Gran Torino Is a 2008

Gran Torino is a 2008 film, directed by, staring, and produced by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood remarked that this is his final acting role, and was a family project; his son Scott played Trey, and his son Kyle wrote the score. It opened in North America on December 12, 2008 and worldwide on January 9, 2009. Despite what some might see as a limited audience, the movie was both a critical and commercial success. It was nominated for over 19 international prizes, and has grossed over $300 million to day; certainly a studio success in that it had a total production budge of only $33 million (Gran Torino/Box Office Mojo, 2010).

The movie is a moral tale, oft repeated, and follows Walt Kowalski (Eastwood) a recent widower who was a Korean War veteran and worked at a Ford Factory all his life. Walt is a difficult man, disgruntled with the world and after 50 years of marriage, set in his ways with now no one to mitigate his surly nature. Like many working class neighborhoods in major cities, most of the White population moved, and Walt's area is now dominated by poor Asian immigrants, many of them Hmong, mountain people from the Laos, Vietnam area. Unfortunately, the area is also rife with gang activity.

Despite Walt's surly attitude and wish to be left alone, circumstances force him into dealing with his new neighbors; the daughter Sue and her shy brother Thao. Thao's cousin forces Thao to steal Walt's beloved 1972 Gran Torino as a gang initiation. The theft is unsuccessful, and to atone for such a breach of honor, Thao's mother insists that he work for Walt -- thereby developing a begrudging friendship. Walt, however, is covering up an illness, and is troubled by occasional coughing that turns out to be some form of lung cancer.

Walt knows that he does not have much time, and feels enough empathy for Thao that he confronts the gang with and threatens them. Walt has set this up ahead of time; he purchases a new suit, locks Thao in the basement, talks loudly so that the neighbors will hear, and goads the gang members. He reaches for his lighter, feigning having a gun, and the gang members all fire and kill him -- witnessed by enough people to allow the police to arrest the gang. Thao gets the Gran Torino.

Scriptural References -- Walt often shows his overt cynicism toward religion in general when he talks with Father Janovich. This is apparent when Janovich asks,"Why didn't you call the police?" To which Walt answers, "Father, you know, I prayed for them to come, but nobody answered." Because the characters are so divergent in the movie, there are a number of themes that run through: redemption, faith, the battle between good and evil, the belief in humanity, and the strength that many find in God. There are, in fact, a number of themes in Gran Torino that we can analyze using a religious them:

Theme

Passage

Remarks

Overt cynicism

Absent in body, but present in spirit. 1 Corinthians v. 3.

Walt's final gift to the neighborhood

It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts XX. 35.

Work ethic, and Walt teaching about the value of hard work

The sleep of a laboring man is sweet. Ecclesiastes v. 12.

Revenge over Sue's rape, Thao's persecution, and the evil that perpetrates the gang.

An eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Deuteronomy XIX, 21.

Walt's redemption and final act of goodness.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Ecclesiastes XII, 7.

On Father Janovich's continual passion and belief that Walt can be redeemed.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you and watch over you. Psalm XXXII, 8.

Message and Relation to Christianity -- Throughout the film, there are references to God, Church, and Christianity in the guise of Father Janovich, a young priest who promised Walt's wife that he would try to get Walt back into the Church. Father Janovich seems to sense that Walt has a good heart; he takes Walt's ribbing, continues to try to convince him that the Church always has a place for those who may have strayed. True to Father Janovich's viewpoint, Walt is, at heart, a good, moral person. Walt feels deeply for the oppressed and wronged, and realizes that he has the power to do something that can change the lives of many. Ironically, when Walt's last Will and Testament are read, he has left his house and estate to the Church; a final tribute to his wife's years of devotion, and even perhaps, we are given to believe, to Father Janovich's unwavering belief in the goodness of humans.

Walt is almost a quintessential example of someone who has become so embittered by the temporal world that he cannot see the beauty of life or the nature of spirituality. Walt likely went through life much as most of the Post World War II generation; life was planned, this is what you did; you fought for your country, came home, got a job, raised a family, retired, drank at the local pub, and let your wife handle the Church and all the emotional issues. Trouble is -- this paradigm often results in a great deal of burying emotions, of distancing from one's family, and of putting far too much idealized faith in having one's spouse around to handle all the issues that life has to offer. When someone is married for five decades, they are so used to each other's moods and foibles that they are typically able to work through their differences, or have learned to simply ignore them. When Walt loses this connection, he becomes even more self-centered, bitter, and cynical about life -- and certainly that God took away his wife; what power can the Church have if something so bad happened to him?