Gran Torino: Walt Kowalski
As shown in the beginning scenes of one of the older racial cinemas Gran Torino, Walt Kowalski, the movie’s hero, is the most Scrooge, Grinch like character you can think of. Walt, played by the notorious Clint Eastwood, smokes on his porch, mows his lawn, drinks excessively, and cares for his dog. He is an old, bitter, and grudge-like Korean War veteran with a recently deceased wife. Ironically, his old Polish neighborhood is taken over by Hmong people in the middle of the Detroit ghettos. When the Hmong teenager next door, Thao, is harassed by a Hmong gang, he is forced into stealing the old man’s prized possession: a 1972 Gran Torino. During his attempt at theft, Walt catches him with a gun in his hand and Thao takes off. Due to failure
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Tom Stern took charge of the camera and used every type of common camera angle to make Eastwood’s vision reflect back on the screen. Stern has fourteen nominations including an Oscar and is the well known cinematographer of The Hunger Games movie series. In Gran Torino, he favored the use of track-in, zoom, panning, tilt, and tracking shots. Stern does a great job of incorporating track-in shots with tilt shots to display and put focus on Walt from head to toe. In addition, with the occasional combination of zoom shots, the audience can see the old man is well dressed and, at the same time, see the important small details of his face: his deep,dark pores and scruff. One of the most action-packed scenes is when Thao and his family fight against the gang members to stop them from hurting Thao. In this scene, Stern uses tracking and panning shots to portray the frantic action as understandable as he could. Sometimes excessive movement and frequent camera angle changes causes a fighting scene to display blurry and confusing on screen. To eliminate this common problem, Stren uses the combination of these two different shots to give the audience a balanced view of what actions are taking place. By doing so, the fighting scene does not transfer on screen hazy or unclear. In addition, the use of such camera angles for this movie gives the audience a personal connection and view to each character by putting them in the characters shoes. For example, a “Beyond the Screen” scritic states, “When Walt throws the gang leader onto the lawn and beats him, the cinematographer photographs Walt from the gangbanger’s point of view and photographs the gangbanger from Walt’s point of view. The assault might have been photographed from the side, so that viewers saw both characters at the same time, but it wasn’t” (Gripper 2). Others, on the other hand, feel as though Stern’s use of basic camera
Tom Stern took charge of the camera and used every type of common camera angle to make Eastwood’s vision reflect back on the screen. Stern has fourteen nominations including an Oscar and is the well known cinematographer of The Hunger Games movie series. In Gran Torino, he favored the use of track-in, zoom, panning, tilt, and tracking shots. Stern does a great job of incorporating track-in shots with tilt shots to display and put focus on Walt from head to toe. In addition, with the occasional combination of zoom shots, the audience can see the old man is well dressed and, at the same time, see the important small details of his face: his deep,dark pores and scruff. One of the most action-packed scenes is when Thao and his family fight against the gang members to stop them from hurting Thao. In this scene, Stern uses tracking and panning shots to portray the frantic action as understandable as he could. Sometimes excessive movement and frequent camera angle changes causes a fighting scene to display blurry and confusing on screen. To eliminate this common problem, Stren uses the combination of these two different shots to give the audience a balanced view of what actions are taking place. By doing so, the fighting scene does not transfer on screen hazy or unclear. In addition, the use of such camera angles for this movie gives the audience a personal connection and view to each character by putting them in the characters shoes. For example, a “Beyond the Screen” scritic states, “When Walt throws the gang leader onto the lawn and beats him, the cinematographer photographs Walt from the gangbanger’s point of view and photographs the gangbanger from Walt’s point of view. The assault might have been photographed from the side, so that viewers saw both characters at the same time, but it wasn’t” (Gripper 2). Others, on the other hand, feel as though Stern’s use of basic camera