Washed Out - Within And Without (2011).rar
Akiko Fleischer
Great review that says, a lot more harshly and precisely than I was able to, exactly what's so bizarre about this film.
I should say though, that when I saw the film, the people laughing easily the hardest were the row of Asian guys sitting behind me. Make of that what you will, I guess.
A bracing review. You make several excellent points, but I still think you oversimplify the film a little. For one thing, many of the white people in the film (especially Walt's family) are depicted as vulgar, grasping, and spoiled, whereas Walt's self-sufficiency suggests a generational difference between himself and them. The film also makes a clear distinction between gang members of any race in the neighborhood and the Hmong family living next door to Walt. Walt saves two of the family's younger members from gang interference, so that complicates our view of his racism. Lastly, I was struck by Eastwood's willingness to depict himself and his weaknesses in his later 70s. In the context of his work in films such as A Fistful of Dollars, there's something poignant about seeing him still retaining some of his trademark ferocity into an advanced age, especially given the prevalent ageism of most movies.
FilmDr: Yes, the film underlines the generational issue, in scenes with Walt and his family and in scenes at the barbershop and the construction site. But "Gran Torino" isn't being released just to people of that generation. It's communicating with all of us. Walt might be an old fart who is better left to his ways. But art is ageless. The depictions of characters in the film enabling Walt's behavior plays true to real life. But that doesn't mean we need to enable the film's contention that slurs don't matter. They do.
Also: I'd be careful of giving too much praise to Walt for his initial intervention. The film makes it pretty clear that Walt acts because the action spills over onto his lawn.
As I said in the review, "Gran Torino" does use Walt as an example of the dead-end nature of xenophobia. But it celebrates his behavior as often as it condemns it.
I'm fine with an analysis of a character who seems racist on the the outside but who is a compassionate individual on the inside who is struggling with demons. But Eastwood didn't portray that convincingly. Another actor could have. De Niro in his younger years could have. Eastwood played the slurs for laughs all the time. I saw the film in a working-class neighborhood south of Boston in a packed theater. They laughed uproariously. There should have been a more serious gravity to it - a subtlety that Eastwood does not have the talent to evoke.
Rich: I understand the way you see the film, because I think that's where the film is trying to go.
But Walt doesn't make one or two racist remarks. He's nothing but slurs (which is boring screenwriting if you ask me, but never mind). And here's the catch: At the beginning of the film, he means them. Then we're supposed to believe he doesn't. Just like that. Regardless, all the while, as Hokahey says, Walt's remarks are designed for audience laughs. Heck, even the Hmong laugh at him. If Walt said nothing but "gook" the entire picture, people would groan and get tired of it all. Instead the film asks us to cheer his cleverness. I can't.
Thank you for your review. I just can't believe all the acclaim and props the movie is receiving. I actually feel traumatized, not just from viewing the film, but having endured the laughter and ignorance of the audience around me.
It may just be one of the racist movies in the last decade or more.
Jason, thanks for the comment on my review. I've admired your thoughtful reviews for some time, and you're right - we're on completely opposite sides on GT.
I concede pretty much all of the points you make about the film's production (including the set, which is a sore point because the movie was supposed to filmed here in MN, where it was also born and bred). I also agree the acting was quite poor, even for non-professional actors.
But the writing was honest - brutally honest, and accurate. I can't claim to speak for the entire state of MN, but Walt Kowalski (yes, to the degree shown by Eastwood) is not a caricature of a racist vet. He's as real as any grizzled Minnesotan I've overheard making such remarks (all of the epithets he uses, and more). Not all Minnesotans are like this, of course, but as I said in my review, many of them admit to identifying with Walt.
I know I'm making it sound like GT can only be truly judged by Minnesotans; that's not what I mean. But there are 50,000 Hmong living here in the Twin Cities and they truly do have a troubled history with Minnesotans, even if it's only two decades old.
Anyway, I don't know if I've made any point here. I'm just saying that from where I sit, in the same city where the story was written and the characters were developed, this almost played like a documentary.
In any case, I fully understand the points made out in your excellent review.
