Disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager, who tried to steal Kowalski’s prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino.
A Clint Eastwood film, Gran Torino, is on it’s way and I couldn’t be any more put off than I already am. I don’t know what’s up with these whitey-gon-save-people-of-color movies. Hollywood can keep putting them out and I will never, ever buy that bullshit. Especially this one.
There’s nothing special about this film and it should not be glorified for putting Hmongs on the big screen. Because I can almost guarantee that the portrayal of Hmongs will be plain out silly and demeaning. It’s just one of the many films of it’s kind; Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, High School High, Knights of the South Bronx, and much, much more that escapes me right now. It’s not that I can’t appreciate a good story of an underpriveleged youth of color with little to no resources making good of him/herself, it’s two things about these movies that piss me off.
- It’s always a seamless, determined white person with a heart of gold that so desperately wants to help. (Manifest destiny, anyone?)
- The portrayal of aforementioned youth of color is pathetic. They’re usually shown as these helpless, remedial dummies that have no direction or desire for themselves.
I’ll just reiterate how badly I hate films like this. If anyone wants to waste their money to go see this shit, let me know how it goes. (If I haven’t already told you how it will be.)
3 Comments
yea, it WOULD be a Clint Eastwood film.
fuck this movie.
“Wisdom not Wisdumb”.. It’s a hypocritical quote to apply to such a shallow review that doesn’t bother to see the movie.
“There’s nothing special about this film”.. what you mean to say is “there’s nothing special about this preview”
“It’s always a seamless, determined white person with a heart of gold that so desperately wants to help.” watch the movie, and learn to understand where his character is coming from: is the character racist? At first, it seems that way, but consider how he talks to everyone: harsh, cold, insulting in words, but loving in action and appreciation. People can move beyond words and have a deeper connection than that.
“The portrayal of aforementioned youth of color is pathetic. They’re usually shown as these helpless, remedial dummies that have no direction or desire for themselves.” Again, you have to see the film before you make this kind of a judgment. They are in fact portrayed as perfectly capable, but not in a position to take such drastic measures to remedy their situation as Kowalski.
It’s ironic that your arguments are against the movie for being too shallow, too racist (again, shallow), but you’re criticizing it and recommending that it not be seen by anyone based purely on your first impression of the preview. I don’t understand how you can go out of your way to make judgments on it as if you’ve seen it.
I saw this movie – the trailer is very misleading
This isn’t an “action” movie – this is a character development movie.
Without spoiling too much:
* Walt Kowalski starts out as a bitter old man who has a mooching family. He tries to shut everyone, including all of the Hmong, out of his life
* When a gang messes with the next door neighbors and the confrontation spreads to his property, Walt points a gun at the gang members and tells them to leave
* Then he gets to know the minority neighbors and finds he has a better connection with them than he does with his own family
And the ending is very surprising in a way.