MINDLESS MUSINGS

***SPOILER ALERT***

I will begin with a question: Do you think that this film has a happy or at least a fulfilling ending? Every person I have asked usually says yes. Call me a jaded film buff, but I disagree. The final scene sees Thao Vang joyfully driving Walt’s prized Gran Torino – all has ended well apparently. I just thought of one possible solution to my cynical interpretation. If Thao Vang is leaving town, it just might be a positive resolution. If I missed that and it is indeed the case, you can stop reading now. Although he would be deserting his family…my version has him staying put and getting a good job.

Allow me to explain my issue with thinking this is a joyous conclusion – hopeful or optimistic certainly – but one fraught with danger in my opinion. It’s nice to believe that peace prevails, but the movie spent nearly 2 hours immersing us in this cruel environment where the strong pick on the weak; where people gang up and enjoy menacing people they catch on their own – hyenas is an archetype that springs to mind.

Clint Eastwood in his 2^nd amendment fervour provides the only way to survive in such a predatory place. Guns – the great equalizer. I have no intention of going on a gun control rant. This is a film appreciation essay after all. The film does not have to present us with utopia, unless that is its aim. The important thing for us film geeks is that the film remains true to the reality it has created; and this particular reality is a kind of modern take on the wild west.

Assholes and bullies are in abundance and the only way a lone wolf has a chance of self-preservation/respect is by having quick and ready access to a firearm. That’s fine. In another movie a supreme martial artist may hold the winning hand. We are in the storyteller’s world and all we ask is that they abide by the rules they have given us.

So grumpy old Walt takes no shit and has no qualms about brandishing a rifle or a pistol to help others understand this fact. This is the harsh reality that Walt and Thao Vang live in. At no point did we see Walt teaching Thao Vang how to use a firearm. Even if we did the finale seems to give us the idea that the ‘bad guys’ are gone, and the hostility has ceased.

The ‘twist’ in the conclusion is cleverly achieved by messing with our expectations and again, it works in this reality. Most viewers would have expected Walt to exchange gunfire with the gangbangers, sacrificing himself for his protégé (nobly of course). This would conclude with Walt either dead or off to prison, with no guarantee he would get all the thugs.

However, that’s not what happens and would have been a little far-fetched even in this world. Instead, Walt confronts the heavily armed bullies and very convincingly fakes drawing a gun on them. They shoot him full of holes in front of heaps of witnesses and get their asses shipped off to prison. Okay, we must accept the slim to none chance that every member of the gang was shooting and were seen doing so by the witnesses…hey, it’s a movie – it works and it hits home.

Walt has rid the neighbourhood of this menacing group, thus sparing his young friend an ugly future. You see, a major theme in the film is ‘don’t join a gang’, but the only alternative offered, besides being a perpetual victim, is to be a badass gunslinger. For me, the ending leaves Thao Vang in that middle spot and that sucks hard! The gang would probably have forced him to join and that would certainly end badly for him, but at the very least they offered him some kind of protection. Without them, Walt or his own firearm he is defenceless.

A brief run through of the pertinent points regarding this issue:

• Thao Vang is accosted by Chicano gangbangers and is rescued by a gang of his own race.
• The gang pressure Thao into joining, insisting it is the only way to be safe.
• Walt gives various examples of his courage and the powerful persuasive effect of wielding a gun.
• Walt’s mate gives a simulated demonstration of this for Thao.

The story seems to give only one logical way for Thao to take and driving around in a nice car with a dog is not it. In this world Thao would be car-jacked within a few days. He has not learned the skills that made Walt so formidable; the only gang that might possibly help him is now gone thanks to Walt’s noble sacrifice. As the credits rolled, I could only envision those assholes from the beginning rolling up again and forcefully taking that wonderful car from a still defenceless Thao. He may not be as naïve, he may be more employable, but he is still a sitting duck.

Sorry if I wrecked it for you.

Please let me know if I got any of it wrong and restore a positive ending for me.