wife. Death always has been a great way to provoke sympathy from an audience and thus begs an understanding of Walt’s incredibly racist behavior.  It shows Walt’s family expressing very familiar life expectancies, like the attempt to put Walt himself into a retirement home and even the reading of the will at the end of the film. And though American culture through the lens of this film is intended to look less than pleasant, if you take a step back, it really is so. While I don’t intend to delve to deeply into the subject of the horrors of our culture, I did want to talk a bit about how the film takes on Hmong culture.

To a lost and clueless audience, buried deep under the constructs we’ve built for ourselves, we need a guide to this unfamiliar culture. So they throw in the most American man you’ve ever seen (see stereotypically racist war vet; Sarcasm). He stand in the place of the film to be the audience, to make their journey into this unknown new world. And in between Walt(audience) and the Hmong culture(cultural understanding and acceptance) is a girl named Sue. She had the lovely ability to be born into a family as a second generation child, being both a part of American and Hmong cultures. She stood as a marker with this “dual-consciousness”, a phrase I borrowed from Takaki’s book, Strangers from a Different Shore. She takes Walt through the culture, slowly but surely over the course of the film, and asks Walt to understand that people from a different culture are still people. Something this film did really well, as awful as this may sound, is it did not ask the audience to set aside its (mostly unconscious) racism.  All this film asked was that you understand that, while people may be different, they are still people and deserve to be treated as such, even if they don’t operate the same way as you do.

*Spoilers* A little off topic, but there was one thing this film did that really got on my nerves. They painted Walt to be this incredibly racist stubborn man, but faced with his imminent death, his entire character shifted just a little, just enough to be able to make him a  martyr in the end. This sort of white martyrdom/heroism always feels really misplaced in the face of a movie that begs for cultural acceptance.

 

(Trigger Tuesdays, courtesy of Gabby.)