Oh, and a last point about the humor. I think the barbershop scene was the one that crossed the threshold (you're right, including Polish jokes spread the hate around) and made the humor acceptable. Also, I don't think all of the coarse humor was race-based, such as the scene in which Thao meets his boss in the construction trailer.
Daniel: Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I'm happy to have your geographical context shared here.
Similar to what I said to Rich, I think the barbershop and the construction site scenes are supposed to bridge the gap and show that Walt's language isn't as venomous as it seems. But it doesn't work. For me it seems like a pathetic non-apology apology for his behavior.
Now, that doesn't mean that "Gran Torino" can't be truthful. And I want to be clear that I don't think movies have some moral obligation to move us forward as a society. It's nice when they do, but it's not a job requirement. But films should at least be honest about what they are.
To me the smoking gun in the "Gran Torino" slur debate is to imagine the scenarios presented in my review. I think if we heard "nigger" over and over instead of "gook," perhaps not even Eastwood's charm could make it seem acceptable. To me, that proves that something is amiss.
That said, I'll shut up for a while. I'm thankful for the new voices here at The Cooler (both for and against my arguments). I hope folks continue to weigh in here, and come back to join the discussion on future posts.
I think the non-apology apology stream running throughout (not only in the barbershop scene) may not work because it's not actually meant to be an apology. I think Schenk was just writing what he sees here, what he knows from having worked construction projects with whites and on a factory shift with Hmong.
Also, and this may be really hard to believe, but I actually think Walt's behavior would be acceptable, by an audience, if he was attacking other ethnic groups instead of the Hmong. It may be an oversimplification to say that racists are racists to everyone (ironically, you could call them indiscriminate), but I don't think that people were laughing so much only because the humor was directed specifically at the Hmong (who they likely know little about anyway). They're just laughing because it's a white guy making jokes at the expense of someone who's not like them.
A huge generalization, but that's what I'm thinking at the time being.
Hey Jason-
Good review. We disagree (what a shock!), but not in all places.
To me, Gran Torino's biggest error is that Eastwood overuses the slurs. I saw it with a sizable audience, and they weren't laughing at first, but by the time that the 43rd slur came around, people were laughing like it was a b-movie comedy.
I don't think Eastwood is a great director and his heavy-handedness has really shown itself in every film since Mystic River, but what I think he gets at in Gran Torino is something we can relate to in a social context. I think the character of Walt is WAY overdone (again, that's Eastwood for ya!) but I think he relates to a person most of us have known in our lives, and it confronts the notion that bigoted, racist people, may not be bad people.
I think you're absolutely right about some of the goofiness and forced readings of Sue teaching Walt about the Hmong people etc. But, again, I expect this from Eastwood. I think he's always tried way too hard. And to be honest, I'd rather watch more films of his like Blood Work than anything he's done since Mystic River and on.
I think you're right on with this review. It felt like I was the only one at the theater who wasn't laughing.
What really disturbed me was his representation of the black youths. There was no need to play into the black rapist stereotype that has been repeated for hundreds of years.
The overall problem was that the movie did not deal with race in any significant way. Despite the constant slurs, there was no message behind them. It is the anti-Do the Right Thing.
Thank you for the review. I just watched the first hour of this movie tonight and walked out. I felt uncomfortable from the beginning. Which is really a credit to the audience I was sitting with, who laughed through the entire film, beginning with the the Hmong baptism ceremony and it just got worse from there.
I would like to put out there that this movie tells the story of what all white people are afraid of, what the news tells us is happening - that our safe haven, our white country is being "invaded" by foreigners. By Hispanic and Asian gangs, by the black over-sexualized kids on the corner, by the Asian family next door that just doesn't seem to care about their lawn, that tries to steal our cars, etc. This is why I feel like the entirely white audience that surrounded me was able to laugh so easily, to bond so quickly to a man that is able to say aloud things that we can no longer easily say. What we saw in this movie, or rather what this movie methodically produced for us, was walking, talking stereotypes. Unproblematized stereotypes. I am afraid when I sit in an audience that finds a Chinese doctor's name so funny. I am concerned when my "peers", when people that I walk past every single day can so deeply laugh at hate. There was violence in this film - laughing at racial slurs and derogatory comments is violence.