Ok I
admit it, when I first heard the title Gran
Torino, I fully expected a movie about racing.
But Clint Eastwood’s 2008 suburban drama
isn’t so much centred around racing as it
is around race.
It’s a movie which has many themes, most
notably of redemption, courage, and a commentary
of violence in low-income neighbourhoods.
But Clint Eastwood also combines all of that
to say something about peace and stability.
And don’t get me wrong, the movie isn’t
the most subtle with this particular theme.
But in this analysis I’d like to explore
how the character arcs in the film showcases
the value of peace and how peace also finds
the audience at the end of Gran Torino.
In 
his screenwriting book Anatomy of Story, author
John Truby writes that in the beginning of
the story…the hero (probably) lives in a
world of slavery that highlights, amplifies
or exacerbates his great weakness.
This is true for many stories, and in Gran
Torino, this is true for the three characters
we will be talking about today, whose world
of slavery is represented by turmoil and uncertainty.
Note that these words mean different things
for different characters.
Let’s look at an example: Father Janovich
is a minor supporting character whose main
struggle is to get our protagonist Walt to
go to confession.
He is relatively rigid and textbook in his
beliefs about life and death, and thinks he
can persuade Walt to go to confession using
a promise he made to Walt’s late wife.
He meets strong resistance because his rigid
approach doesn’t inspire trust and credibility
for Walt.
It’s only after he is willing to approach
with humility, and open his mind to understanding
Walt’s story, does Walt see Father Janovich
as an equal.
The turmoil of a promise he cannot keep turns
to peace for Father Janovich by the end of
the movie, as he not only gets a confession
from Walt, but finds peace in gaining a more
open-minded outlook on life and death.
A more fleshed out arc is for one of the main
supporting characters Thao, a member of the
Mong community, whose world of turmoil is
obvious.
He lives in a neighbourhood seemingly rife
with gang violence, and is constantly under
threat from Mong gangs who want to recruit
him.
Thao is not strong or confident enough to
ask the girl he likes on a date, let alone
resist the threat of gang members.
His foil is Walt, who challenges these weaknesses,
encourages Thao to get a job, and ask Youa
out.
In doing so, Thao gains the confidence to
speak his mind and the courage to stand up
for himself, even in the face of increasing
violence from gangs.
In the end, Thao’s turmoil is turnt to peace
in mind as he gains the skills to support
himself and his family.
He also gains peace in body because those
that would wish him physical harm have been
put away.
Now we move on to the film’s protagonist
and hero, Walt Kowalski.
Walt faces many sources of turmoil in his
life.
We start the movie with the death of Walt’s
wife, who he considered his last anchor to
the beauty of humanity.
Walt now has to deal with his astoundingly
selfish and materialistic sons and grandchildren,
who want nothing more than to take away his
car, his furniture, and his house.
Walt is also living beside Thao, and is thus
exposed to the Hmong gangs as well as other
creeps from around the neighbourhood.
He acknowledges he is old-school, in that
he has very outdated ideas about what it means
to be a man, the role of women in society,
and the presence of immigrants in America.
Walt is also a racist, having served in the
Korean war and seeing his fellow soldiers
killed mercilessly.
Nevertheless he is haunted by his experiences
killing young and sometimes helpless men,
as well as the fact that he was the only soldier
from his company to return from an attack
alive.
Walt could do with a lot of peace in his life,
and this is initiated by Sue, his neighbour
and Thao’s sister, who invites Walt into
her home and exposes him to the Hmong culture.
It is in Sue and then Thao where Walt finds
his spiritual family.
A family that appreciates and cares for him,
and gradually gives him the peace in his life
that he needed.
This peace is represented by the theme song
of the movie ‘Gran Torino’, which plays
as Thao begins helping Walt clean up the surrounding
neighbourhood.
When the peace is rudely interrupted by the
gangs, Walt knows he must make the ultimate
sacrifice to save the people he cares about.
While we might expect him to tactically take
out each of these gang members, he instead
tricks them into killing him, allowing the
police to arrest the gang members and bring
long-lasting peace to the neighbourhood.
Whilst in the past, Walt was ironically ordered
to bring peace through taking people’s lives
during the war, it is poetic that Walt now
contributes to the peace and security of the
neighbourhood by giving up his own life.
And it is for this purpose that Walt himself
is at peace, as the theme song of the movie
plays for the second time as he draws his
last breath.
This is pretty much in line with Anatomy of
Story, which we’re returning to for a bit.
John Truby also says that the protagonist
and the world of our protagonist can develop
in one of several classic ways.
And one of those ways is for the hero to move
from a state of Slavery to greater slavery
to freedom, and for the world to develop in
the same way.
We see this happening to Father Janovic and
Thao, where things get worse for them, but
at the end of the story, they are free.
Their world which was plagued by the danger
of gangs, is now also free.
But for our protagonist, Walt.
The equation changes, and that is because
our hero moves from slavery to greater slavery
or death, whereas the world remains the same.
In the words of John Truby, the hero has a
self-revelation, but it comes too late to
set him free.
He makes a sacrifice before he dies or falls,
and sets the world free after he is gone.
In other words, Walt’s sacrifice directly
and indirectly achieves peace for the characters
and the world of the film.
Gran Torino is a very layered film which holds
a special place in my recent movie watching
experiences.
Its characters find peace through acts of
openness, understanding and sacrifice, and
it is these arcs that allows the audience
to feel a sense of cathartic peace ourselves
at the end of the movie.
In the end, we see the Gran Torino finally
being driven, a symbol that Thao has come
of age, and has the maturity and sensibility
to be responsible for such a precious item,
a warm feeling as we watch Thao drive into
the distance, at peace with whatever lies
ahead.
