Gran Torino (take 2---possible NWC Beacon edition)

An ex-auto worker, Walt Kowalski, whose wife has recently died, lives in a rotting neighborhood in Detroit. He is the last white person in the neighborhood, now teeming with Hmong people. His sons express their concerns with his living in the old neighborhood. Walt’s neighbors are a Hmong family with a cute daughter, Sue, and a timid son, Tao. Tao’s gangbanger cousins try to get him to join their gang, but when he fails the initiation of stealing Walt’s Gran Torino, things get ugly. They try to force him into the gang, but Walt growls at the gangbangers to ‘get off his lawn’ as they look down the barrel of his Korean War carbine. Tao culturally has to make amends with Walt, so he takes the boy under his blue-collar wings and disciples him on how to ‘be a man’: consisting of racial slurs and cuss word grammar, as well as respect for property and elders. The gangbangers strike back, the situation quickly escalates out of Walt’s control and confrontation is necessary. Any more summary would give too much of the story away, you’ll just have to see it for yourself.
As a brusque old man, Walt is a microcosm of a dying racist American generation. In the film, young Hmongs, Hispanics, and Blacks create the palate of the neighborhood shrouded in violence. But like Walt, racism still blots the landscape here and there. Because the neighborhood is so diverse, Walt has to learn to coexist or to live with his neighbors. Since multiculturalism and community are hallmarks of Northwestern College, we can draw many lessons from Walt. After the recent elections, the student body was indignantly rebuked in chapel by Kevin McMahan because one of the international students was appallingly taunted for the color of their skin. This is no way to live in community. In Gran Torino, Walt has to learn to accept the fact that his neighbors were different. They come from foreign culture, but they still are able to teach him something about himself. He also has to learn to take initiative to gain understanding. Seeing Walt talk with ‘Yum-Yum’ and Su, and eat platefuls of Hmong food are some of the more touching moments of reconciliation in the film. Sacrifice is vitally important to community. Walt’s iconic sacrifice solidifies his friends’ safety and happiness. Acceptance, initiative and sacrifice are fundamentals for community life.
Gran Torino is a story that should keep hopes of reconciliation afloat. Viewers will see the light on their journey through this tunnel of American racial history, and its redemptive realization is very satisfying. Even with all the guns, swear words, and racial slurs, it is a film that suggests that violence only escalates, but sacrifice brings true reconciliation.