I have finanly sat down and watched Gran Torino. WOW! What a racist movie. Like very over the top, ridiculously racist! I couldnt believe it. Calling Asians "Zipper Head" and "Gooks" and Blacks "Spooks" to their face and they dont react?????? WHA! Unbelievable. I suppose that Clint Eastwood wanted to make a movie that HE was comfortable with. I mean, the 70 something actor even beats up a young Asian gang member. WHAT THE FUCK!!!! Was this suppost to be a Dirty Harry movie? I dont understand. This movie was the most unrealistic movie i have ever seen. Seriously. A old white racist riding around using racist slurs and beating up gang members. Sounds like Falling Down meets American History X. If he would of toned down the racism, i may have actually gone out and bought it. But nah, i cant support that shit. Plus, i dont want to see any minority get called a racist slur and not react or respond to it. Like Clint was making it seem that its OKAY to call minorities offensive things. Now i see why Spike Lee went off on him. Shame shame shame. Anyone else feel the same????

Lyterall appears courtesy of
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...your avys crack me up.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

*edit*
And so did a lot of other folks apparently: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gran_torino/

You are probably right.

Lyterall appears courtesy of
Z.F.T.P./Sign To Myself Records

.

I liked the movie, I think everyone knows Clint's character is wrong when he uses the slurs in the movie.
I'm more weirded out by 70+ year old white men who AREN'T Archie Bunker.
I doubt the movie would have been effective at all toned down.
Spike's beef with Clint was in regards to the lack of blacks in Clint's war movie - a completely different situation.
All that being said - FL is absolutely correct about Clint and H'wood. He could seriously film paint drying and they'd call it "groundbreaking". Studios love Clint because he's the last of the studio system and doesn't mind playing ball.
Is Clint right for showing such racism in a film?
Considering he learns the error of his ways, and oh yeah - dies at the end of the movie, I'd say so.



"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

When I saw it, the crowd was laughing their ass off and cheering, like "He's sayin what we're all thinkin'." An Asian guy on our row walked out, and the crowd threw things at him. No they didn't. But he did walk out.

The unrealistic thing was how he stayed away from the ugliest slurs, even though I imagine they're much more common among old racists then the ones he was trotting out.

...it's shocking. The "no he didn't" factor.
Folks by and large don't laugh WITH racists.
I highly doubt folks laughed WITH Clint.


>An Asian guy on our row walked out, and the crowd threw things at >him. No they didn't. But he did walk out.

I was about to say - what movie theatre do you go to?



"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

He's learned those two Asians are the exceptions to the rule. In his will, he's like, "I'm leaving my car to Zipperhead, but don't mess it up and give it a Beaner paint job." And everyone's looking at each other, chuckling, like "Oh Clint! He was so irascible!"

Possibly the worst ending to a movie I've seen in a while.

I will agree with you. He didnt learn shit. Still calling em Gooks from the grave. Wow. But as far as the ending itself, i did like it. He didnt go out like a sucker. I mean shit, he took dozens of shots before even falling down. Thats some heavy duty tough shit. And giving the car to the kid was dope, except for all the degrading details.

Lyterall appears courtesy of
Z.F.T.P./Sign To Myself Records

HA! I didnt notice the "crusifix" pose. Got to run the movie back. But that movie is just too racist (FOR NO REASON) for me. And if it wins a award, i will be disapointed. For one simple fact. Spike Lee's Miracle At St. Anna wasnt even nominated for a Oscar this year. WTF!?!??

Lyterall appears courtesy of
Z.F.T.P./Sign To Myself Records

...there wasn't much about Spike's war jawn that was worth nominating.
A good movie? Yes.
An award winning movie? Not really.
WITH NOTABLE EXCEPTION being Omar Benson Miller, who should have pulled one for best supporting.
Spike can't win just 'cause Clint plays a racist.


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

He made my Top 10 supporting actor list from last year, if I remember correctly.

in the movie.

he also had his own "blacks in wwII" movie coming out.
________________________________________
It's A Boy and his name is MILES KHALIL YOUNG

this old bigoted, bitter asshole who everyone knows is in the wrong with what he says. I don't think he was supposed to be a likeable character.

the Gran Torino was his pride and joy and represented the part of this old, embittered, lonely, racist man that was still great

he fought the koreans in the war and was traumatized, so he despises asians as the enemy, he despises his country for putting him through that, and then selling out american industry by importing from asia, and he despises the church for lying to people, and despises his own family because they show him no respect. and his wife is dead.

those are the reasons for his bitterness, racism, and toughness (i mean he was a war vet... these street gangsters are just posers)

but at heart, no matter how mistreated, he's still an honourable man so when he sees the thugs attack his neighbours he steps in

from there he builds a relationship and realizes that in these two asian children are all the values he still holds dear. he's still stuck in his ways to an extent but it's clear to him he has more in common with this family than with his own family

his last act in life protects those who share his values and destroys those who epitomize a threat to those values

the film is not made to promote the use of racial slurs. get a grip. if anything the message of the film is the most important values in life transcend racial boundaries and render all those slurs hollow

Gran (wizard) Torino!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I get it! It's like a play on words! But seriously, your stupid pun aside, I completely cosign this post. The depiction of Asians in that movie was disgusting. They're portrayed as either depraved criminals or defenseless people who can't protect themselves, and of course, the only person who CAN protect them is Clint Eastwood as their white messiah. What's really a trip is the fact that this movie takes place in Detroit, a city that is 80% Black, and yet there are only THREE Black people in the entire movie! They also just happen to be a gang of hoodlums that harass a white guy.

http://www.hmongdetroit.org/

http://www.sacbee.com/movienews/story/1532586.html

doesn't really make sense but script wise the Asians make more sense simply b/c he was in Korea. And since the part about him making his own car made him have to live in detroit it kinda screws things up.

Overall I liked the movie, the part about a white man saving the poor defenseless asian neighbors wasn't how I saw it but it could be argued that for sure. I saw it more as old school vs new school, that the Asian family was very traditional as was Clint and that Clint's kid (and grand kids) and the asian gangs were breaking from tradition and destroying the values that make a decent society.

Late Pass me if you want, but it's even more ridiculously bad than the trailers made it out to be. And critics were MAD this didn't get nominated for anything? I honestly didn't realize Clint held THAT much sway as a director that an unintentionally hilarious B-movie such as this could actually get people to treat it as a legitimate piece of cinema.

As Longo said, by the end of the film Walt clearly hasn't learned "the error of his ways" and everyone still shrugs off his relentless racism 'cause he's an old war vet, even making a joke about it at his funeral. On one hand, I would've hated the film even more if he gave some sort of "I now know racism is wrong" speech at the end. But on the other, if they weren't going to go that route, I wonder what the point is of the entire thing.