Obviously a follower of the rule of the three Bs for Confession: Something for a Fourth of July Weekend. According to Jones, the true work of the Church is oriented towards the restoration of communion between people and between people and God, and thus our practices of forgiveness must address the multiple ways in which sin distorts those relationships. 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. When I was a kid, Confession was once a week on Saturday. People like this need 39 lashes across the back. “That’s it!”[10] the priest remarks, taken aback. Gran Torino Mark W. Roche and Vittorio Hösle University of Notre Dame Abstract Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino is one of the most fascinating religious films of recent decades. The viewer comes to sense that Walt cannot accept this kind of forgiveness not because of pride, but because its easiness makes it meaningless. Walt Kowalski. 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 Stuff I’ll remember till the day I die. Absolutely brill…, 39 lashes? An American speech. The vintage car that Walt Kowalski owns is a Ford Gran Torino which was produced in 1972. A patronizing priest, clothed in clericals, approaches a surely man and offers him some unasked for advice: he should make a confession. He resides in a neighborhood that was once all-white, but has since been populated by Asian families. Things done during war are terrible. I discussed examples of popular culture in the film and alternative methods of resolving cultural conflicts besides the ending presented in the film. 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. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in. He has got a dog called Daisy. 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. Walt’s family doesn’t really care… Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. We tend to forget that children are born ignorant…, SCB'Ss Lenten Guide is superb. Walt: And you’re right about one thing. 5.2. As he explains to the priest: “We shot men, stabbed them with bayonets, hacked 17-year-olds to death with shovels. While he completes his theological studies at Trinity College in Toronto, he serves as the assistant curate at the Church of the Redeemer. Too often confession in Christian churches, whether private or general, is based upon a therapeutic notion of forgiveness in which grace is offered to relieve an individual from feelings of guilt. Thao and his family are liberated from the gang’s violence forever. About stronger men than me reaching their salvation. The movie starts of with Walt's wife dying, and in her funeral we meet the priest. For killing an unarmed man, witnessed by the entire neighbourhood, the street gang is arrested and removed from the community. At first, Walt forces Thao to complete meaningless tasks: counting the birds on the trees. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Yet as with the Christian gospel, the cross is not the end of a story, but the beginning of a new one. Walt had issues with his neighbours because of his beliefs. It seems it would do you good to unload some of that burden. This is evident when Walt offers Thao his Gran Torino, his pride and glory. Neither Jones nor Gran Torino reject confession as such, rather, they reimagine it. The priest, believing he can exercise a kind of forgiveness that can relieve its recipient of the burden of guilt, continually offers the sacrament of confession. It leads not only to the transformation of specific individuals and their relationships, it builds a neighbourhood. Walt: Well I gotta hand it to you, Padre. Walt, face lined with a bitter old age, wears a grittiness only Clint Eastwood’s features can bear. ( Log Out /  He was in the Korean War and he is a bit racist and he has got prejudices against Asian and… Stronger men than you. Sue Lor: And you're a better man to him than our... Gran Torino A Mexican, a Jew, and a colored guy go into a bar. The film co-stars Christopher Carley, Bee Vang and Ahney Her. Thao Vang Lor. The entire neighbourhood anxiously watches as Walt slowly raises a cigarette to his mouth. Walt was an American man and a Korean War seasoned who lived in a community that started to be inhabited by Hmong people (Gran Torino, 2008). "I made nine hundred dollars profit selling a The priest, under thirty, is equipped with a baby face that would assign wisdom to a toddler. Eventually, a Hmong family moves next door to him, and he has difficulty accepting them due to his past experiences. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Both unacceptable. Im Gegensatz zu ihr ist er nicht gläubig. 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. Jones concludes that such practices of forgiveness undermine the true work of the church – the reconciliation of the world and the reconciliation of the world to God – through its “preoccupation with individual feelings and thoughts at the expense of analysis of culpability, responsibility, and repentance.”[5] In short, for both Jones and Walt, therapeutic forgiveness offers only a cheap grace, which short circuits real repentance and reconciliation, making confession meaningless. The priest is portrayed as an inexperienced idiot. Oh, I've got one. Gran Torino provides a perfect example of such practices. The bartender looks up and says, "Get the fuck out of here." Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Walt uses violence when warranted by injustice. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. His name is Walt, and the character is played by the director Clint Eastwood. What kind of forgiveness is meaningful, and how can we establish practices through which it can be embodied? Gran Torino takes its title from a 1972 Ford beaut parked in a driveway — a fetish object and memento mori in this curious, striking drama directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. Happy Halloween Leadership class. 5.2.1.1. Jones calls this a “cruciform power [that] does not destroy, but seeks to reconcile and make new.”