Movie Review: Crash

Crash Summary:

Issues of race and gender cause a group of strangers in Los Angeles to physically and emotionally collide in this drama from director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. Graham (Don Cheadle) is a police detective whose brother is a street criminal, and it hurts him to know his mother cares more about his ne'er-do-well brother than him. Graham's partner is Ria (Jennifer Esposito), who is also his girlfriend, though she has begun to bristle at his emotional distance, as well as his occasional insensitivity over the fact he's African-American and she's Hispanic. Rick (Brendan Fraser) is an L.A. district attorney whose wife, Jean (Sandra Bullock), makes little secret of her fear and hatred of people unlike herself. Jean's worst imaginings about people of color are confirmed when her SUV is carjacked by two African-American men -- Anthony (Chris Bridges, aka Ludacris), who dislikes white people as much as Jean hates blacks, and Peter (Larenz Tate), who is more open minded. Cameron (Terrence Howard) is a well-to-do African-American television producer with a beautiful wife, Christine (Thandie Newton). While coming home from a party, Cameron and Christine are pulled over by Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), who subjects them to a humiliating interrogation (and her to an inappropriate search) while his new partner, Officer Hansen (Ryan Phillippe), looks on. Daniel (Michael Pena) is a hard-working locksmith and dedicated father who discover that his looks don't lead many of his customers to trust him. And Farhad (Shaun Toub) is a Middle Eastern shopkeeper who is so constantly threatened in the wake of the 9/11 attacks that he decided he needs a gun to defend his family.

A meditation on the often unacknowledged undercurrents of racism in everyday American city life, "Crash" has the kind of broad appeal that can draw large audiences and the kind of lingering emotional potency that can lead to serious soul-searching. An impressive ensemble cast lends strong character to a cultural cross-section of Los Angeles denizens who are connected to each other through crime, corruption, obligation, indignation and chance over a two-day period. The most powerful storyline features Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe as beat cops -- one jaded and abusive, the other fresh and idealistic -- who pull over and harass (much to Phillippe's dismay) a black yuppie couple (Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton) because the SUV they're driving vaguely fits the description of a carjacked vehicle.

Within 24 hours, these characters all cross paths again in separate incidents of incredibly high tension that challenge both the prejudices that have formed between them and the conclusions we've been led to as an audience. Although they do not meet again, similarly potent table-turning and judgment-testing events occur in the lives of the actual carjackers (Larenz Tate and rapper Ludacris, whose character is ironically obsessed with being stereotyped) and their victims, an ambitious district attorney and his uptight wife (played with depth and conviction by Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock). These four are, in turn, connected through other events to a young Hispanic locksmith (Michael Pena) desperately trying to make a better life for his 5-year-old daughter after moving out of a crime-ridden neighborhood, and to a struggling Iranian shopkeeper (Shaun Toub) desperately seeking to lay blame for the vandalization of his convenience store, and to a pair of internal affairs detectives (Don Cheadle and Jennifer Esposito), whose lives and jobs are complicated by politics, tested principles and personal secrets.

The emotional complexity and intricate, intimate narrative of these stories defy simple summary, but suffice it to say writer lays bare many social and psychological issues that generally get swept under the rug of the American consciousness. The film doesn't just conjure up racially charged confrontations, but also shows almost subliminally how passive prejudice and pre-conceived notions are often prevalent in simple day-to-day life.

The multifaceted, uniformly compelling performances help personify these characters as emblematic and familiar while being anything but archetypal. "Crash" is not a film that will change the world or be permanently emblazoned on your mind. But it does get at the simple truths of racial discord in society.

There are so many messages in this powerful movie, but the main one that left out at me was the Sandra Bullock character's telling us that she's angry and feels that way all the time. The movie seems to be saying we are all so afraid and angry with each other and our inability to trust and care for one another across race, class and cultural divides. In LA 2005, one of the greatest cities ever created, we need to crash into one another to feel anything.

Despite playing a bit too much to tired stereotypes, the movies tries to delve deeply into the complexity and insanity of seeing the world and reacting to those in the world according to such myopic vistas.

I think the main message of the movie was embarrassment. Perhaps the comment of Terrence, "You embarrass me and you embarrass yourself" seems to be the main message.

The movie shows the key sociological concepts of accommodation wherein people should accept who they are in a social situation; though, you someone may belong to a minority or dominant group. So, minority members just accept dominant’s group values thinking that it is standard. This is acculturatation which leads to the process of assimilation – where people who belongs to minority group have to learn the day-to-day norms of a dominant group. People belong to different racial groups and most people judge people by their racial group. They also feel embarrass about the racial group they belong to. But, the movie shocked us the reality that sometimes we find people good, but doing the bad thing in the end and vice versa. Crash implies, the horrors of racism and racial stereotyping are themselves derivative of the undercurrent of desperation and compromised lives that runs through American culture generally, and won't go away unless and until something is done about that. That's even harder to face, harder to swallow. We can all profess to believe in and teach tolerance, but are we all willing, all doing what we can, to change a socio-cultural context that we may benefit from but that breeds desperation in many others, as well as the explosions of racism (and other things) that result from desperation.