Gran Torino Analysis

Edgar Naen

Ottawa University Arizona

Intercultural & International Communication

Kim Rockley

November 24th, 2022

 Gran Torino Analysis

The movie Gran Torina was purposely showing many cultural conflicts that are

interesting to look at. The first conflict that I have observed is racism against Asian and Asian

culture. In the movie, the main character’s neighbors are from Asia after running away from the

world and a certain death. Those people end up in the midwest where they do not seem to be the

most appreciated. We can see that the main characters have a lot of prejudice against Asians and

their culture. He asked a few times that they do not eat his dog and the young lady, instead of

getting mad at him, plays with him and tells him that they only eat cats.

Another cultural conflict that we can observe is that the white men, one of them is the main

characters and all the white characters seem to have decent lives when the colored people (Asian,

black, and Latino) are either really poor and not speaking English or part of a gang. Even though

it shows a little bit of the truth, it is very cliche and impacts the mentality. It is conflicting

because it shows a very negative image of non-white people. It shows the “superiority” of the

white people and illustrates colored people as without any resources and maybe not as capable.

Another cultural conflict that we could observe was reducing the image of the Asian people. It is

explained in the movie that most of them run away from the world and so most of the parents

and grandparents do not speak English. During the movie, many times the Asian characters

would talk in their language, and not subtle translation would be given to the audience. Because

of that, those characters are reduced to body language and are left as less capable and less

intelligent in the eyes of the audience. I believe that is very conflicting because it kind of gives

the idea that people that do not speak English are not at the same level mentally as people that

can speak English. In reality, it is completely false because those people grew up speaking
another language and don’t have the resources to learn English once they move to the United

States.

The first popular culture shown in the movie is the classic American Muscle car. The

whole movie revolves around the main character's precious vintage Ford car. There is an

interesting comparison that is made between the American muscle car, described and seen as

more valuable and better overall, and the Asian car that the Asian character part of the gang

drives.

I would define it as pop culture because cars often refer to certain parts of the world and a

certain period of time. The Gran Torina (the car that the main character owns) is a mythic

American muscle car that reflects American culture. On the other hand, the Asian gang drives a

South Korean car from Hyundai which also refers to a whole culture, especially since it is a

sports car. There is an interesting parallel between the car and the character. The Asian gang is

mostly about talk and they drive a “show off” car. On the other hand, the main character drives a

powerful muscle car and is all about being tough and acting the same way.

Another popular culture that is shown in the movie, is the importance of food in Asia.

Most of the time when the Asian neighbors are involved, or their houses showed, we can see that

they are gathered and sharing food. Food is shown as valuable in their culture in the gathering

and according to H. Vallianatos & K. Raine and their study on food and identity, they found that

food is a way to “maintaining connection to home”(2015). Food is also used as a sign of

gratitude or saying thank you in the movie, especially after the main character defends his

neighbors from the gang.

The last popular cultural example that is shown in the movie is the white mean man

becoming a hero after meeting people that do care about him. After losing his wife, the main
character becomes very difficult to be around but his young Asian neighbors decided to give him

a chance and spend time with him. Even though he is a complicated character, they are able to

soften him and in the end, he gets redemption for his past errors by sacrificing himself for the

people that helped him. The main character can be perceived as an anti-hero, for having killed

more than ten men during the war or for behaving so badly with people around him. According

to P. Jonason & co, anti-heroes are not treated as “inherently maladaptive but provide an

alternative view despite their cost” (2012). The anti-hero as the main character is part of

American popular culture and is a type of character that people enjoy watching.

The ending of the movie was interesting but a touch frustrating as well. The main

character purposely gets shown by the gang that threatens the life of his neighbors. By doing so,

the gang members are sent to jail, and their neighbors can have a life without being threatened or

beaten up. I don’t think that it was the only way to go. The police could have been used to

resolve the problem, or the neighbors could have moved to a different place to stay safe.

Unfortunately, those options were complicated and presented many downsides. I would have

personally not been able to control myself if my sister would have gotten beat up by my own

cousin. I believe that this ending was a great movie ending because the main character finally

gets redemption and feels at peace by giving his life for others. At the same time, he gets to get

back with his wife in the other world which is a good and emotional ending.

Overall, I believe that it was a great movie, I thought that the realization was great which

is expected from Clint Eastwood. I thought that the story was well-built because you get mixed

feelings from the main character but you get to see him evolve and become a better person. I also

enjoy the fact that most of the movie was realistic and wasn’t just about a crazy fight that would

never happen in real life. I thought that it reflected pretty well the struggle of life at this period
of time in the midwest but still had a little bit of romance. I don’t think that I can identify with

any character but if I had to I would identify with Thao, the young Asian well as half Asian man

myself.
 Citation Page

Jonason, P. &co. (2012). The antihero in popular culture: Life history theory and the dark triad

personality traits. SAGE Journals, vol 16(2).

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1037/a0027914

Vallianatos, H.& Raine, K.(2015). Consuming food and construction identities among arabic and

south asian immigrants women. An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research,

Vol 11(3). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175174408X347900