[8]. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Men at war who were ordered to do appalling things and are now at peace. About what you said. I have watched the movie Gran Torino, which was starred and directed by the known actor Clint Eastwood. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Der polnischstämmige Koreakriegsveteran und ehemalige Ford-Mitarbeiter Walt Kowalski, dessen Weltbild von rassistischen Vorurteilen geprägt ist, wohnt in einer Detroiter Vorstadtsiedlung, an der der Niedergang der Autoindustrie seine Spuren hinterlassen hat. As the blood trickles down his wrist to his hand, the viewer sees that the object in his pocket was a lighter: he had come to the house completely unarmed. For Walt, this is not an authentic forgiveness because it too easily evades responsibility for one’s evil actions. A Mexican, a Jew, and a colored guy go into a ... Added: January 07, 2009; Get off my lawn! Gran Torino, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, is a dramatic film touching the subjects of racism, gangs, friendship, and death.Eastwood plays Walt, a bitter old man with an ominous voice who is mourning the death of his wife. We watched the movie Gran Torino today in International English class. Walt Kowalski: Watch your language, lady. What is the relation between the individual seeking forgiveness and the community? Walt, believing such forgiveness is not meaningful in relation to the crimes he has committed, continually rejects it. 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. Walt, a veteran in the Korean War, never left the battlefield. His is a costly confession, but one faithful to the Christian’s call to restore communion. Walt… Now, I go to Confession for Advent, Easter Duty and when I need to go. Dependencies. [3] Gregory L. Jones, Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995), 47. Permalink: Get off my lawn! You came here with your guns loaded this time. Not a good example for non-Catholics of a priest hearing a confession. In the twentieth year, IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. 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. This is precisely the kind of forgiveness Walt discovers in Gran Torino, and as we shall see, it comes at a cost. Priest: I’ve been thinking about our conversation about life and death. 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. For example, when Thao tries to steal his Gran Torino, Walt reacts immediately, grabbing his shotgun. 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. Yet he is shocked when Walt confesses only a few trivial things, and nothing connected to the Korean War or the street gang. “That’s it?”[11] Walt responds, “its bothered me my entire life!”[12] The priest then proscribes a penance of “Our Father’s” and “Hail Mary’s,” clearly disappointed. One recent (that’s in the past ten years) experience was “fun.” You know relatively everyone receives Holy Communion at Mass, but relatively no one is on line for Saturday Confession. Written by: Jenna Moloney. Just...no. He met violence with confession and forgiveness, and it killed him. The main character is Walt Kowalski and he has a Polish background but now he lives in Detroit. Too many people confuse Confession these days for Counseling. 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. Do you know of anyone that has a similar family relationship? Under the prodding of his sister and mother, he returns to Walt’s house, confesses his crime, and offers to work for Walt for free to atone for his crime. It’s a well-worn scene. Funny. 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. Sue Lor: You hang out with him, you teach him to fix things, you saved him from that fucked cousin of ours. Walt is not pleased, seeking only to be left alone. Der Film beginnt mit der Beerdigung seiner zuvor verstorbenen Frau. Horrible things, but things I’ll live with.”[2]. … more » Walt and his neighbours arrive at a mutual respect, and even begin to love each other. I know it’s only a movie, but the scene made me cringe. ( Log Out /  Gran Torino Gran Torino is a movie directed by Clint Eastwood and released in 2008. An American speech. 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. Gran Torino was directed and produced by Eastwood, who as well played the role of the main figure known as Walt Kowalski. And what does all this have to do with the sacrament of confession? 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. Gran Torino (2008) Christopher Carley as Father Janovich. Father Janovich goes to Walt, reminding him of his wife's desire for him to go to confession. Therapeutic Forgiveness. Walt does what the situation demands, combat style. 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. Expecting a trap, the gang members pull out handguns and automatics that they aim at Walt as he delivers his speech. This is precisely the kind of forgiveness Walt discovers in Gran Torino, and as we shall see, it comes at a cost. Meanwhile, Insty points out that only 12 yea…, Yes, let us understand the reasons for our D…, Re: Mary De Voe's comments@"and please remem…, So the New York Times fears it was an effect…, I very good speech. Yet as Jones argues, the great power in the Christian gospel is the revelation that in the end violence will not determine world history, that death will not have the last word. In your reflection, (approximately 500 words) summarize answers to these questions: How would you describe Walt’s relationship with his family? 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 … 5.2.1. The film was released in 2008-9. But I do know about forgiveness. He’s the kind of self-styled tough guy who needs things hard and heavy. 