Gran Torino

 

How does the physical state of the neighborhood impact the movie? What does the condition of the homes say about the neighborhood? How has the neighborhood’s population changed over the years and why? Why has Walt stayed? 

The perception you get from the movie is that the neighborhood Walt lives in used to be a great neighborhood in the suburbs, with mostly white Americans living there. However, more and more people want to live closer to the cities. This might be why it was getting empty and perhaps cheaper. Still Walt chose to stay there, and it does seem like he gets very attached to the stuff he cares for. He probably bought the house with his wife ­– who recently passed away – and has therefore gotten very attached to it.

In the movie, all we can see is a neighborhood in really bad shape. The houses are in a really bad condition and the neighborhood almost look abandoned. A lot of Hmong people has recently moved in as well. Walt’s home is the only home that’s being well taken care of, and he takes a lot of pride in it too. The other houses are clearly in bad shape, and it looks like a lot of them has been empty for a while, before anyone moved in. However, Walt sets Thao in work to fix the neighborhood too look the way it one time did.

The center piece of the film was Walt’s Gran Torino. What does the car signify to Walt? What about the other characters? Does the car have significance to them? If so, how? Do you have, or know someone, that has a similar type of connection to a possession? If so, talk about it.

It’s clear that the Gran Torino means a lot to Walt. This is his pride and he has been working on it for a very long time. Along with the house and the neighborhood, it could be that Walt struggles with letting stuff go. Especially stuff with personal value for him. For the other character in the movie, this car is just a very fancy, good looking car. They want it for the money. My grandfather used to be like that too. He struggled with letting go of his house and refused to go to an aging home. Every time they wanted to buy a new house, he had to keep the old one. He even kept some of his skiing shoes from when he was a kid. Not because he was a hoarder or anything but because of the memories. They all had meaning for him, that we couldn’t understand.

At the end of the film, Walt bequeaths the car to Thao instead of a family member. Was this unexpected? The last scene shows Thao driving the car down the road. The car has not been modified. What does this scene signify?

The fact that Walt gave the car to Thao shows that he looked more at Thao as a son, than his own sons. Thao was a good kid who gained Walt’s respect throughout the movie.