In the movie Gran Torino, the protagonist Walt, embarks on a self journey. Throughout this journey he transforms himself into a kind hearted man from a bitter and miserable war veteran. The main cause of his redemption is not only because of his new neighbors, but because of the guilt he’s lived with for most of his life. In the beginning of Gran Torino, Walt already appears to be in misery. He seems to be uneasy at the opening scene, which is rational because he is at his wife’s funeral. However, he mostly seems uneasy and resentful towards his family.
At first, the movie suggests he is unhappy because his family is anything but genuine and caring towards Walt. His son and daughter in law attempt to convince him into looking for nursing home
...s on his birthday, and his granddaughter is only interested in Walt’s car, the Gran Torino. Walt discovers he has new neighbors, a Hmong family. By first glance, Walt already has a guard up towards them, and matters get worse once the son of the family, Tao, tries to steal his Gran Torino in order to be a part of a gang.
To make up for it, and restore honor back to the Hmong family, Tao works for Walt, and Walt begins to grow fond of the family and a kinder side of him begins to show. Tao had always wondered what it was like to kill someone, and Walt just replied “You don’t want to know”. Meanwhile, the Asian gang was still pulling stunts here and there, and eventually took it too far. They had shot up the neighbors’ house and raped Sue
the daughter of the family.
Walt wanted to retaliate but refused to let Tao come. Walt finally said “You want to know what it’s like to kill a man? Well its god damn awful that’s what it is…yeah some scared little g*** like you. I shot him right in the face…not a day goes by that I don’t think about it. You don’t want that on your soul”. Finally, the movie shows that Walt’s misery was mostly due to the guilt he felt for killing so many people during the war, especially one’s that didn’t deserve it.
To retaliate, Walt shows up at the gang’s house and tricks every member into shooting him, so they all go to jail and the Hmong family can be protected. Irony plays a big roll suddenly because at first Walt killed people just like them, but now he is protecting them. He had been unhappy all his life because of what he had done in the Korean war, but it’s safe to say, the role he had played in his neighborhood war, could finally leave him at peace.
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