Gran Torino Essay

Statement of Intent

I am going to write a visual text essay on the film Gran Torino. The question I will be answering is “Analyse how the audience was encouraged to love or hate a particular character”. I want to convey one of the main ideas in the film that people have the ability to change, so as an audience we are able to feel both hate and love for a character. I could publish this piece of writing on study Wiki where other students similar to myself who are studying for their external exams can read it. The reason for this would be to share my work with others, so they may be educated on my way of answering the exam question which may help other students when they sit their own external exams.

“Get off my lawn” yelled Walt Kowalski

These techniques unveil Walt as an absolute racist. In one scene a Hmong gang visit Walt’s neighbours house and begin harassing a young boy by the name of Thao. They begin fighting and the violence soon spills over onto Walt’s property. At this point Walt marches over to the gang members and demands they, “ get off my lawn.” This dialogue shows us the theme of segregation as Walt did not want any Hmong “scum” on his property as if they would pollute it by standing on his lawn. A gang member and Walt exchange threats until Walt asserts himself on the situation by saying “ I used to stack f%&ks like you five feet high in Korea and use you as sandbags.” This dialogue helped me understand who Walt was and his background as a Korean war veteran. I believe his racism stems from his time in the war where he saw Asians as the enemy. When Walt fought in the Korean war he fought against North Korean and Chinese troops, when ever he came up against them it would be with rifle in hand, and he was trying to kill them. This extreme mentality that soldiers needed to have in war flowed in to his post-war life through the development of post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD changed the way Walt’s brain worked which caused him to think of all Asians as the enemy. Walt’s war experience in the past also affected his present life because it caused internal conflict within him. He

The director cleverly uses a combination of visual and aural motifs along with dialogue to convince the audience to change our views. In the middle of the film Sue (Walt’s neighbour) was harassed by a group of African American gang members. Walt happened to drive by the scene and surprisingly decided to intervene. He got out of his truck and stamped his mark of authority on the situation immediately saying, “ever noticed how you come across somebody everyone in a while that you shouldn’t have f*&ked with… that’s me”. This use of dialogue showed me how Walt is not afraid of anyone even in his old age and that he is a man of courage. He then proceeds to pull out his finger gun as a military march plays in the background. The music has a fast pace which builds tension in the scene, with the brassy instruments and drum rolls used echoing his time in the Korean war. Walt was thought to be a lunatic by the gang members when he shot them with his finger gun, but they were mistaken when Walt pulled out a real pistol and demanded they let Sue go. The visual motif of the finger gun is used as a warning for a real pistol, this shows how Walt always felt the need to defend himself. The need for self defence flows from the greater issue of gang violence in Parkland Michigan. This has a major impact on the audience as we know violence is just round the