Growly McRacist - Gran Torino Review

Clint Eastwood's new feature, Gran Torino is beloved by critics and audiences alike. It has made almost $80 million in the past few weeks and most Oscar Watchers (including me!) think that it's going to win a Best Picture nomination.


Gran Torino follows Walt Kowalski, a Korean War vet and retired Ford factory worker living out his retirement in the beautiful ghettos of Detroit. The movie opens at the funeral of Walt's wife. Estranged from his two sons, all he has left now is his dog and his mint condition 1972 Gran Torino. Like every stereotypical old man, Walt refuses to accept the lifestyles of new generations. He hates the fact that his neighborhood is being taken over by minorities, most of them coming from the Southeast-Asian Hmong culture. He also hates "kids these days" who wear inappropriate clothing and behave disrespectfully. Of course, an incident forces Walt to befriend his neighbors, eventually becoming a role model for a teenage boy. Yeah, I'm purposefully being vague. I hate saying more than I have to. Believe me, interesting things do happen, especially with the local gang culture.

How was it? Click the link to find out...

I needed to divide this review into two parts. First, I'll run through the good parts of Gran Torino and why people should check it out. Then, I'll explain why I will always hate this movie.

There's nothing about Gran Torino that's particularly original. It has a straightforward plot with familiar characterizations. But there's something about the charisma of Clint Eastwood which makes the entire film engaging. He's an out of control racist, which make his interactions with the Hmong neighbors uncomfortably hilarious. Even at the ripe age of 78, Clint Eastwood's still a total hard-ass. When he threatens people, there's no doubt in your mind that he is willing to shoot someone in the face. The best parts in the movie involve the growth of the friendship between Walt and his neighbor Thao. Walt essentially becomes a father figure to him, guiding him to maturity and teaching him how to score with women. You have to give respect to Eastwood for casting actual Hmong people in the lead roles. He could have easily picked Asian actors of other ethnicity, and few people would have complained. It's nice to see genuine authenticity in film for a change. Lastly, having Detroit as the setting is perfect. The ridiculously bad economic conditions of the city reflects the helplessness and struggles of the characters.

If I had seen Gran Torino on my computer, or on DVD at home, I would have loved it. But I didn't. I saw it at a theater in Ann Arbor. The town's pretty diverse, but the room was filled with white people. After all, Eastwood has some pretty vocal opponents in the African American community (Clint Eastwood: Spike Lee Should "Shut His Face").

Well, Walt says a lot of racist things in Gran Torino . His racial slurs towards African-Americans and especially Asian-Americans are nonstop, and often pretty inventive. A few include: "spooks", "zipperhead", "gook", "dragon lady", "egg roll", "Click Clack, Ding Dong, and Charlie Chan", "swamp rats", "chink", "fishheads", and "slopes". I'm getting disgusted just typing these up. What Nick Schenk, screenwriter of Gran Torino ? Couldn't use the n-word? Oh no, that would be crossing the line. Yeah, go with calling them "spooks". No one will raise a fuss over that.

I respect Clint Eastwood enough to know that he didn't throw in all these slurs for entertainment. But people in the audience would roar with laughter whenever he used them. Not quiet chuckles, I'm talking hearty belly laughs. At first, I was laughing too, but it was more of the "is this really happening?" variety. After a while, I felt sick. People were taking Walt's creative slurs as humor. As laughter burst out after a Hmong kid was called a "gook" for the umpteenth time, I honestly felt like everyone was also laughing at me.

Again, I feel terrible about hating the movie. I understand the real reasons behind Walt's remarks, and why Eastwood chose to include them. As Krym said, "He's only hiding behind his racism". Which is totally true, and makes Walt into an even stronger character. I would have appreciated all these subtleties more if I was with a different audience. Sorry if you were expecting a more legit review of this movie, but I had to address these issues that are very important to me. Seeing my fellow Asians get torn apart by Eastwood, and on top of that, having the audience laugh at these dialogues really bothered me.

One more thing: The kid's name is Thao, but Eastwood always calls him "Toad". I mean, how hard is it to say "Thao"? It's one syllable for God's sake.

So if you're Caucasian and reading this, you'll like the movie. Not because I think you're a racist, but because I don't feel like the slurs will affect you. It truly is a well made movie. Everyone else, if you see it, I'd like to hear your opinions.

That is all. I'm not giving it a score because
1) I haven't figured my scoring system yet and
2) I don't know what to think about this movie

Ok last thing: I love how the screenwriter (yes, you Nick Schenk) chose the minority group in focus to be of Asian descent, when it could have just as easily been blacks or hispanics. I have a feeling that this movie would find a LOT more controversy if Clint Eastwood threw around slurs towards those ethnic groups. Way to target Asians, you dick.