At first the conflict in Gran Torino seems to be West vs. East, as we experience Walt Kowalski's extreme resentment towards his Hmong neighbors. Then there are the conflicts within Walt's family, his inability to get along and relate to his own sons, and within Thao's family, his cousin questions his ability to be one of the gang, to be a man.
It seems that a central question the film asks is, what does it mean to be a man? We are presented with several interesting characters for different representations of masculinity. Walt, obviously, but there are also the sons as symbols of material wealth, Father Janovich as a symbol of spiritual health, Thao as the emasculated Asian male, and "Spider," Thao's cousin, and his gang friends, as symbols of violence. Ultimately, I don't think the film privileges one representation of masculinity over another, but rather each representation has its faults. Walt's sons may be materially wealthy, but lack emotional depth and compassion. Father Janovich is naive, according to Walt, and doesn't know "the difference between life and death." Spider and his friends also lack emotional depth and compassion and have to act tough in order to compensate for what they lack.
Thao is emasculated early on in the film by Spider and his friends. They claim he does "women's work" because he is gardening. Walt calls him "p**sy" on several occasions. His own family members question his ability to be man of the house, because again, early in the film, Thao is seen washing dishes. So what does it mean when Walt takes Thao under his wings, advising Thao on his love life and also how to get a job? Walt, for all of his faults, becomes a father figure to Thao, and eventually Walt becomes the martyr in the conflict between Thao's family and the gang. One interpretation of this film could be Walt as the "white knight" (albeit very very flawed) saving the feminized East from the "savagery" aka Spider and his gang of their native land. And the Hmong people do hail him as a hero, after saving Thao from the gang the first time they harass him at Thao's house. I am still trying to figure out, though, what the death of Walt means in the context of this film and all the other texts and films we've covered this semester. Could there have been a different ending?
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