|
|
|
 Previous Next  |
|
Crash
Cast: Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Sandra Bullock, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate, Michael Peña
Directed by: Paul Haggis
Available At:
www.crashfilm.com
|
|
|
Abstract: A crash course on racial tension
Crash is a powerful, star-studded movie delving into racial and ethnic stereotypes. Set in L.A., we witness interwoven stories of people connected by car crashes and intolerance. Aggressors become victims, and victims become aggressors. With each sometimes tragic storyline, I was struck by how hard it was to determine who I was rooting for. There is no nice clear-cut view of who is virtuous and who is evil. Usually, movies conveniently provide you with a definite hero and an obvious villian - no such luck with Crash.
Don Cheadle, playing a black cop, introduces and sets the tone for the movie in his philosophies about life in L.A. and car crashes. We follow his struggles and many others as they collide: a district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his racist wife (Sandra Bullock); a locksmith (Michael Peña) and his struggle to raise a daughter; a distrusting Persian shopowner, among others.
One of the most powerful story lines involves a bigot cop (Matt Damon) whose actions cause a snowball effect that affect many outcomes. I hated his character right from the start, but as the story provides insight into his life, the line of good guy vs bad guy becomes a blurry mess.
I very much enjoyed the stories from Crash, but some of the circumstances were a little too over the top for me to appreciate. I'm not talking about how the characters managed to intermingle with each other - I'll give the director artistic license for that - more that the situations seemed just a little too extreme to be taken personally. The acting was superb and director Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby script writer) did provide an insightful look into the world of distrust, personal struggles and racial scapegoats. The power of intolerance and ethnic tension is realized brilliantly.
|
|
REVIEW LIST
|
Average Review Rating:
|
|
|
I had already heard this was a good movie, so I went into it with some high expectations. What I had heard about the movie, was that it was a movie whose story keeps on going. I wasn't disappointed. From the opening scene and lines from Don Cheadle's character about how the people in L.A. do not pass closely near each other while walking, and sometimes brush up against one another. That maybe people miss this touch, and that is why they sometimes crash into one another, to feel something....
The movies shows different types of stereotypes that people give towards those of different races. As you watch the characters deal with the consequences of their discriminations, it gets you looking at the types of stereotypes you've heard in your own life, or even have thought yourself. It shows how people are people; how at some point everyone has been misunderstood, imperfect, and felt judged. It showed how racism is not found in any one group of people, but everywhere.
A really good movie to share with friends and talk about afterwards. It makes you look at yourself and how you relate to other races.
|
|
|
|
This is one of those movies that I hoped wouldn’t end. I found it riveting from about ten minutes in right to the closing credits. It illustrated racism flowing not just one way, but in many different directions and back again. As well, it had the guts to demonstrate that stereotypes aren’t always false, while still managing not to condone them. This could have been a very condescending movie that just yelled at its audience that it needed to be more tolerant of other cultures. But, instead, the screenplay writer and director Paul Haggis took on the more difficult (and more risky) task of portraying individual characters from various groups who represented more than just their races.
To make the movie work, though, the characters were all linked somehow by either circumstance or relationship and this created the impression that the level of racism and suffering found in these particular characters could be found if you were to look closely at any random ten people in Los Angeles. I found myself humbled to think that it could so horrible everywhere in Los Angeles (that no one is safe), but at the same time I found myself a little bit skeptical that it’s quite that bad throughout the city.
Meanwhile, I also found there to be an underlying moral message in the movie that there is no good and bad, but just shades of grey. Almost every character in the film that had seemed to be moral does something questionable, while almost every apparently bad character does something surprisingly decent. While I found the latter to be quite inspiring at the time, I question the message itself, which seems to indicate that good people are just a moment of bad luck away from becoming villains. I do believe that the wealthier someone is, the easier it is do the right thing and so I’m sure there are many people out there who haven’t done horrible things only because they haven’t yet been provoked, but I think the implication of the movie is that no one is so good as they appear and no one is so bad. I just don’t buy this. I think history has proven that some people will rise above bad circumstances (and some people will dip below bad circumstances). And so I believe that there are some good people out there who would not be so easily seduced by their own needs as the movie makes it appear everyone would. In fact, when the characters in the film betrayed their morality, I found the disconnect to be so jarring that I lost my suspension of disbelief. Meanwhile, I also think there are some truly evil people out there who would find a way to do harm no matter how good their circumstance.
Nevertheless, in spite of my personal beef with the lack-of-moral of the story, I heartily recommend this movie for being thought-provoking and captivating for its own sake even if you don’t want to think about it afterwards.
|
|
|
|
One of those movies that I can't stop thinking about, even a week after having seen it. Amazing performances too, especially from Matt Dillon.
|
|
|
|
Have Your Own Opinion?
|
|
|
