Corrected entry: The gang members would've walked. Walt deliberately made it look like he pointed a gun at them. Any reasonable person would've thought he did. What were they supposed to, let him shoot them? And they wouldn't have even been charged with murder, they would've been charged with manslaughter.
Corrected entry: When looking at Walt's patient information sheet, his marital status indicates that he is married. However, Walt mentioned earlier in the movie that his wife died, which would make his marital status as widower, not married.
Correction: So the record is wrong...it happens all the time. It may be Walt has to submit some paperwork to have the change made, and he doesn't have the heart to do it. Many widows/widowers continue to wear their wedding rings long after their spouse has died...same thing.
Correction: Walt is recently widowed. When Walt goes to see his doctor he is seen by Dr Chu and asks her what happened to his old one. She tells him his doctor has been retired for three years. Walt obviously has not been to the doctor in at least three years, so his records are out of date.
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie, Walt Kowalski draws a cigarette lighter out of his jacket with his right hand pretending it's a gun. He gets shot and dies with his arms extended outright. However, the lighter has magically changed to his left hand as Walt is seen from head down and on his back.
Correction: There isn't a single shot where the lighter is in his left hand, it's always in the right.
Corrected entry: Walt says he worked at the factory where his Gran Torino was built, and in fact installed the steering column on it. The Gran Torino in 1972 was built only at the Ford plant in Lorain, Ohio, at least two hours from Detroit, and Walt had been a long time resident of the Detroit neighborhood he lives in, as he stated he had seen its demise and an influx of immigrants. With other Ford factories being much closer, it's not likely he would commute that far. His pickup truck, in fact, was built in the Detroit area, and he much more likely would worked on it, instead of the Torino.
Correction: This has been corrected and debated numerous times already. According to some correctors, parts of the Gran Torino WAS assembled in Detroit. According to others, Walt could have lived in Ohio in the 70s, while the Torino was produced there, and moved to Detroit in 1973 og -74, which would still make him a 30-year resident of his neighbourhood (More than enough to be considered a long-time resident and watch it change). Either way, there is no mistake here.
Corrected entry: In the barber shop while Thao enters the building to try talking like a man, you can see an actual county sheriff van drive past on the street. It has the seal on the door that all sheriff departments use in the state of Michigan.
Correction: How is this a mistake? The movie is set in Detroit, Michigan.
Corrected entry: When Walt tells Tao he received the silver star, he pulls the medal out and it's a bronze star.
Correction: No, he pulls out a Silver Star. You can tell because of the ribbon color pattern, with the red stripe in the middle. The Bronze Star ribbon has a blue stripe in the middle.
Corrected entry: When Walt telephones Tau's sister to tell her Tau is locked up in the cage in the basement, it's soon shown that when he is released he enters directly into a hallway that leads outside above ground. No stairs to go up out of a basement or anything.
Correction: There is no cage in the basement. It's a heavy metal screen type security door at the top of the basement steps. Thao closes the trunk, runs up the steps and is stopped by the metal door. As he is talking to Walt through the door, you can tell Thao is standing down on the steps looking up.
Correction: There are stairs , the cage is in the basement. You see them when he is first locked in the cage.
Corrected entry: The final credits roll over a background of an empty road. All of a sudden a very relentless stream of traffic appears. This is doubtless because there was only so long that the film crew were allowed to hold up the "real" traffic after shooting their closing scene. (01:50:00)
Correction: How is this a mistake? If the filmmakers wanted an empty roadway, they would've done it somehow (continuous loop of the footage they had, C.G. effects, etc.). If you understood the movie, it would be clear that this is a metaphor for the Walt's character development during the course of the movie.
Corrected entry: The rifle Clint used was an M1 Garand. When he loaded the ammo clip into the top of the weapon, he forced the bolt closed by pushing it with the palm of his hand. This cannot be done. To load an ammo clip into a Garand, you must push the magazine in from the top as Clint did, but you must push it all the way down into the rifle with your thumb before the bolt will close. You must do this quickly or your thumb will get slammed between the face of the bolt and the chamber, which can break your thumb, or give you what is historically know as "Garand Thumb". Veterans of WWII and Korea would have spotted this immediately. (00:21:05)
Correction: The garand has two places where the bolt stops. You have to lock it back to the farthest rearward in order to properly load a garand. Otherwise, the bolt will snap closed on your hand. Since Walt is a Korea vet, he should know how to properly load his rifle. Also, if you properly load that rifle, you do have to shove the bolt foreward.
Corrected entry: Walt's Gran Torino was built in Lorain, OH, not the Detroit area. Correctors like to say it is possible he could have been working in a plant closer to Detroit, such as Dearborn, (which in 1972 was building Mustangs) but want proof that Walt's two door fastback Gran Torino was not built in Detroit. It is not a matter of opinion or supposition, the information is available on the information plate of the car. One website submitted by a corrector only showed how to decipher the information on the data plate, and showed all the Ford plants in North America, not just where the Gran Torino was built. Contrary to the correction, this was not a key plot point in the movie, the plot doesn't fall apart because of it and the line about him installing the steering column is likely a mistake by the scriptwriter. As for proof the car was not built in the Detroit area: http://www.cleveland.com/movies/index.ssf/2009/01/clint_eastwood_in_gran_torino.html see the paragraph reading "Though the film is set in Michigan, it just as well could've been in Lorain - where the Torino was built in a now-closed Ford assembly plant. It rolled out more than 800,000 Torinos." another: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/planning-to-retire/2009/01/22/gran-torino-shut-out-of-oscars/comments/2 see the entry titled Gran Torino anachronism, from a former Ford employee telling where the Torinos were built. There are more examples I can give, but this entry is already too long. It is highly unlikely Walt would commute a minimum of two hours to work in Lorain when other Ford plants were closer, and it's more likely he would have built his pickup at the truck assembly in the Detroit area.
