Well that’s one take, but it isn’t the only one. Walt seems like an independent thinker; he calls bullshit when he sees it. I also think his racism is a coping mechanism to deal with the horrors of war. If he thinks Koreans and Asians writ large are less than him, it’s a lot easier to sleep at night when you’ve shot them to death. This seems pretty clear when he says to the gangbanger, “We used to stack [chinks? gooks?] like you five feet deep in Korea,” right after he threatens to shoot him in the face and then sleep like a baby.
With the White guys it’s more like a breaking balls thing. He calls the barber a wop, the foreman a mick, and they give it back to him.
I have to agree with this. I thought his performance was pretty lousy. Same with the two kids.
I have to disagree with this. It was totally about redeeming the main character. It even included a Jesus pose.
I do agree with this. His racism was more knee-jerk than actually all that deep. And in the end, it was more about doing the right thing and not letting his racism interfere.
Still, I found the movie disappointing. Story was OK, not great (I really didn’t buy that he could intimidate hardcore gangbangers). Performances were weak. I wouldn’t recommend it. But I seem to be in the minority.
What made them so hardcore? We never saw them doing a single thing that shows them to be actually hard core as opposed to just being tough guys who know how to acquire and shoot guns.
They did do the drive-by shooting (which is still a pussy move), so I don’t think they were all that intimidated by Walt unless he has a fucking gun in the face of another banger. They just knew which fights to fight (When they think he’s gonna pull a gun on them) and which ones not to (again, with a gun in someone’s face, they know to just come back later)
I’m from a fairly rough neighborhood, and Walt had better be armed to the teeth and watch his back at all times. Gangs aren’t comprised of logical, Art of War thinking types. There are a lot of hotheads and dumbasses and wannabes who’d get revenge back on Walt. The scene with the Black guys was one thing; he might be in a neighborhood a little ways away from where he lived.
Maybe knowing that he was a terminal case gave him some fearlessness. But it was a lucky thing those jackasses on the corner didn’t have a car or a weapon on them.
I’ve known a lot of gangbangers. Not many of them are smart. They’re typically insecure, Napoleon-syndrome hotheads. If you embarrass or humiliate them they don’t just walk it off; they make it their mission in life to embarrass and fuck with you even worse.
It wasn’t about redeeming the main character? He martyrs himself, and falls down, forming a cross with his body.
My problem was that it tried way too hard to convince us that Walt isn’t that racist. They avoid him calling black people any names that people might have trouble forgiving him for. Sure, he calls Thao some racist things, but Oh look he gets him a job, and some tools, and a girlfriend, and a cheap fridge, and a car. He’s practically superman! And oh look, he doesn’t call Thao racist things because he’s racist, he calls Thao racist things because that’s just how he talks, see him talk to the barber. They are friends! The movie is very clear that it wants me to accept Walt as not really racist.
My objection isn’t that I think Walt is morally evil and should be reviled. My objection is that the movie edges toward a very controversial and powerful character, but chickens out and backs out of any controversial bits. A flawed hero is better in my mind than a perfect one who says some bad things. They lay it on really thick, with all the favors to Thao and the barber scenes.
Sorry for having opinions about movies. I will try to avoid it in the future.
A movie about that would probably be pretty good. Gran Torino isn’t that movie, it tries to convince us that Walt isn’t racist. It does very well, I enjoyed Clint Eastwood kicking ass a lot.
Sorry, I misspoke, I meant to correct that before posting.
I think you believe that racism is far more important to people’s lives than it is. It’s not that it isn’t racist, it’s that it’s not that important that he’s a racist.
Eh, I disagree. I think the point is that he’s just one of those crotchety old dudes who is casually racist without holding any real animosity toward people because of that racism. He’s a surly old fuck and finds reasons to be pissy to people regardless of racial identity. As the show goes on it shows that he feels far more affinity for the working class Hmong than he does for his own yuppy children.
Yes, it had a heartwarming story, and many hilarious scenes. But man, the Hmong actors were, by and large, terrible. And that terrible, terrible song at the end, with what is CLEARLY Clint Eastwood’s voice, crooning in a most sensitive manner, after having been an utter hardass all movie long. Holy crap, that was so jarring that I laughed out loud.
The movie had a good heart. Don’t get me wrong.
But the young priest was a terrible actor. Thao was a terrible actor. His sister - terrible acting.
Plus, it’s just the latest in a long series of Clint Eastwood “all about Clint getting old, but still being a badass” films.
Meh, while I enjoyed it, I definitely think it was a missed opportunity for a much better film.
They didn’t really go very deep into Clint’s demons… it was more like “yeah i had to do bad things and stuff in the war”. Additionally, the way that his racism was framed… it almost appeared as comic relief rather than a true deep-seated character flaw that was to be overcome. Had they explored this a bit deeper, we may have been able to appreciate more his transition from a xenophobic codger to an empathetic protagonist.
I agree with the acting. The priest was definitely miscast (i’d hesitate to call him a bad actor with just this one example). I’m not sure what would have been lost in the story had they had a more mature and experienced character there. As I understand it, the actors playing Thao and his sister are not professional actors.
One thing that struck me as odd… after the incident with the gun on the lawn, the priest asks Clint why he didn’t just call the police. Later, after the incident that put Thao’s sister in the hospital, the priest grills Clint asking him repeatedly “what are you going to do?”. It seemed to me as if he was trying to incite him to action, yet after that scene the priest calls the police worrying that Clint would actually do something. WTF?
Oh - yeah and the song at the end… definitely cheesy.
At any rate, great idea… mediocre execution. However, still enjoyable.
I thought it was funny and at times good but way too predictable and stock “curmudgeon with a heart of gold” character. Cardboard characters all around, including the grandkids I wanted to slug. His “that’s just stupid” line cracked me up though.
And yeah. This is a good point. Sampiro, I’d much rather have seen this filmed in, y’know, Wedowee. Or the town where the white students hung nooses in the trees recently when a black kid started acting all uppity. Or with characters like that guy I once met who commented during a football game to “set a pit bull loose after that nigger. That’ll make him run.”
You and I both know that stuff exists, and would have made a better movie.
