Crash (21 April 2005)
directed by Paul Haggis
starring Karina Arroyave, Dato Bakhtadze, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Art Chudabala, Tony Danza, Keith David, Loretta Devine, Matt Dillon, Michael Peņa, Jennifer Esposito, Ime Etuk, Eddie J. Fernandez, William Fichtner, Nona Gaye, Brendan Fraser, Billy Gallo, Ken Garito, Terrence Howard, Ryan Phillippe, Marina Sirtis, Mahar Soomekh
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MPAA rating: Studio: Bull's Eye Entertainment, DEJ Productions, Blackfriarl Bridge Films, Bob Yari Productions, Harris Company Script: Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco Music: Mark Isham Running time: 113 minutes Tags: Christmas; Crime; Drama; Los Angelas; murder; race relations Tactical strength: [8/10]
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for language, sexual content and some violence
Crash demonstrates that everyone makes decisions based on preconceived ideas about race. Regardless of our racial background, we make decisions about how we react to and treat other people based on racial profiling. Writer and director Paul Haggis demonstrates masterfully that this racial profiling doesn't just work in one direction. Crash takes about five miniature plots and cleverly interconnects the characters in each event. We see Daniel the Hispanic locksmith (Michael Peņa) work at two different locations. Both the white attorney (Brendan Frasier) and the Persian shop owner assume based on Daniel's race that he belongs to a gang and will sell the keys to their new locks to his gang. We see the same attorney have his SUV stolen by two black men. His wife (Sandra Bullock) says later that she got a bad feeling about the black men, but she didn't act because she thought she had just made racial assumptions. Later white police men pull over a similar SUV driven by a black couple. The couple assumes the police have pulled them over because of their race and make a fuss.
The scenarios and interconnectedness continue for the length of the entire film. If you take the film literally, then you might come to believe that Los Angeles has only a few residents in a tightly connected neighborhood. I like the intermeshing of the stories, but I think the sheer number of miniplots didn't allow me to really connect with any particular character. We see a brief introduction, which interestingly uses stereotypes to quickly and effectively establish the characters. Then later in the film, we see the character thrown into a crisis where he or she must confront preconceived notions about race. To Haggis's credit, we get enough information to see why the characters must confront their own racial preconceptions. We get the point that no matter what, we make racial judgments everyday, and maybe this heightened awareness in the viewer achieves Haggis's goals for the film. I agree with the moral, but I would have enjoyed the film more if I had come to like the characters better.
I have read some criticism that accuses Crash of cramming too many coincidences into one little movie. I look at the events in Crash as a symbolic microcosm. Of course in real life, we wouldn't expect all the citizens of Los Angeles to have such interconnected lives, but in reality, we really do depend on the others in our community. Our interconnections, even in large metropolitan areas, will not display the tight interconnection of Crash, but symbolically, Crash shows the interconnectedness of a community. Who knows if the fast-food server you abuse for putting onions on your hamburger doesn't go home and take out her frustration on her husband and kids just because of your verbal abuse. Those same kids, looking for a deeper emotional relationship, join a gang that then starts tagging your neighborhood. Crash might compress the interconnectedness of a community for dramatic effect, but that interconnectedness does exist.
Crash won academy awards for best editing, best picture, and best original screenplay. I would have favored Good Night, and Good Luck or Brokeback Mountain over Crash as best picture of the year, but I can see why many voters thought the well constructed script and good acting by the cast elevated Crash above the contenders.
