Monday 14 May 2012

Walt Kowalski

Here is a grumpy looking Walt Kowalski, the main character in the film 'Gran Torino' (played by Clint Eastwood). He is looking very menacing and intimidating - a kind of aggresive form of grumpiness, rather than a stroppy one as such. He's not the sort of person you would want to mess with evidently.
          Walt is a veteran of the Korean war and is a recent widower, two things which have, presumably, led to his ever grumpy, unapproachable and hard skinned persona. It is interesting that Walt is a widower like Carl Fredericksen, and a war veteran, like Abe Simpson. He is almost the epitome of the 'grumpy old man' stereotype we are fed. Let's answer the three questions from the other two men.

1) How realistic is it? Is this the only way for this group of people to be?

Walt Kowalski is, as previously mentioned, the epitome of the grumpy old man stereotype under examination. He encompasses all of the aspects we are familiar with. He's a war vet, he's a widower, he's stern and always angry etc. Is this particularly realistic though? It's neither here nor there. Sure, there might be some bitter old war veteran men with no wives and an anger for the modern world. But at the same time, there may be kind old men in the world who are happily married, have no history of war, don't show resentment all the time and aren't hopeless nostalgists who believe things were so much better in their day.
          Take Mr Edward Magorium from the movie 'Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium' for example. He is far from being a grumpy old man. In fact he is kind hearted, almost always smiling and believes in magic of a sort, representing almost the opposite of the stereotype. Mr Magorium is better described as a 'kind old man' who appears almost incapable of the kind of resentment the stereotypical archetype for his age and gender suggests. This alone is proof that grumpy and bitter is not the only way old men can be.

2) What are the implications or issues around what they are choosing to highlight or ignore?

 A problem with conveying the message that war   veterans and widowers (and just old men in general) are always bitter and resentful, is that society can begin to believe the stereotype and act in a judgemental or demonising way towards them. What is unfortunately the case now is that many people hold prejudices towards old people (particularly old men) which are generated from a combination of ignorance of reality and media stereotypes. Look no further than Penn and Teller's 'Old People' episode of the show 'Bullshit' for proof of this. These prejudices lead to the ultimate marginalisation of the elderly in society, which in turn lead the elderly to a feeling of worthlessness and ostracism, depression and resentment. What the representation of eternal grumpiness is essentially doing, is turning younger people against the elderly, sabotaging the respect that used to be and should be owed to them, and making the elderly feel as if they don't hold a place in modern society. These are very dangerous and serious consequences for a seemingly innocuous representation. 

Physical health correlates of attitudes toward aging in the elderly.

Abstract

Attitudes toward aging were assessed in three groups of elderly men (age 65-85), including: hospitalized veterans, veteran outpatients, and a group of non-hospitalized "healthy" veteran volunteers, using the Rosencranz and McNevin Semantic Differential Scale. Social objects rated included an "old man", a "young man", and the participant, himself, ("self"). Attitudes toward "old men" were significantly more negative than attitudes toward "young men" in all three groups. In addition, significant group by "object-rated" interactions were obtained on the autonomous/dependent and instrumental/ineffective dimensions of this scale. These interactions were attributable to a more negative "self" rating by the hospitalized group. These results suggest that within the population studied, older persons in poor health tend to view themselves more like the stereotyped "old person" than do healthy old people, who tend to perceive themselves as being more like a "young person". (from PubMed)

3) How effective are the features (techniques) in creating the representation?

Let's look at the picture of Walt Kowalski at the top left of the post. His eyebrows are furrowed, his face muscles are tightened and he is frowning. His eyes are also narrowed and he is leaning forwards intimidatingly. Overall, this picture has done very well at conveying grumpiness and angriness in an old man. Mr Magorium on the other hand has done very well at conveying the opposite. Every single feature that Walt Kowalski possesses is the opposite in the picture of Mr Magorium. His eyebrows are in a normal position, his face muscles are relatively relaxed, he is smiling, his eyes are open and friendly and he is not leaning forwards in an intimidating way. Magorium is the polar opposite of Kowalski here and he is portraying the contradicting character of a kind, friendly old man. Both pictures use clear features to convey their given archetype with clarity, and in a way that will get through to all people.













No comments:

Post a Comment