Monday, May 16, 2016
Gran Torino -- post #5
Walt Kowalski dominates this film. He appears in nearly every scene and, so, since you've spent a little over an hour with him thus far, you are in a position to say at least a little about him. What does he value? What does seem to like? What seems to most bother him? And perhaps most telling of all for any character, what does he do? In short what I'm getting at here is this: what does Walt believe in?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Joanie Dorfman
ReplyDeleteWalt Kowalski is a man who cares deeply about his value in society, not allowing others to help him under any circumstance because it makes him feel useless. He is very confident in his beliefs. He believes his morals and views of others are always right, and he immediately looks down on you if you don't fit his ideal of a human being. He believes that he's the only one who understands life and death due to his past, and let's that past define who he is today and uses it as an excuse to not be the best person. While he may be an arrogant jerk, his confidence in his morals also makes him so what righteous. He'll stand up to people who don't fit his morals, sometimes rather violently.
Walt's core belief, or at least the one that is first presented, is how he views the current day society around him. He feels disconnected from everybody else, this is in a way one of the reasons he felt so devestated by his wife's death. She was the only other person he connected to. He feels that the current day youth are disrespectful of their elders. He doesn't like new culture in how he acted so rude and uninterested about his neighbors. Over all he still sees potential in everybody, this is why he fights for justice and is so disappointed in the disrespectful children.
ReplyDeleteWalt Kowalski is a very interesting character. In the beginning of the movie, we see a funeral of his life where he is very distraught. I think this is the main reason why his personality seems rude because people don't understand him very well. When he first sees his neighbors, he calls them racial slurs and is not very fond of them in his neighborhood. When Sue and Thao were in a conflict, Walt was there with his gun to protect them. Later on, he develops a friendship with Sue and he begins to learn more about their culture and how they live. Judging by circumstances, I don't believe that Mr. Kowalski is a bad person, rather he is just mourning the loss of his wife. He also believes in justice for innocent people in danger. Although he didn't care for his neighbors in the beginning, he still helped them out when they were getting beaten up because he felt like that was the right thing to do. I believe that Walt has a good heart, but he just doesn't show it right now in the movie.
ReplyDeleteWalt Kowalski seems like an old curmudgeon at first sight in the movie. He is rude to everyone, including his family, and is incredibly racist towards his next door neighbors. But as the movie progresses, Walt doesn't seem as racist or grumpy as he was at the beginning. He acts rude and impolite to almost everyone, including different races. So I don't think he is as racist as he was in the beginning, but he is just hateful towards society. Walt seems to be living in the past, and that is where his beliefs are. He believes in kids who respect their elders, live a simple life, and know how to behave and work properly. For example, he is disgusted by his grandchildren's behavior at his wife's funeral after they walk in late, loud, and underdressed. But Mr. Kowalski likes Thao because Thao fits the character that Walt wishes his grandkids were. Thao is respectful when he helps the old woman with her groceries, and knows how to fix things up, much to Walt's pleasure. Walt also believes in old values when he complains about the price of his haircut. He says that it was much cheaper in the past. Walt Kowalski believes in old values and isn't fond of new society.
ReplyDeleteWalt is an interesting character because he is full of juxtapositions: he is a racist, but had a strong sense of justice, and he hates society yet longs for companionship. I think that he is caught in the past. Many of his beliefs and values are considered to be outdated. He seems to be stuck in the time period when he was at war and cannot adapt to the changing world around him. He finds the societal values that he had been missing in his next door neighbors and their culture. Thao working off his debt to Walt is an example of the direct justice that Walt values. I think that Walt does believe in the goodness of others although many of his actions seem otherwise. At the beginning of the film, he has lost his wife, the last person he had faith in, but the neighbors help him see the good side off people again.
ReplyDeleteWalt is an introverted old man. He doesn't like to talk bout much other than shallow topics. He seems to value his home, wife, and all of the things that he worked hard to gain over the course of his life. He comes off as greedy and is angry that his neighborhood has dropped in value and is being filled with crime. Despite seeming angry and racist, he still has morals. Because he is a courageous person who fought in the war and doesn't care for his life he is always willing to pull out a gun solve problems. In this way he seems to value peace, so he has to be heroic to obatain it.
ReplyDeleteWalt seems to care about justice but expresses it in a strange way. He helps people, like his neighbors, but he insults them and uses incredibly racist slurs towards them. The first time he helped them, Walt says it was because they were on his property, but he also helps his neighbor when she is being harassed by a few gentleman in the street. This suggests that he cares about helping people in need. Why he cares is a more complicated question. One reason might be becuase of his wife. He doesn't like talking about his feelings to the priest even though his wife requested it. This drive to help people and be constantly at work may be a side affect of him not wanting to focus on his feelings. He belives that if he works for himself and remains independent, he will play his role in society and live a worthwhile life. However, he is starting to realize that sometimes, a little help is not a bad thing. This is proved by the scene in which he ask Thao to help him move the fridge.
ReplyDeleteI think Walt values honesty and respect above all things. In the beginning of the movie e see the children acting disrespectful at church and not showing any care for the serious situation they are in. We also consistently see Walt call out people's manliness because he doesn't see them as respectable people and he is suprised when he is confronted. He also values honesty we see him get very mad when his son tries to give him gifts when he is really trying to take the house away from him.
ReplyDelete