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. Walt and the Priest. Gran Torino Confession. Walt hates to see his once-pure town become a land of foreign dialects and “rice burners,” a term Walt uses to refer to the “low quality” Asian cars that he can’t stand. His body is riddled with bullets, and he dies almost instantly, falling arms outstretched in the shape of the cross. Janovich is a Catholic priest and was a good friend of a woman named Dorothy Kowalski. This bitter hedonism illustrates Walt’s gritty, realistic attitude towards life. As the film makes clear, Thao is reluctant to become a gang member, but is being preyed upon due to his racial and economic status, as well as his gentle and malleable character. Before her death, Dorothy made Janovich promise that he would convince her husband Walt to go to confession. And I’ve seen a lot of men who have confessed their sins, admitted their guilt, and left their burdens behind them. He is played by Christopher Carley. Unlike the therapeutic confession of the priest, what follows is a costly penance. Walt's wife, Dorothy Kowalski, is dead by the beginning of the film. Twenty minutes later, I was confessing. Forgiveness in such a circumstance would not restore the lost victims, nor would it make amends to their families’ or community. Walt could enter the confession booth and tell the priest about the horrors he committed in Korea, the priest could assign a penance of “Our Father’s” and “Hail Mary’s” for the crimes and then absolve him, but that would not make amends for the things he had done. Pater Janovich, der Walts sterbender Frau versprochen hatte, ihn zu… Forgiveness leads to communion; a communion for which therapeutic forgiveness is a poor substitute. I just love the people waiting in line behind me. At best, it might assuage a guilty conscience by providing a divinely granted respite from remorse. Walt: I told you I’m not going to confession. The struggle for a meaningful forgiveness is at the heart of Clint Eastwood’s 2008 film, Gran Torino; a film that raises important questions for Christian practices of forgiveness: Who has the power to forgive? Walt Kowalski. ( Log Out /  Über 1.000 Original-Prüfungsaufgaben mit Lösungen Digitales Schulbuch: Über 1.700 Themen mit Aufgaben und Lösungen Monatlich kündbar, lerne solange du möchtest! Being ordered to kill. 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. The next day Walt shows up at the church, ready to make his confession. But, overall, it’s a very good film. He reacts hands-on, in a wildly vigilante and unholy manner. For the priest, the need for confession seems obvious. Those things I know nothing about. Father Janovich is a supporting protagonist in the 2008 movie Gran Torino. But you’re wrong about something else. Priests should remember the essential difference and keep the confessional line moving. I never knew about the 3 B’s. He then starts using Thao’s free labour to repair his neighbours’ houses: painting walls, fixing gutters, removing wasp nests. 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. Being the bearer of a Scots/…. Walt's young neighbor, Thao Vang Lor, is pressured by his cousin into stealing Walt's prized 1972 Ford Gran Torino for his initiation into a gang. Walt thwarts the theft with his M1 Garand rifle and subsequently develops a relationship with the boy and his family. The movie is about an older man, and his life living alone after his wife’s death. 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. In the following text I will describe the main character of the film "Gran Torino". It takes only a few lines of dialogue before the audience understands the characterizing back stories of each. From…, How might one address the argument that, as…, A very good analysis. What could Grandmother have to confess?” Big mistake. Walt returns home where Thao is waiting for him, hoping to serve as Walt’s sidekick when Walt takes on the gang. Walt refuses. However, through confession, the priest believes that Walt can find a kind of forgiveness that would put his guilty conscience at ease, brining him peace. It has a deep meaning for Walt and it has a big role in the movie. I cringed when I heard the Lord’s name taken in vain by the priest. I thought that casting such a boyish looking actor as the priest was clever. Gran Torino was a compelling drama with many cultural conflicts, stereotypes and an abundance of racial slurs. However, it occurs to Walt that the neighbourhood he lives in, due in large part to urban poverty, has become run down. He faces a lot of problems such as gang violence and robbery. 5.1.4.2. As the movie progresses, Walt begins to see that arrogance and recklessness does not vary with race, but instead with different people in general. And that’s why he built his very own Gran Torino car himself. Jeffrey Metcalfe is a priest in the Diocese of Quebec. We described two religious conflicts and two conflicts based in age and race. 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. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy an old man, who can’t get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. Thao is … From the N…, How might one address the argument that, as a rebe…, A very good analysis. He is a retired Polish-American assembly line worker and Korean War veteran, who has recently been widowed after 50 years of marriage. A film in which there is a character who becomes a hero is ‘Gran Torino’, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. Gran Torino Quotes. Moreover, the community itself begins to look better not only physically, but socially too. Killing to save yourself, killing to save others. Walt Kowalski is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. In his book Embodying Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis, Gregory Jones names the kind of forgiveness the priest attempts to offer Walt “therapeutic forgiveness.”[3]  As “Christian piety,” he argues, “turned increasingly inward; God’s forgiveness became principally an individual transaction between God and a particular person, largely devoid of its eschatological context and with virtually no consequences for either Christian community or social and political life.”