gran torino, part two

part one

One of the communities that Gran Torino focuses on most closely is that of men of a certain sort - the sort that Clint Eastwood at times exemplifies, the strong silent type. Importantly, it's about the induction (the introduction) of a boy to this community; it's about teaching him to be a man. I just want to highlight two related aspects of this.

The first involves the way Thao is taught to be a man. Clint takes Thao to Clint's barber, whom Clint greets with friendly profanity and racism; the barber responds in kind. Clint then tells Thao, ok, now you do it. Thao comes in and greets the barber with some profanity and racism and is met with a shotgun to the face and some not-so-friendly racism. You idiot, Clint tells him. That's no way to greet a man you barely know.

In other words, you don't get a lot of instruction on how to do this thing called being a man. You get fragments, little hints and experiences and words of wisdom here and there whose meaning you'll spend your life trying to figure out, one way or another. And maybe when you're eighty and dying (like Walt) you'll start to have an idea about what they mean, which you'll do your best to pass on to the next generation. (see also)

Consider another scene. Walt has just found out that he's dying, and he calls one of his sons. But he can't figure out what to say; they chat awkwardly for a moment, then Walt says goodbye and hangs up. He never talks to his son again. As it happens, Walt is pretty aware of this problem. When he makes his last confession, this is one of the three things he confesses: that he doesn't know his sons, doesn't know how to talk to them. (The other two things are not paying taxes on the sale of a boat, which is just theft, and kissing a woman who was not his wife at the factory Christmas party. This is despite the fact that Walt has killed a lot of people in Korea, in brutal ways).

This is closely related to the first aspect: the way boys are taught to be men. In a way, that way of teaching someone is a very lonely way, as it involves a lot of working things through on one's own (and I don't necessarily mean sitting down and thinking about them), and not asking for help or guidance. In other words, there's not a lot of dialogue, discussion, conversation. It's a problem.