Correction: By my recollection, nothing specific is ever said about precisely how long Walt's lived in Detroit. He could have lived in Ohio in the early '70s and then transfered to another Ford factory in Detroit some time later. This still could give him thirty years to reside in the home and notice the influx of immigrants in the area.
Corrected entry: A boom is visible at the top of the screen when Tau is washing the Gran Torino, right above Clint Eastwood's head, as he is on the back porch.
Correction: There is no boom pole/mic visible in this scene, anywhere. I watched it forwards and backwards and the only thing you could possibly be mistaking for a boom pole/mic is a flagpole mount on the wooden pillar.
Corrected entry: When the white kid, Trey, gets harassed by the three black guys when he is walking down the street with Sue, Trey calls the black guys "bro." There is no way Walt Kowalski could have heard this part of the conversation as Walt had not even pulled up to the stop sign. So his dialog with Trey should not have taken place because there is no way he could have heard it. The part in question is "What's with all that bro sh*t anyway? You trying to be super spade?"
Correction: He didn't have to actually hear him say Bro when he saw how obsequious he was to the black guys. By his actions and being a sycophant, Walt classified his actions as "Bro shit", as in Trey acting like a bro when he wasn't.
Corrected entry: There's a scene where Clint Eastwood is in the bathtub smoking. His dog, Daisy, stares at him as if he's doing something wrong. He tells her to stop staring at him because this was the first time he had ever smoked in the house. In a scene the night before, Clint is smoking while sitting in a chair.
Correction: This is a character mistake, or, more likely, a character in denial. Just because he lies to his dog doesn't mean the filmmakers were mistaken.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Eastwood is in the Asian people's basement he stands by the washer for a brief moment, puts his drink down and walks toward Toad. When he is by Toad, he is holding his drink.
Corrected entry: Throughout the movie, a green Ford Taurus follows the action. When Walt is at home the Taurus sits a few houses down, then when Walt is saving Sue, the car is there one second, then gone the next.
Correction: This is a mistake how? Walt's neighbor has a dark colored sedan parked in front of his house. So? There is a dark colored sedan (a Taurus, if you say so) down the block when Sue is being hassled by the men. But the camera angle only shows the car once and we never get that vantage point again, so it can't be "there one second, gone the next."
Corrected entry: Once again another corrector submits a correction on where the 1972 Torino was built, and tells us to get it right once and for all. Yes, lets. The website submitted by the corrector is for a 1971 Torino, the wrong year of the car in the movie. The 'Gran' part of Gran Torino didn't start until 1972. The website given also doesn't specify which models were built at which factory. In 1972, the Dearborn factory where the corrector suggests Walt may have worked was building Mustangs. The fact remains the Gran Torino 2-door fastback was built only in Lorain, OH. Clint Eastwood is a fine filmmaker, but as seen by other entries, there are still mistakes in the movie, which is the whole purpose of moviemistakes.com.
Correction: What sources are you relying upon? Opinions and supposition aren't facts. Again, this is a vital piece of information and the very basis for the film. The location of the manufacturing plant is no mistake. Without FACTS to support the opinions submitted here, THERE CAN BE NO MISTAKE.
Corrected entry: Walt says he worked at the factory where his Gran Torino was built, and in fact installed the steering column on it. The Gran Torino factory was in Ohio, at least two hours from Detroit, and Walt had been a long time resident of the Detroit neighborhood he lives in, as he stated he had seen its demise and an influx of immigrants. With other Ford factories being much closer, it's not likely he would commute that far. There's a correction stating that the Torino was built in more than one factory, but that's wrong. The two door Gran Torino in 1972 was only built in Lorain, OH, much like the Neon was only built in Belvidere, IL, Corvettes are built only in Bowling Green, KY, and Camaros, for the last 2 generations were built in Canada. Not all Ford factories are equipped or tooled to make all models. It's much more likely Walt would have built his pickup truck at a Detroit factory over the Torino.
Correction: Let's get this correct, once and for all. The Gran Torino was assembled in many plants, including DEARBORN, MI - about 20 miles from Detroit, see here: http://grantorinosport.org/71torino06.htm. There is NO factual error re: this aspect of the movie. And let's don't forget, Clint Eastwood is a fine filmmaker, and because this is such a significant fact to consider - placing his protagonist in a location where he's lived his entire life and where his assembling of his very own 1971 Gran Torino is one of the most important aspects of the entire movie - you can be sure he got it right.
Corrected entry: When Walter goes outside to investigate the gang fight, he is holding the rifle in his left hand, but then it's suddenly in his right hand.
Correction: When Walter interrupts the gang fight, he is always seen holding his rifle in the same position - pointed toward the fat gang member, ready to fire. We never see him prepare for this fight, he just appears in the middle of it, rifle at the ready. His grip never changes until he lowers the rifle, and then he holds it in his left the entire time.
Corrected entry: When Walt is on the phone, his watch changes from the right hand to the left hand.
Correction: One shot is his reflection in the mirror, so it only appears to have switched hands.
Corrected entry: Throughout the movie the license plates say "Michigan", but in the scene when Clint Eastwood calls his son, his Doctor's note/report says "State CA" (California).
Correction: The area on the medical records that says Los Angeles, CA is listing Walt's brother. That is apparently the family section of the questionaire.
Correction: That is pure speculation. The neighbors would obviously have supported what Walt did, and he created the situation so they could testify the gang members killed an unarmed man. Who is a jury more likely to believe? gang-bangers, or a group of frightened innocent people?