Gran Torino

I know Gran Torino doesn't seem like a movie that would give me much to say about the portrayal of females. Very few girls or women have even a speaking role in the film, as the entire story is centered around an aging white male. However, I think the racism and occasional sexism that's purposely presented in the movie is issue enough to write about.

I heard rave reviews about the film and was overall a little disappointed when I saw it myself. I thought the writing was kind of obvious, always telling the audience things it had already figured out from Clint Eastwood's excellent acting. The racist and, much less often, sexist comments and actions produced by Walt Kowalski, Eastwood's character, added to this feeling. I understand that showing Walt's racism was important, but it was almost as if the filmmakers went out of their way to put as many ethnic slurs into the script as possible. Just off the top of my head I can remember him using politically incorrect terms for the Hmong, Chinese, Italian, Polish, Jewish, African-American, and Irish. There were probably many more instances I'm just not thinking of right now.

I don't think I'm 100% against these kinds of words in films, movies, books, or art. If it's done well and done in the service of saying something important, I believe it can work. The TV series The Wire, where characters use sometimes unbelievably inappropriate language, has convinced me of this. However, I don't think it's done well enough in Gran Torino. The dialogue is sloppy, and even Eastwood seems a little too uncomfortable with the slurs to really commit to saying them. The film also treats this language like it's not really that big of a deal. In one scene, in fact, Walt teaches Thao, a Hmong teenager, how to talk to other men, a skill that apparently always involves using racial insults. What's pretty shocking, I think, is that the scene is portrayed as kind of a sweet bonding moment between Walt and Thao.

I know this blog is just starting and not many people are reading it yet, but I'd love to hear comments if anyone has them. If you've seen Gran Torino, what do you think of the ethnic and racial insults? Do they add or take away from the film? Are they overused?

Also, in general, does dialogue that includes words for peoples' race or gender that are now considered unacceptable to use have a place in films? I'm torn myself and am curious what others have to say.



***Go to Gran Torino's Website***