Watched Gran Torino last night

[redkow97]

...and I can't wait to call Jbot all the awesome new names I learned!

[Carwhore]

zipperhead

[Bad324]

it was a real good movie I thought

[MidgetTodd]

I liked it

[redkow97]

yeah, my wife's not at all familiar with Clint Eastwood, but I love his movies. The first thing she said was, "is that really the way Clint Eastwood talks?" hahahaha

I didn't know what to expect from the movie, other than the car, and the fact that it was about some kind of racial tension. I didn't expect it to be an Asian family.

I'm trying to figure out if they chose an Asian antagonist for politically correct reasons though. The movie could have inserted any minority group into that role. They acknowledged the Mexican gangs and the Black thugs, but I'm thinking the movie would have caught hell for picking on them.

My friend Susie (her parents are from somewhere in Vietnam) told me, "Asians are the minority no one considers a minority, because we're the educated minority. Our stereotype is that we all over-achieve and grow up to be doctors, so because the perception is that we're all successful, people feel less bad about being 'racist' toward us."

I had never really thought about it, but she's right. She wasn't complaining about it by any means, but it never would have occurred to me otherwise. I think this conversation started after she crashed her car, and the first thing I said to her (after I found out she was okay) was literally, "damn Susie - not a banner day for dispelling stereotypes. Asian woman wrecks her car? I hope you're not eating rice and noodles for lunch too."

[Beegreenstrings]

gotta love eastwood

"dont eat my dog"

[NinjaNick]

"We use to stack your bodies 5 feet high and use you for target practice" - OUCH!

Not exactly right, but if you've seen the movie you know what part I'm talking about.

[jbot]

my one (and I mean, one. really, he's not even "1" he's more half) black friend told me I could call him "Spookie" and that it would be ok, particularly on Halloween and February.

[Disclaimer]

Pauly's always been open minded about that stuff though.

[crb]

I really liked the movie. If you use another minority the war wouldn't have come into play the movie might have lost something.

Racist troll out!

[redkow97]

Yeah, the war wouldn't have come into play, but he's still got legitimate reasons to hate the blacks and the mexicans. His neighborhood used to be nice. minorities moved in, got violent, and now it's not nice anymore.

Obviously it's more complicated than that, but I don't think "mexicans and blacks ruined my neighborhood" is a totally invalid perception on Walt's Kowalski's part.

Plus the character is a "racist with a heart of gold." That person simply doesn't exist in real life. It's like Homer Simpson: the lovable functional alcoholic who tries really hard when it counts.

But my point is that Walk Kowalski may have thrown around a lot of racial slurs, but he didn't actively go out and hassle blacks/mexicans/asians for the hell of it. He didn't start trouble with anyone, he was just mad at the entire race for the trouble started by some members of that race.

If there is such a thing, I'd call that "passive" racism. In my mind, there is a HUGE gap between believing that whites are superior and all other races are animals who should be caged; and believing that a given minority group (or groups) is responsible for problems that didn't occur until they started populating the area.

The former isn't a justifiable conclusion. The latter (arguably) is.

[SpeedTriple44444]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjGJjnPNoC8

[SpeedTriple44444]

I think you're missing the point of the movie. Walt is from a different time, when talking about the differences in races and staying with your own group was an accepted and normal thing. Didn't mean it was right, but people gave each other crap without really hating each other. He gives the same crap to his barber and his construction buddy. But when it comes down to it, he realized we're all Americans, and there are good people and bad people of other races, and a real man will fight for the lives of the good ones, which is what he did. I'm not so sure the way we are so sensitized is completely a good thing these days. Obviously we have to deal with real racist hate, but everybody has gone completely off the deep end with the PC nonsense.

[redkow97]

^ agree.

[The King]

This was the real star of the movie..

[SWing'R]

it was a real good movie I thought

+1

[roxynoodle]

Walt hated everyone except his dog and his dead wife. It wasn't just the races that ruined the neighborhood; look at how he felt about his own sons and grandchildren. Admittedly, the granddaughter was a little bitch. He even treated the priest like crap at first because he hated the church, too.

I think they picked Asians due to his having fought in Korea.

[psyco1]

Get off my lawn.

[MadMax33]

The sub-par acting by the majority of the Asian cast as well as the ending made me give it 3-stars out of 4. When I went to see it when it was first released, I felt like I was in a nursing home, sitting in the audience. Old folks smell funny.

[ohdaho]

Could careless about the movie, it was alright...ive been around those types of people and neighborhoods so it wasnt all that eye-opening (cue squinty eye jokes).

[bandit12]

I liked that movie,

"I should've blowed his head off when I had the chance."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXD8yOxIPB0