Basil said:
vagt6 said:
If you judge this character by Tony's standards, as stated above, you will <span style="text-decoration: underline">definitely</span> miss the "real" message.
Anyone else?
I don't want this to turn into a debate. Clint Eastwood, who made the film, has described in his own words what he intended for the film:
"What attracted him to Gran Torino—a somewhat smaller film from a first-time screenwriter featuring first-time actors and a quick 32-day shoot—was its contemporary portrayal of family and religion, and the storyline involving <span style="text-decoration: underline">the rescue of a Hmong teenager from gang violence</span>. He says he believed that he could take the lead character, Korean War vet turned vigilante Walt Kowalski, <span style="text-decoration: underline">on a journey</span>. Eastwood himself was in the military at the time of the war but never made it to Korea. He says that he “knew a lot of guys like [Walt],” and describes him (Kowalski) as a “reticent man.” Kowalski is not an easy guy to like—as Eastwood puts it, he’s “an equal-opportunity insulter”—but his journey “is honest, [and] <span style="text-decoration: underline">he changes.</span>”
Here's what I see: I'm looking at a Korean War veteran with all the things that happened there & with the experiences of his entire life. As I listen to him, I don't hear racial slurs as we consider racial slurs in today's society. I see a rennaisance man who lives within his world.
Before anybody can condemn him for his manner of speaking, they need to first understand from whence he got the experiences that cause him to speak like that. Examples:
My mother-in-law never had anything good for "Yankees"...she talked about her grandmother who was just a child during the War Between the States, and the stories her grandmother told her about her great-grandfather being killed in the war; about her mother hiding their few belongings in her petticoats when the 'Yankees' came around to rob and steal food and animals...she talked about when her grandmother & great-grandmother had nothing to eat because the 'Yankees' stole everything......I could never change her opinion so I just listened to her stories & tried to explain to my daughter what her grandmother had experienced.
Nobody can condemn a man who's fought alongside the Hmong & Montenyards if he considers them more loyal, courageous, an reliable than the Vietnamese soldiers he fought alongside....he has real experiences that he relates in the language of his day...based on his life experiences....and nobody can judge him racist or call for him to stop speaking as he does!
Heck, even today, I refuse to eat in any type of Oriental restaurant - but I'm not racist...the smells, etc. of them just envoke memories I want to lay dormant.
& I disagree with the reviews by 'Village Voice' and 'Variety'....I think Clint Eastwood also disagrees when you hear how he saw the movie!
Interestingly, I think the Hmong community (especially the young man) all changed more than Clint's character. I don't think Clint's character changed so much as he accepted....to the end, he continued with his epithets to the community at large but only accepted that the young man had changed because Clint's character was involved with that change.
Guess it comes down to this: I'm almost 63 and have experienced a lot of what Clint's character experienced (heck, we both carry an M1911 Colt .45 ACP!) so I am compassionate to his life experiences and how they've developed the man we saw on the film, facing the loss of his wife, facing his neighborhood turning into a "dump" (or something like that, he said), and facing the end of his life. How old would Clint's character be in the movie? Let's say he was 17 in 1950; he would have been somewhere around 73 in the movie.....people of that age, from my experiences with them, don't change much - except possibly in religious matters as they revert to the happiest moments of their life.....but, they don't change, they adapt.
Hey Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
