The racial slurs and bigotry were about as effective as the violence in Natural Born Killers and I don’t think the majority of the viewing audience got it in either case. In both cases I believe it showed how desensitized we can and have become.

My parents saw the movie the day before, so my dad and I discussed how realistic the barber shop scene was. We used to get our haircuts at Joe’s Barber Shop. It was located next to Handyman at First and Shields back in the day. Aside from the empty chairs, Eastwood captured perfectly what it was like to be in a barber shop.

The one positive I see coming from this movie is that the Hmong culture has been given a voice. Having Eastwood, a prominent, white, actor/director involved was the best thing possible. We were surrounded by “blue” hairs in the theater, so hopefully it will open their eyes a bit about these “strangers” in the neighborhood. I can’t recall another film that has brought the culture of a minority group to the masses like this one.