Walt Kowalski, a Racist? Like Hell!

A bigot...? Sure. But an equal opportunity bigot! Walt Kowalski - aka Clint Eastwood - newly widowed Korean War vet, retired auto worker, and owner of the film's titled classic 1972 Gran Torino is indeed a man set in his ways, a creature of his fictional formulative years; but in no way is Walt Kowalski a racist.

Nope. Walt's a Polack! At least that's the "slur" he responds to with a twinkle in his eye as he trades monthly barbs with his "Dago" barber.

I place "slur" within quotations because that's the point; within Walt Kowalski's world, his frame of reference, "gook," "greaser," "zipper head," "coon," aren't "hate speech" or inferences that Kowalski would feel at home at an American Nazi, Klan, or other "white power" rally. Hell... pity the poor Montana militiaman with a cross tattooed on his forehead who ventured forth an audible "Hitler was right" within earshot of Gran Torino's Kowalski!

Eastwood's Kowalski is a man acutely conscious of ethnicity, no doubt viewing race as hierarchy in the broad flow of human history. Still... "racist" is neither an accurate nor fair label to pin upon this complex character. Why? Because for Walt Kowalski actions trump all. Being white doesn't give one a free pass in Kowalski's world; indeed, it is Kowalski's own grown sons, their wives, and especially their children - his grandchildren - who arguably merit the most icy cold contempt and disgust. After all... what "excuses" do they have for their failings?

The motto "It's what you do, not who you are," is the antithesis of racism. Certainly, Walt Kowalski is prejudiced. The point of the film however is that prejudice does not necessarily equate to unfairness. Whether as a soldier on the battlefields of Korea or an assembly line worker at a Ford Plant in Detroit, had Eastwood seen fit to include a few "flashback" scenes to the film to flesh out the character's history, I can't imagine a young "Sgt. Walt" hesitating to risk his life to rescue a wounded Hispanic platoon mate from the scene of a firefight or as "foreman Walt" giving in to either union or management demands that overtime and promotions be tied more tightly to race or religion than to need and aptitude.

Anyway...

If you haven't yet seen the film, I recommend you do. To those of you who have seen it or do see it in the near future, feel free to share your thoughts.