GRAN TORINO

Gran Torino is terrific and different than what we would think. Eastwood is somewhat Eastwood but is an old codger, cranky and grumpy to the max--so thankful that I am not that way and please Lord, help me not to get that way. The basic story is that the Hmong mainly take over Eastwood's old neighborhood. The Hmong are not a country but a people, much like the Montagnards, both were terrific allies in Vietnam. The sad thing as the movie points out: so many of the Hmong (and other immigrant groups) have been affected by good old American culture, meaning you can do what you want; in this case, most of the young men chose gangs. The girls go to college and the boys to jail (this was actually said in the movie).

Clint's wife is dead and he has next to no relationship with his two sons. A young priest is constantly hounding him as per the instructions of his dead wife. Eastwood's language, especially the non PC stuff is hilarious. And, the neighbors, a Hmong family, take to him and inadvertently he helps them and is then subject to their customs. Reluctantly, he comes to grips with what it means to live next to a culturally different group of people. He bonds with the young girl and her brother and begins a kind of journey to keep the gentle young Hmong boy out of gangs.

The title, Gran Torino, was very symbolic and represented the fact that Eastwood was an auto worker for all his adult life, minus his military stint.

Although I really enjoyed the movie as a different take, what often happens to me is that I wish they had explored other areas, i. e., why was he such a bad father. And, as was slightly referenced, as a combat vet of Korea, suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) even if he didn't name it; still, true and how much did that effect his crouchedy nature.

This movie evoked in me what I always feel when I read or see anything that relates to our sorry involvement in Vietnam. What if we had never interfered in that country? How would it have been. This is not to disparage any of us who served there. We were soldiers and did what we were told. But, think about it. These kids in this movie had to deal with their fellow countrymen who have become gang members. An American phenomena, there's an entire culture wrapped around the gang life. If these youngsters had stayed in Vietnam, not subject to American culture, would they be better off? In the movie's case, the gang members were going to end up in jail after they had wrecked havoc upon their own people.

Because I have a friend who has been very involved with the Hmong in LaCross Wisconsin, I decided to indulge my own curiosity and wrote her this email: I told her about the movie and then said, The Hmong are such an interesting people and I immediately got out the book you did for The Pump House, this non profit in LaCrosse Wisconsin. It is such a good book, Hmong Lives, From Laos To La Crosse, a wonderful history and tenacity of a people transplanted to our Shores.

My question to my friend, how are the Hmong doing in LaCrosse? Here is her answer. My impressions is that the Hmong people in La Crosse are doing pretty well. I see a lot of kids on the "high school student of the week" page in the paper, and the Hmong Community recently redid a large building (formerly a big supper club) as sort of a community center and also a place to hold gatherings like funerals and have classes. They have huge, long funerals--several days long with people coming from far away. Some of the children of the people who originally came here are grown up and starting their own families, typically much smaller than the families they were raised in. A couple of years ago, when the Thai refugee camps closed, another wave of new Hmong people came to La Crosse, but this time I think many were sponsored by relatives who already lived here--when the first group came, people from local churches sponsored them and helped them get places to live. I see Hmong names among Realtors, pastors, teachers.
Sue Knopf, book designer, Graffolio, LaCrosse, WI.


Sue's response makes me feel better and I guess that the question I always asked is simply unanswerable. See this movie.