crash

Crash , a 2005 film by director Paul Haggis, begins by saying, "It's the sense of touch . . .we miss . . . so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something". The use of the word "touch" suggests human connection. "Feel" conjures a sense of emotion. We want to be moved by one another; to feel our common human existence. Our search for this sort of human connection persists despite many peripheral issues which divide us, but it is the search itself, not the issues, which provides the movie's main theme. I will explore this theme from the perspective of sociology, by examining how the movie deals with race and gender issues.Race and gender are not physical attributes. They are social constructions. The movie portrays the district attorney of L.A., struggling to salvage his public image among black voters via finding an African American whom he can reward publicly. He considers a certain "black" firefighter who had recently performed his job heroically, but someone mentions that the firefighter is actually Iraqi. The D.A. responds, "He's Iraqi? Well, he looks black." This scene illustrates clearly that racial categories are created and employed by people, although these categories often say little about a person's actual cultural or national heritage. In another scene, a detective refers to his lover as Mexican. She responds, "My father's from Puerto Rico, my mother's from El Salvador. Neither one of those is Mexico."Crash also beautifully illustrates how rigid gender roles can hinder connection between people. The traditionally male roles of "provider" and "protector" are especially examined. In one scene, a black film director named Cameron is pulled over by a racist police officer named John Ryan. Cameron's wife is with him, and soon begins antagonizing the officer and refusing to comply, even at Cameron's repeated request. So they are checked for weapons. When Cameron responds without aggression as John frisks his wife in a sexually suggestive