Introduction
The film Gran Torino, directed, produced and starred in by Clint Eastwood is a definitive essay on the modern conditions surrounding many aspects of inter-cultural communications. The film stars Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowolski, a recently widowed Korean War veteran who holds tightly to bigoted and sheltered way of dealing with those who are not like him. Kowolski finds himself in an era he does not, nor wants to, understand surrounded by families of Hmong immigrants in a neighborhood which he has witness degenerate into a wasteland of gang violence and despair.
With his wife gone, he is thrust into relationships he had great difficulty in finding comfort, but as the story progresses he finds common ground with those he equates with the people he once fought and killed on the battlefields of Korea.
In this assessment, two cultural conflicts will be identified and discussed, along with the influences popular culture has on the story. Lastly, the dramatic conclusion of the story, along with alternative methods of attempting to resolve such conflict will be explored with a concluding analysis of the overall impressions of the film.
Reflection and Assessment
The most prolific conflict throughout the film is the racial and ethnic conflicts that Kowalski seems to engage on a nearly constant level. Walt’s conflicts manifest primarily on an interpersonal level, which is a conflict that occurs between individuals rather than groups or nations (Martin & Nakayama, 2011, p. 224) . As soon as we see Walter back in his home, he begins to exhibit internal conflicts with many groups who are not Caucasian American.
In many scenes throughout the film, Kowalski uses racist slurs such as “zipper-head” to describe Asian people, or “spooks” when he engages a group of African American’s who are harassing a young Asian girl. What is interesting is that while Walter’s conflicts with other races seem very hostile, the use of such slurs when speaking to other ethnicities can be used as terms of endearment.
When frequenting his barbershop, owned by an Italian, he greets the owner by calling him a dago, and refers to a construction company owner who is Irish as a “mick” yet shows these individuals are considered friends. His conflict with races he identifies with as a combatant, like his Hmong neighbors, his conflicts are made clear through his non-verbal communication method of spitting spent tobacco at their feet.
A second form of conflict that permeates the film is the conflicts between gender roles. Martin and Nakayama explain how men and women communicate can lead to conflict and influence how genders deal with conflict (Martin & Nakayama, 2011, p. 224) . In Gran Torino, the concept of what traditional male/female roles are is emphasized in the life of Thao, the young Hmong neighbor of Walter Kowolski.
Thao has recently lost his father, so in his household there is no male role model. In the Hmong culture, the roles of the man of the house are clearly defined and Thao is often ridiculed by his own family for doing dishes, gardening or taking orders from his older sister. This creates a large amount of conflict as Thao struggles to define himself while not engaging in gang related activity, which has become the new role of Hmong-American males.
Popular culture, or forms of culture that are made popular by and for the people though their mass consumption of these products or styles also plays a role in the films development (Martin & Nakayama, 2011) . In the opening scenes during the funeral of Walt’s wife, we see his granddaughter make her way to the casket to pay her respects. During the scene, focus is emphasized on Ashley Kowolski’s exposed midriff and pierced belly button that Walt looks upon with contempt and a grunt of disapproval. This pop culture reference also helps to emphasize Walt’s disconnection with those elements of culture he disagrees with and are additional sources of conflict for the main character.
Walt also makes observation of an element of pop culture that causes great interpersonal conflict with his son Mitch. During a scene Mitch and his family, hurriedly make their leave of Walt’s home. Their reason for the hasty exit was the make of car they were driving that happened to be of foreign origin. As a retired Detroit autoworker, it becomes clear that the preference to buy Japanese made vehicles as a pop culture element is one that finds little appreciation from Walt. While many American’s have made owning a foreign made vehicle a mark of status and being a well-informed consumer, for Walt the act is nearly a treasonous as running away from battle.
Conclusion
While the dramatic conclusion of Gran Torino was quite fitting as the climatic and meaningful ending to both the movie and of Walt Kowolski’s life, it was one in which we as a culture struggle to fully appreciate outside of the realm of fictional accounts.
Walt’s solution to the conflict that resulted from the drive-by shooting and assault of Thao’s older sister Sue was extreme. While providing a measure of closure to the story, it was far from what we would hope to achieve. Gang violence and the conflict it creates are clearly difficult to resolve by its continued plague on America. 2011 FBI statistics estimate there are approximately 1.4 million active street, prison, and motorcycle gang members comprising more than 33,000 gangs in the United States (Federal Bureau of Investigations, 2011) .
Perhaps a better approach to resolve this conflict would have been with mediation, or having a third neutral party intervene between two conflicting parties (Martin & Nakayama, 2011) . The role of mediator was being trying to be desperately filled by Father Janovich through his work with the Hmong gangs and relationship investments with Walt.
Father Janovich shared a common ground between both Walt and the Hmong gang members. He would most likely have been the only source of understanding to aid in facilitating a peaceful resolution to the conflict that existed between them. Additionally both parties are assumed to have gained some level of respect for the father that would have been critical to maintain any truce or agreement between them in the end.
In closing, Gran Torino touches on so many aspects of inter-cultural communications and conflict. If it was Walt’s apparent conflict with just about everyone but himself, or the conflict that existed between Walt and the faith his wife so wished him to experience and hoped would bring him peace, this film is a wonderful story of how through personal relations and connection even the deepest divides between people can ultimately be overcome.
There are many aspects of Walter’s personality that I identify with. While I also find comfort in the traditional ways of respect, honor and duty I found the character of Sue to appeal to what I strive to be. Sue used her understanding of both cultures, along with a real-world sense of understanding to break through Walt’s stronghold of prejudice. Instead of responding with anger or offense, Sue responded to Walt’s cutting comments with humor and sarcasm recognizing that it was the most effective tactic against Walt’s defenses that took nearly as long to acquire as the tools in his workshop.
There was little in the movie I found dislikable. The movie depicted both the challenges and resolutions of culture conflicts in a very realistic manner. It also emphasized the importance of personal relationships play when deep, long lasting cultural issues are at hand. While many movies focus on these themes and end in tragedy, as did Gran Torino, the differences set this film apart.
In the end, Walt realizes his love and admiration for Thao, his sister and even their culture supersede even the value of his own life. While Walt’s own family found value in their patriarch in the materials he had acquired over his life, when Walt is presumed to have been diagnosed with lung cancer he realizes his life has value in providing a future free of the conflict sources that plague his friend Thao and his family. Walt not only transcends his own cultural conflicts, he realizes and then symbolically fulfills one of the commands most likely preached on many Sunday’s Walt attended Catholic service as a duty to his beloved wife more than a God he saw as simply superstition. That being “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, NIV, 1984). For Walter Kowolski and Thao, love for a friend is what ultimately allowed extreme conflict and cultural divides to be broken and rendered powerless.
References
Federal Bureau of Investigations. (2011, November). 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment – Emerging Trends. Retrieved June 9, 2012, from http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/2011-national-gang-threat-assessment
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2011). Experiencing Intercultural Communication: An Introduction. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
NIV Bible. (1984 Translation). New International Version Bible.
No comments:
Post a Comment