Gran Torino a.k.a. White Clint's Burden

Two weeks ago, I saw Gran Torino in theaters. In this film, racial slurs are used so often that they become a form of endearment. I definitely stopped cringing after hour one. Besides the predictable storyline, I suppose this film was somewhat enjoyable. But Gran Torino did teach me that the white man (at least Clint) still feels a burden to teach non-whites how live successful lives in a civilized society. And if they are unteachable- they must be eliminated.

Gran Torino attempts to tell a story about a crotchety, racist, white man who befriends his Hmong neighbors after he saves their son from the wrath of the local Hmong gang. After he is showered with gifts (which is blown out of proportion), he feels obligated to attend his neighbor's party. There, he realizes that actually likes these "gooks" and finds similarities between himself and these non-whites. In other words, Clint's racism (although still present in his everyday speech) slowly digresses throughout the movie. He feels an obligation (either through annoyance or actual sympathy-- it's hard to say) to help this family. And boy do they need help: The girl nor the boy can't stand up for themselves, they can't fix a leaky pipe, the boy doesn't know how to get a job on his own, and NO Hmong knows how to do yard work or basic house maintenance. Whites are the only people with money in this movie. Clint's entire white family is obviously well off (yet lacking love-- so sad). And apparently the boy's family can't even afford to buy him tools for his new job because Clint buys them.

Besides Clint's neighbors, all of the non-whites in the movie are "the bad guys". This includes the main Hmong gang who terrorizes the community, the two African-American gang members, and the Hispanic gang members in the beginning. Every non-white in this movie is in a gang! Where are the white gangs? I'm sure they exist if all whites have similar racism as Clint and his Caucasian friends. Clint's white family is well off and successful- they only have rebellious teenagers. The other white young person is a boy who when flirting with the main Hmong family's daughter is encountered by the African-American gang members. Of course, Clint saves the day by scaring off the African-Americans. But the only thing he says to the white boy is "What are you doing here?". Obviously, this good American white boy does not belong in this tough neighborhood filled with non-whites.

Renee (not me) writes about Gran Torino in her blog Womanist Musings: "I continuously marvelled how Eastwood's character was able to assume such a position of superiority based solely in race and have this premise accepted by every single person of colour that he interacted with. " She reveals how Clint's superiority as a white male grounds the movie's plot. How could he teach this non-white family how to be successful "Americans" if they didn't look up to him? How could even SAVE this family from their morbid destiny if they didn't trust him nor ask him for help? Clint also had to detach himself from his own whiteness in order to help this doomed family. He alienates himself from his white family and white priest. He kills himself in the end in order to save this family. He knew he was going to die anyway, so he had nothing to lose by sacrificing his own life. This symbolizes that whites are alive and human-- and non-whites are naturally dead and not human. He had to die in order to give these dead, non-whites a chance to be alive.

Although highly entertaining at some moments, this film fails to stray from common stereotypes already seen in Hollywood about non-whites. It strengthens the stereotype that non-whites can only be American and alive with help from whites.