[4] The result is a hollowing out of Christian practices such as confession, which come to be understood not as an act through which one works at reconciling oneself with God, the church, and the community in which the wrong was committed, but as a kind of privatized therapy through which a guilty conscience is unburdened. I think your conclusion is r…, Yeah CC, the true history of the Declaration, and…, Sherman Edwards, who wrote the musical, was carefu…, I got some kind of warning about the site security…, Bring back the stocks and leave the scoundrel ungu…, The racist facist of Black Lives Matter and Antifa…, Please don't hesitate to bleep any and all obsceni…, As Colonel Chamberlain told them, they held the en…, I'm no fan of lashing, but I would note that Georg…, My favorite part of "Gettysburg". Toward the beginning of the film, Walt’s neighbor, a young Hmong man named Thao, attempts and fails to steal Walt’s Gran Torino as part of a street gang hazing ritual. The story is set in modern day Detroit, where the central character, Walt Kowalski, a retired car plant worker and Korean War veteran, struggles to come to terms with the changes in his community. Write a reflection on the film Gran Turino that we watched in class this week. In a provisional act of resurrection, Walt leaves his Gran Torino to Thao, and in the final scene, we see Thao – the former car thief and now its rightful owner – cruising down the highway: a symbol of an inheritance that will drive him and his family into a new life. Walt Kowalski is the main protagonist of the 2008 movieGran Torino. He is a co-editor of Catholic Commons. Walt starts being invited to Hmong community events, and begins to mentor Thao, finding him a construction job and providing him tools with which he can practice his new trade. Bonus:  Liberty Song scene: SHE was daughter of count Rigobert and Ursana, related to one of the kings of Kent in England. In the movie we explore Walt’s relationship with the people around him. The prospect of the surely man (Walt) confessing to the priest is made even more absurd by the contrast in the two men’s appearances. Clint acts a bit unbalanced. And yes, it is good…, Again, the biggest shock and disappointment in all…, Entertaining musical. Walt confesses this to Thao not to be relieved from his guilt – no absolution is provided – rather, Walt’s confession is meant to be pedagogical: by explaining to Thao how deeply killing damages the soul, and by stoping Thao from following him, Walt prevents Thao from falling into the same kind of sin. While forgiveness leads to communion in Gran Torino, by no means does it do so easily or with any preliminary perspicacity. Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in the film. When the neighborhood hears of Walt's brave act, they reward him by leaving on his porch gifts of Hmong dishes and garden plants. A Costly Confession: From Cross to Resurrection. In the movie we meet Walt Kowalski and his Hmong neighbours. 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: The thing that haunts a man the most is what he isn’t ordered to do.[1]. Walt Kowalski: [about Thao] I don't care about him. 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. Thao, hard working, puts his heart into these projects sincerely remorseful about the crime he committed, and as he does so, Walt begins to respect and like Thao, slowly diminishing Walt’s racism towards the Asian community. Theme from John Adams (2008). This was Eastwood's first starring role since 2004's Million Dollar Baby. Walt goes to the gang members’ home and standing outside it, begins to rebuke them for their use of violence against Thao’s family. ( Log Out /  Permalink: Oh, I've got one. What happens next is entirely unexpected: a true confession. [1] Gran Torino, DVD, directed by Clint Eastwood (Burbank: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2008). You’re right. 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. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. I think your conclusio…, Yeah CC, the true history of the Declaration…, Sherman Edwards, who wrote the musical, was…, Meanwhile, Insty points out that only 12 years ago…, Yes, let us understand the reasons for our Declara…, Re: Mary De Voe's comments@"and please remember Ca…, So the New York Times fears it was an effective sp…, I very good speech. Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino is about a racist old man named Walt who overcomes his prejudice by helping his teenager neighbor Thao. [9] Gran Torino, DVD, directed by Clint Eastwood. Good movie, though. Thao admits to trying to steal his Gran Torino. Likewise, “our confession and our practice of reconciling forgiveness must be eschatologically focused.”[7] That is, our practices of forgiveness must take into account a world that is willing to crucify its own redemption, with the faith that redemption refuses to stay dead. Walt often calls Thao "Toad." Gran Torino- Walt's confession Symbolism and themes The main theme in this scene is Faith Film techniques Dialogue Dark lighting Wide angle Close up Sound and music "In 1968 I kissed Betty Jablonski at the factory Christmas party." Walt, racist against Asians ever since Korea and upset about the attempted theft, agrees reluctantly. About how you carry around all the horrible things you were forced to do, horrible things that won’t leave you. Change ). These Gran Torino quotes are sure to drive your adrenaline. I was behind an elderly woman and thought, “This will be quick. Thao is part of the Hmong community, a small ethnic Asian group. How is forgiveness given? 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. Well, halle-fucking-lujah. The priest, whose occasional insights are clouded by his vocational infancy, recently left the seminary. This is a perfect example of a practice of forgiveness that addresses equally both the personal and social distortions of sin. The movie is in short about a decorated war hero named Walt who lives in a neighbourhood which has become the home of a lot of different Asian families. 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.