MovieChat Forums > Gran Torino (2009) Discussion > Am I the only one who found the characte...

Am I the only one who found the character of Walt absolutely disgusting?


He had very few redeeming qualities. He was an old hate-filled bigot. There is a difference between a "tough old man" and a disgusting bigot who knows nothing but virulent hatred. Not to mention he was a drunk and was drinking beer and doing shots at that bar and I doubt he was walking home. He had likely driven home drunk from that bar thousands of times.

He was a relic from a different time. When people could grab hand out jobs at the Ford factory right out of high school and start pulling in enough to raise a family and by a house than same year. Back when those types of industries where in the U.S. I can also guarantee it is totally beyond his comprehension to realize those types of jobs no longer exists and he would likely accuse someone of being a lazy pussy for not being able to find one.

And his whole hang up about the Korean war only worked against him. How many years ago had then been? Time to get over it. My granddad served in WWII and was a prisoner of war in a Japanese POW camp and he NEVER so much as mentioned the war or any kind of bigotry against the Japanese even though he had literally been tortured. So this whole virulent, incessant hatred of Asians after so many years after the war had ended just did not feel realistic.

All in all I found Walt's character loathsome and pitiful. The guy of angry old man you want to feel sorry for, but who is just such a sickening turd of a human being that you just can't bring yourself to feel bad for him.

And Clint Eastwood's portrayal...Talk about cardboard. He literally had the same facial expression and vocal inflection through the entire movie. To the point where MY face started to hurt from watching his twisted, skeletal expression.

All in all, a very poorly-acted and over-thought and it took itself way too seriously.

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You obviously didn't understand the movie. He was portrayed this way to show that deep down he was a good guy who stood up for the weak and oppressed. If he was portrayed as Mr boyscout it would have not had the impact it did. Rather thin skinned and PC aren't you.

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I though is was an EXCELLENT character study of a person who had to deal with "future shock".

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Eastwood's movies are mostly entertainment with the revenge element always lurking in the final payoff.

Even with his more critically acclaimed works like Million Dollar Baby, Clint always inserts 2 dimensional antagonists like Maggie's family who are nothing but a bunch of backwoods white trash with no redeeming qualities. It's such a stark contrast it just doesn't add up to how Maggie grew up with that to pursue boxing as a side hobby. It was also bullshit that she would signup in a boxing gym in a hood-infested part of town.

Back to Gran Torino, Clint likes to inject "life-lessons" in his movies but they always tend to come off as patronizing in a White Man's burden trope kind of way. He did it in The Outlaw Josey Wales and he even did it in Unforgiven.

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Yeah, you're the only one. I loved his character. He stays the same, and yet he also changes. And I loved his interactions with Sue. And even with the grandmom.

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Yes. The OP is the only one. Take glory in your singularity.

He’s CLINT EASTWOOD . . . and you are not, nor shall ever be.

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So you only watch movies where the main character is a perfect saint? You can watch the movie without loving Walt.

Walt's attitudes change when he starts to see his neighbors as individual people and not just members of a group.

It's over your head.

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The point of the movie was for him to appear that way to us and for him to grow to care about his Asian neighbors

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