Gran Torino

Walt Kowalski is the main hero of the movie Gran Torino. He is an old man, who seems always angered and unsatisfied. His wife has recently died and now he lives alone. His children do not often visit the old man and are only interested in his property. Mr. Kowalski participated in the war against Korean in 1950’s. He is a man of war and thus he seems so brutal. Walt Kowalski has prepossession against oriental people. He cannot stand his neighbors, who are all Hmong. However, he does not hate only oriental or black people. It seems like he hates all people. His aggression towards people can be shown by such phrase, “I blow a hole in your face and sleep like a baby”. He is ready to kill anybody who will be too annoying. No doubt, his character is the result of events that he had to experience in the past. Mr. Kowalski did terrible things when he was a soldier and he is not angered on people, he is angered on himself. When he decided to confess he mentioned three things, but they were not so serious. The only thing that he cannot forgive himself is 17-year-old Korean boy whom he killed, though he wanted to surrender.

However, Mr. Kowalski is not an old, surly man who has racial inclinations. He gets acquainted with his neighbor Sue and it becomes the crucial moment in his life. During all his life he hated ‘fishheads” and now one of these becomes his friend (Turan, 2008). He cannot understand why all these people are so polite with him, always smile and bring gifts to him. The oriental culture that he hated so much, now made him better. To his own surprising, he becomes more related to this weird Hmong than to his own children, or even nation. It is a paradox but those people whom Walt has been hating all his life became his nearest friends.

Walt Kowalski is really an interesting character. He does not show his emotions but it does not mean that he feels nothing. He is a man of his time and thus he is so conservative. He is not very friendly, but it does not mean that he is angered. However, he thought nothing of getting angry. His attitude toward other people cannot be easily explained, but perhaps, it is the result of the war. The government has made him fight against Koreans. The government made him hate them and now, after all, he sees those whom he had to kill when he was a soldier. He knows much about war, but he knows nothing about life. He said that it was a usual thing when your brothers in arms died on the war; everybody was ready to this.

Mr. Kowalski is one of those people who are always ready for the worst. Even now, in the peace time, he did not forget about the war. He had small arsenal in his chest and this fact shows that he is not more on the war, but the war is always with him. Walt Kowalski is a man of strong temperate. He would never let himself be abused or stay calm when there is a piece of injustice. He is always ready to help others. However he will never admit it. Actually, his character is fully opened in the end of the film, when he decided to have revenge. Everybody knows what he will do, but nobody could expect that they are mistaken.

The article was conducted by professional writer - Jenna Hetry, more her papers you can find simply following the link of essay empire writing platform.