Gran Torino - Walt Kowalski, the movie

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Dec 7, 11, 19:53 #31

PennBoy:

Of course it could have I've seen similar films before, they could have made him into a bitter old man without all that. The thing is his name Kowalski is mentioned several times and that he's Polish being called a 'Polack". With him calling others ethnic slurs throughout the movie what is ones first instinct? To dislike Poles because they hate me and everyone else. The slurs overwhelm the whole positive story behind the movie.

It's like the director threw the word "polack" in there just so he could justify the steady stream of other slurs and jokes about the hmong, "hey, it's okay, we are calling the protagonist a Polack so don't worry about offensive terms like "slope head" and "zipper." The slurs were wrong no matter what.

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Dec 7, 11, 19:56 #32

pip:

the only thing in that movie that was Polish was his last name

No, you are wrong Kowalski's surname was Polish and his noble heart was Polish too. He was racist but when he got to know his Hmong neighbors he grew to like them and he realized that their noble spirit made him have more in common with them than he had with his own family, who were Westernized and superficial, and he said as much in the scene in which he looked in the mirror. So too the ending was a direct reference to the the Polish national epic, Sienkiewicz's Trilogy, and you don't get more Polish than that.

PlasticPoleThreads: 10 Posts: 5,433 Joined: May 28, 09 ♀	Dec 7, 11, 19:59 #33
It reminds me of the idea that everybody should get to know the people they go to war with personally before they go to war with them. Then they would see how human they are and wouldn't want to do it.

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Dec 7, 11, 20:00 #34

PlasticPole:

It's like the director threw the word "polack" in there just so he could justify the steady stream of other slurs and jokes about the hmong, "hey, it's okay, we are calling the protagonist a Polack so don't worry about offensive terms like "slope head" and "zipper." The slurs were wrong no matter what.

It also justifies others to call Poles ethnic slurs seeing they hate everyone else. It was great seeing Clint playing a Polish American just not like this.

PlasticPoleThreads: 10 Posts: 5,433 Joined: May 28, 09 ♀	Edited by: PlasticPole Dec 7, 11, 20:02 #35
And then at the end of the movie, the hmong kid inherits the Gran Torino he tried to steal at the beginning of the movie which is going to cause him a lot of guilt. It's one big cycle of guilt. But yes, the impression I got was the Kowalskis were supposed to be the typical Polish American family from the midwest.

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Dec 7, 11, 20:12 #36

PennBoy:

It also justifies others to call Poles ethnic slurs seeing they hate everyone else.

No it didn't. Walt Kowalski's use of ethic slurs was attributed to the fact that he was an old man whose vocabulary came from a byegone era. There was a scene that humorously portrayed his anachronism in which he drove up to some Afro-American youths and called them "spooks". Rather that react violently they were taken aback and one of them even asked him incredulously "Did you just call us spooks?" Walt's ethnic slurs are shown to be wholly outdated and no one with half a brain would walk away from that movie thinking it justifies Polonopobia in the 21st Century. That movie was a chronicle of an old man gettig rid of his prejudice and not a justification of prejudice.

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Edited by: PennBoy Dec 7, 11, 20:19 #37

Des Essientes:

There was a scene that humorously portrayed his anachronism in which he drove up to some Afro-American youths and called them "spooks". Rather that react violently they were taken aback and one of them even asked him incredulously "Did you just call us spooks?" Walt's ethnic slurs are shown to be wholly outdated and no one with half a brain would walk away from that movie thinking it justifies Polonopobia in the 21st Century.

I fully understood the film and the story behind it as i've stated about but some average Joe or nitwit might see it a different way. This what I was worried about there was no need for so many slurs against everyone different from him in the movie. I think this movie will have a better impact on the masses.

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Dec 7, 11, 20:23 #38

Des Essientes:

Walt's ethnic slurs are shown to be wholly outdated and no one with half a brain would walk away from that movie thinking it justifies Polonopobia in the 21st Century.

That could have been the film makers intention but people can still misinterpret that. I don't know of any older people who talk like that, anyway. Sure, they might have back in the day but they know all about "PC" and most of them don't want to offend people and hurt their feelings by calling them an ethnic slur to their face. I never hear old people using ethnic slurs where I live, in public. What people say in private is their own business.

sniezykThreads: 2 Posts: 19 Joined: Dec 7, 11 ♂	Dec 7, 11, 20:44 #39
This was a great film, it was actually filmed 30 miles from where I live. Walt was a fictional character, but I have known many men like " Walt " in my life. If there is anything you want to know about the movie, I can try to help.... - Mike

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