Originally posted this as a comment in a separate thread also dunking on Gran Torino. Making my own effort post after my comment turned into a full on review / essay.
Gran Torino is about a racist white savior jesus aka how clint eastwood sees himself.
Seriously an absolute fucking shitpile of a movie that even liberals ate up. “The great replacement” is even a core plot point in the movie (“this neighborhood used to be white and nice”) and it pats white people on the back for only sometimes using slurs.
It never addresses the need for white america to address its racism systemically. Instead the responsibility is only on the individual (therefore just a moral failing).
To be clear, the responsibility is on both society and the individual. Each person must make the effort to deprogram internalized prejudice in addition to forcing through systemic change. Unlike with something like climate change, racism and other forms of bigotry will continue to perpetuate themselves through individuals furthering the behavior inside of the systems they exist within.
There is little examination of why marginalized people live in poverty (eg war on drugs / police occupation / apartheid / housing discrimination/ carceral slavery cycle / etc). Instead the film blames the communities themselves (“deadbeat dads”, gangs, welfare, “not integrating”, etc).
Throughout it Eastwood says all the things and uses all the slurs his white audience wishes they still could. It is presented in a way where they can “scold” him while also reveling in that racism being directed at minorities and enjoying the pain it brings those characters.
The shitty classic car he pathologically works on throughout the film is the laziest metaphor for America since Fitzgerald used it in Gatsby a hundred years ago. If I’m remembering right, a minority even steals it at one point before it is (surprise surprise) reclaimed by the white man.
The movie fucking ends with Eastwood being literally crucified through gun violence on a sidewalk, his arms extended, blood pouring over his hands like the stigmata.
After the white man sacrifices himself as the hero and main character, he also graciously gives the car/ america to the minorities that learned to respect him despite his racism. They “got some manners” and now have been given rights on the white man’s terms (after he was done with it).
Completely goddamn delusional.
I had a white relative put it on and he acted like he deserved a fucking medal for it. Fucking clueless.
I haven’t watched that shit since, so I’m probably forgetting some details. I’m not going to rewatch it to make sure I’m presenting everything accurately.
Conclusion:
Gran Torino is as close as Clint Eastwood could get to remaking The Birth Of A Nation while still convincing liberals in Hollywood to fund it.
