"This year, you have to make a choice between two life paths. Second chances comes your way. Extraordinary events culminate in what might seem to be an anticlimax. Your lucky numbers are 84, 23, 11, 78, and 99. What a load of shit."
—Walt Kowalski, reading a newspaper
Gran Torino is a film, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, in what is rumoured to be his final onscreen performance. He plays Walter "Walt" Kowalski, an elderlyretired veteran of The Korean War living in Highland Park, Michigan (a rundown suburb of Detroit), shortly after the death of his wife. He has difficulty relating to his two grown up sons, who are caught up in their own lives, and generally disapproves of the way the world is changing, such as the influx of the Hmong People, immigrants who fled Vietnam after the war. Next door is Thao, a quiet boy who is pressured into joining his cousin Spider's gang. As part of his "initiation", Thao is pressured to steal Walt's prized possession, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino, but fails, and is caught. For dishonoring his family, Thao's mother asks Walt to accept Thao's help in doing chores around his house, which leads to an Odd Friendship. Spider, upset at Thao's rejection of his gang, begins to retaliate against the family, forcing Walt to intervene.Not to be confused with the series Gran Turismo.
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Walt pats the head of a child in a Hmong household as a gesture of kindness; the family of the child is shocked by this due to their cultural differences.
Walt: Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while that you shouldn't have fucked with? That's me.
Or ...
Walt: Yeah, I blow a hole in your face and then I go in the house and I sleep like a baby. You can count on that. We used to stack fucks like you five feet high in Korea ... used you for sandbags.
Walt is also a deconstruction: Walt´s fighting skills don't help him in his life in the city. His wife knows that his children cannot empathize with Walt, so she begs the local Good Shepherd to watch him. Walt’s antics and Badass Boasts give him a reputation of a Cranky Neighbor and only make things worse (see My God, What Have I Done?). His real act of bravery is realizing he is a Troubled Sympathetic Bigot, and the conflict is not solved by his acts of violence but with a Batman Gambit that invoke a Shoot Him, He Has a Wallet!. The only people who really felt protected by him were his neighbors.
Batman Gambit - Walt's plan to deal with Spider's gang is to spook them into using their itchy trigger fingers, gunning him down. He turns up unarmed, and creates a ruckus so people will watch his murder. As a result, Spider's gang is arrested for murdering an unarmed old man.
Bittersweet Ending - Walt is dead, but he was terminally ill anyway and his sacrifice lets justice be done. Thao gets the Torino, and has a bright future ahead of him.
Boomerang Bigot - Walt is a white Pole who throws derogatory slurs at everyone, including Poles and whites.
Did Not Do the Research: 1972 Ford Torinos were made in Lorain, Ohio, not Detroit or within commuting distance of it.
Drink Order - In the bar, Walt orders Pabst and a shot of Jack; the priest tries to order a diet Coke, but Walt makes him order "a drink" instead (he opts for a gin and tonic). Also, Walt is very fond of Pabst Blue Ribbon (not surprising given his generation, class, and location).
Good Shepherd - The rookie priest Father Janovich tries his best to be this, and Walt's wife clearly liked him; Walt's not nearly as impressed, but then, he's a curmudgeon. In the end, Janovich admits to having learned a bit from Walt.
Hard Work Montage - Thao trying to make amends for trying to steal from Walt.
Heel Faith Turn - Possibly with Walt, even though he isn't technically a bad guy, given that his last words are ""Hail Mary, full of grace." It's a little ambiguous, though.
His confession suggests that since the war he's been a curmudgeon, but actually a stand up truly good person with the worst sin he's confessing being either kissing a woman at a Christmas party 30 years prior, or not paying tax after selling a personal item. However, his second confession, to Thao in the basement, is what you'd expect from a veteran. It even is done through a grill similar to his first confession.
Intergenerational Friendship - Walt is (based on his actor's age) in his mid or late seventies. He befriends siblings Thao and Sue, who are teenagers. Youa (also a teenager), the sibling's mother (in her thirties or forties), and Father Janovich, who is 27. Before them, he is Vitriolic Best Buds with Martin the barber, who's in his forties.
