What Is Death?
"I didn't save anybody."
Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino (2008)
Points
for Reflection
Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino (2008)
- Does the way Eastwood shoots the opening funeral scene grant the church authority, or withhold it?
- Do Walt’s sons appear to have a valid perspective on their father’s old-fashioned values? Does the film, as a whole, agree with their critical assessment, or does it undercut their point of view?
- What kinds of situations provoke Walt to mutter “Jesus”?
- Do we learn enough about Walt’s past to be able to be able to explain his constitutional demeanor and prejudices?
- Is Walt correct to assume Steve wouldn’t help in a timely manner when asked?
- Why does Walt prefer that father Janovich refer to him by his first instead of last name?
- Why Might Dorothy have been so determined, as Father Janovich explains, that Walt go to confession?
- Does Walt confess his sins at any point in the film?
- Does Walt employ offensive slurs with everyone? Does anyone escape denigratory comments from him?
- Why might Eastwood allow the camera to linger on the back of Mitch’s Landcruiser as his family departs?
- Does the vocal Hmong neighbor praise Thao for doing housework?
- What Hmong values are layered into the shaman’s blessing on the new parents’ young infant?
- As one of his new Hmong neighbors points out, most of the white folk have vacated the neighborhood. Why might Walt remain?
- Does Walt’s relationship with Father Javonich evolve, or remain stagnant, over the course of the film?
- Can we determine what Walt thought of his deceased wife from the comments he makes following her death?
- What aspect of Thao’s identity do the Latino gangsters question, and why? Does their Hmong counterpart offer an alternative assessment of Thao’s character?
- When Smokie asks Sue her age, why does she respond as she does?
- Do the Hmong gangsters appear genuinely interested in Thao’s well-being?
- Walt’s not a total loner. With whom does he willingly, if only casually, connect, and over what?
- In your opinion, is Walt justified in continuing to live by himself?
- What do the types of cuts/transitions used to piece together a typical evening in Walt’s life suggest about the tenor and pace of his life?
- Is there a clear gender divide between Thao’s & Sue’s household, and the Hmong gang?
- Why is Father Javonich so upset w/ the way Walt unwittingly involved himself in neighborhood politics?
- What does Sue use to fend off the guys who accost her on the street? How successful is her strategy?
- Of all the various immigrant groups that Walt could encounter in his neighborhood, why the Hmong? Does the storyteller reveal anything in the truck ride scene that explains this narrative choice?
- Is Walt properly feted on his birthday?
- What personal and social revelations come to light during the Hmong barbecue?
- What transitions does Eastwood use to interconnect the scenes of Thao working, and why?
- What might Walt have come close to telling Thao on the front porch, words he ultimately refrains from saying?
- How many different cultures and races does Walt run into at the doctor’s office? Why does this matter?
- Is Walt’s son Mitch aware that Walt wants to discuss something serious when he calls out of the blue?
- In what variety of ways does Walt “poke the bear,” so to speak?
- Does this film suggest that sometimes, the best defense is a good offense?
- What various ways do our central characters show love for one another?
Gran Torino (2008)
one sheet
Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu
