Unlike the therapeutic confession of the priest, what follows is a costly penance. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! We described two religious conflicts and two conflicts based in age and race. For killing an unarmed man, witnessed by the entire neighbourhood, the street gang is arrested and removed from the community. The priest, predicting Walt’s next actions will be to kill the gang members (in an earlier scene, we see Walt cleaning out his rifle from the Korean War), takes the confession. Stronger men than you. Thao Vang Lor (portrayed by Bee Vang) is a young Hmong American man who is coerced by a Hmong gang to attempt to steal Walt Kowalski's Gran Torino. Neither Jones nor Gran Torino reject confession as such, rather, they reimagine it. Indeed, “the call to confession [is] meaningless or distorting unless [it] occasion[s] a turning – and re-turning – to those against whom we have sinned and who have sinned against us.”[6] This requires a practice of confession that address the thoughts, words, and deeds which we have done (or left undone) as individuals, as well as addressing the overarching social structure of sin in which our communities find themselves. But I do know about forgiveness. Stuff I’ll remember till the day I die. Walt does what the situation demands, combat style. ( Log Out /  In the movie we explore Walt’s relationship with the people around him. Funny. Walt, racist against Asians ever since Korea and upset about the attempted theft, agrees reluctantly. Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino is about a racist old man named Walt who overcomes his prejudice by helping his teenager neighbor Thao. It emphasized how much of a gap had grown between Walt Kowalski’s beliefs which were once commonly held by Americans and what is accepted as normal today. With his wife gone, Walt’s only connections are to his 1972 Gran Torino, well maintained, but rarely on show – like Walt’s good heart – his dog Daisy, on whom he lavishes the affection he cannot show his family, and his barber with whom he exchanges heavily barbed racist repartee on a … Walt’s family doesn’t really care… Gran Torino (2008) Christopher Carley as Father Janovich. It leads not only to the transformation of specific individuals and their relationships, it builds a neighbourhood. What happens next is entirely unexpected: a true confession. Janovich is a Catholic priest and was a good friend of a woman named Dorothy Kowalski. [3] Gregory L. Jones, Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), 47. Eventually, a Hmong family moves next door to him, and he has difficulty accepting them due to his past experiences. Walt refuses. In the twentieth year, IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. Permalink: Oh, I've got one. What kind of forgiveness is meaningful, and how can we establish practices through which it can be embodied? Walt, believing such forgiveness is not meaningful in relation to the crimes he has committed, continually rejects it. As he explains to the priest: “We shot men, stabbed them with bayonets, hacked 17-year-olds to death with shovels. Ironically, this is precisely the kind of confession the priest had pursued: a therapeutic forgiveness based on the removal of guilt, a forgiveness the priest finally hears as hollow as he pronounces the words of absolution. Then, muttering under his breath, “Hail Mary, full of grace” Walt’s hand quickly moves into his jacket pocket and the gang members open fire. Father Janovich goes to Walt, reminding him of his wife's desire for him to go to confession. Walt seems to understand this well, when after Thao’s family is attacked by the street gang, Walt tells the priest “Sue and Thao will never find peace in this world until that gang no longer exists.”[9] The implication: the gang must be destroyed; violence might run deeper then forgivness. Gran Torino Confession. ( Log Out /  Walt, whose bitter life was bound by the forces of violence of death, by participating in a practice of forgiveness rooted in the cross and resurrection of Christ, becomes the bearer of new life for others. 5.1.4.2. It takes only a few lines of dialogue before the audience understands the characterizing back stories of each. He was in the Korean War and he is a bit racist and he has got prejudices against Asian and… Those things I know nothing about. Priests should remember the essential difference and keep the confessional line moving. What irritates about the han…, As the Wizard of Oz said, "Where I come from men g…, Saint of the Day Quote: Saint Bertha of Artois, Trump’s July 3, 2020 Speech at Mount Rushmore, Saint of the Day Quote: Saint Phocas the Gardener, Bear Growls: Biden Waves the Bloody Shirt, Matthew Archbold of Natl Catholic Register, Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition, Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICRSS), Sisters Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus, Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, The Canons Regular of Saint John Cantius (SJC), Latino Partnership for Cnsrvtv Principles, Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, The Republican National Hispanic Assembly. And I’ve seen a lot of men who have confessed their sins, admitted their guilt, and left their burdens behind them. Walt has clearly suffered from his participation in the Korean War leading him to become a bitter person, alienated from his children and the community around him. Horrible things, but things I’ll live with.”[2]. Walt often calls Thao "Toad." Walt uses violence when warranted by injustice. Thao is part of the Hmong community, a small ethnic Asian group. I just love the people waiting in line behind me. About stronger men than me reaching their salvation. It’s a well-worn scene. The movie starts of with Walt's wife dying, and in her funeral we meet the priest. 5.2. And yes, it is good…, Again, the biggest shock and disappointment in all…, Entertaining musical. Men at war who were ordered to do appalling things and are now at peace. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. This bitter hedonism illustrates Walt’s gritty, realistic attitude towards life. He has got a dog called Daisy. His body is riddled with bullets, and he dies almost instantly, falling arms outstretched in the shape of the cross. For the priest, the need for confession seems obvious. Walt Kowalski. However, it occurs to Walt that the neighbourhood he lives in, due in large part to urban poverty, has become run down. Things done during war are terrible. Walt: And you’re right about one thing. But you’re wrong about something else. Gran Torino was directed and produced by Eastwood, who as well played the role of the main figure known as Walt Kowalski. Both unacceptable. Walt Kowalski: Watch your language, lady. At first, Walt forces Thao to complete meaningless tasks: counting the birds on the trees. It has a deep meaning for Walt and it has a big role in the movie. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Der Film beginnt mit der Beerdigung seiner zuvor verstorbenen Frau. Walt locks Thao in his basement to prevent Thao from following him to the gang members’ home, and through the mesh screen that obscures their faces from each other (a play on the confessional booth), Walt confesses to Thao the sin he committed in the Korean War: he shot a boy Thao’s age at point blank range who only wanted to surrender, and was awarded the Silver Star for doing it. Through Thao’s act of confession and his embodied work of repentance, his personal transgression comes to be forgiven, and the social forces that led to his transgression start to be addressed: the poverty of Thao and the poverty of the community. Donald R. McClarey May 24, 2018 Not a bad confession: ... Now, I go to Confession for Advent, Easter Duty and when I need to go. Change ). However, as Gregory Jones has argued, this reduces confession – sacramental and otherwise – into a privatized ‘cheap grace,’ that is inimical to the true work of the Church. Obviously a follower of the rule of the three Bs for Confession: Something for a Fourth of July Weekend. Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in the film.The film co-stars Christopher Carley, Bee Vang and Ahney Her.This was Eastwood's first starring role since 2004's Million Dollar Baby.The film features a large Hmong American cast, as well as one of Eastwood's younger sons, Scott.Eastwood's oldest son, Kyle, provided the score. Walt, a veteran in the Korean War, never left the battlefield. From his very first attempts at getting Walt in the confession booth up until the end of the film, the priest has a difficult time in explaining why confession is a practice Walt should take seriously. A Mexican, a Jew, and a colored guy go into a ... Added: January 07, 2009; Get off my lawn! In your reflection, (approximately 500 words) summarize answers to these questions: How would you describe Walt’s relationship with his family? He’s the kind of self-styled tough guy who needs things hard and heavy. Walt Kowalski: [about Thao] I don't care about him. His name is Walt, and the character is played by the director Clint Eastwood. [1] Gran Torino, DVD, directed by Clint Eastwood (Burbank: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2008). Oscars Best Picture Winners Best Picture Winners Golden Globes Emmys Black History Month STARmeter Awards San Diego Comic-Con New York Comic-Con Sundance Film Festival Toronto Int'l Film Festival Awards Central Festival Central All Events Walt: Well I gotta hand it to you, Padre. We watched the movie Gran Torino today in International English class. Walt thwarts the theft with his M1 Garand rifle and subsequently develops a relationship with the boy and his family. Its portrayal of confession is highly ambiguous and multi-layered, as it both mocks con-fession and recognizes the enduring importance of its moral core. I know it’s only a movie, but the scene made me cringe. Using Gran Torino as a kind of phenomenology of forgiveness, I shall argue that a Christian conception of confession must be costly, that is, for forgiveness to be meaningful it must be oriented toward the restoration of communion modeled after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. This is precisely the kind of forgiveness Walt discovers in Gran Torino, and as we shall see, it comes at a cost. Gran Torino Quotes. When I was a kid, Confession was once a week on Saturday. The true work of the Church is oriented towards the restoration of communion and it requires an embodied forgiveness modeled after the death and resurrection of Christ. Poverty is a generational problem not solved overnight, and the street gangs continue to hold sway, haunting Thao and his family as if to remind them that they cannot break free from their enslavement to violence. Im Gegensatz zu ihr ist er nicht gläubig. Being ordered to kill. 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