I Just Shot Marvin in the Face - hinted at with Thao inadvertently pointing a rifle at Walt while examining it, evoking an unspoken rebuke.
Jaded Washout - Played With. Walt gets no respect from his family or - at first - the neighbors (and he's not really giving any excuse to doubt him), but he does eventually get respect from the neighbors, and has no trouble with money.
Knight in Sour Armor - Walt again. He's a sour, cynical bastard, but Sue correctly has him pegged as a good man.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All/Heel Realization: Invoked and played straight: Just after Walt accuses Father Janovich of being this, Father Janovitch asks him what Walt knows. Walt realises that he knows plenty about death, but not a lot about life.
Lull Destruction - Walt talks to himself a lot. And to his dog. Some of this may help the story, but a lot of it could be communicated without words, or is information the audience already has.
Truth in Television as multiple studies have shown that a person who lives alone or is isolated tend to talk to themselves just to break the silence around them.
My God, What Have I Done?: Done non-verbally, when Walt learns that his attempt to intimidate the Hmong gang ended up getting Sue beaten and raped. And this is on top of the drive-by at her house. Then he goes home and starts punching up his cabinets—even the glass ones—while verbally berating himself.
Played comically by the priest when Walt finally comes to his church for confession.
Not so Different - Walt basically says this to himself when he's in the bathroom at the neighbor's house. He looks in the mirror says that, "God, I've got more in common with these gooks than I have with my own spoiled-rotten family."
N-Word Privileges - The film examines the rules around this a lot; Walt assumes N-word privileges towards everyone.
Walt never actually uses literal N-word privileges, when confronted by black thugs Eastwood opts for the common 1950's - 1970's racist terms "spook" and "spade" (the use of which terms seem to confuse the young men, or at least leaves them briefly nonplussed...)
One Last Smoke: Once he's decided to face the gangsters, Walt treats himself to a wet shave, a tailor-fitted suit and a cigarette in the bathtub. Averted when he's shot by Spider when he pulls out his lighter.
Papa Wolf - An unusual example in that it doesn't seem to apply to his own family, though, to be fair, they're selfish assholes. However, he blames himself for not getting close to them.
The Precious, Precious Car - Walt's Gran Torino. Not only is it vintage, Walt has a personal attachment to its construction: he was on the line where it was built.
Rape as Drama - A horrible, extremely realistic version.
Redemption Equals Death - Walt's speech through the locked door indicating that he feels that he can face the gang because the bad things he has done mean that what he does to them won't make him any dirtier, then defeating them by dying, revealing that he actually meant that the bad things he has done mean that he is ready to die for a good cause. His confession earlier suggests that he actually doesn't need redemption in any eyes but his own.
Also invoked by the fact he reveals to Thao through the locked door, that he shot a young Chinese soldier who was trying to surrender to him. His Heroic Sacrifice to save Thao, another young man about the same age, represents his atonement for that old sin.
Walt's confession to Thao mirrors his earlier, somewhat insincere confession to the priest, with the barred and screened basement door replacing the traditional confessional booth screen seen in the earlier scene.
Surrogate Soliloquy - Walt talks to his dog, when he gets really stressed he talks to himself. While he is talking to his dog about the woman next door, the woman next door is talking to herself saying the exact same things about him in another language.
Tactful Translation - Sue attempts to provide a Tactful Translation of her Racist Grandma's insults to Walt as "Welcome to our home", but given how angry the grandma is, it's unconvincing. Walt calls her on it, and she admits it.
Tranquil Fury - Walt finally calms down in the moments before his death. "Oh, I am at peace."
Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: Due to a combination of factors, Walt is a Grade A Grumpy Old Man, and holds certain views about his Hmong neighbors that are continually challenged during the course of the movie. In the end he befriends Thao and gives him the prized Gran Torino.
Vitriolic Best Buds - Walt's idea of male friendship is based around this setup, as shown with his barber and the construction foreman, and later Thao. Walt and Sue also have this going: the moment he starts to respect and like her is the moment when she starts getting sassy back at him.
White Man's Burden - Although Walt is bigoted in the beginning, he starts to take compassion to the Hmongs, eventually takes Thao under his wing and eventually saves him from the gangs.
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