The Relationship between Walt and Thao

Introduction

The Walt-Thao relationship in the film is the weakest in the film. It's rather conventional and a little funny. Walt has Thao work on some household projects in and around the neighborhood, and it feels like an inverse Miyagi of sorts. When the gang members invoke a little bit of payback to Thao and his family, Thao keeps asking Walt (shoot, everyone keeps asking Walt) what he's going to do, and Walt keeps saying that some time has to be put into the plan, etc.

The Relationship between Walt and Thao

One day, the young boy next door named Thao (Bee Vang) is caught trying to steal Walt's car, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino, and thus starts a relationship between the two that becomes a mentorship of sorts. Reluctant at first, Walt meets Thao's family, including his headstrong sister Sue (Ahney Her), and Walt learns that there might be more to these people than his preconceived stereotypes would lead him to believe.

Into this loveless, empty life (unless you count his dog) come the Vang Lors, a Hmong family who move in next door to Walt and irritate him intensely with their very existence. As Walt stands on his porch, the stars and stripes proudly fluttering behind him, he literally growls with disgust as the extended Asian family moves in. His irritation turns to anger when he catches the son of the family, Thao (well played by Bee Vang) trying to steal Walt's pride and joy—a pristine 1972 Gran Torino car, a symbol of times past that gives the film its title. The fatherless Thao was stealing the car as part of an initiation to a local gang. When Walt chases the same gang off his lawn with his old service rifle, he becomes something of a hero within ...