Crash Movie

Movie: Crash Crash is a 2004 drama film directed by Paul Haggis. It shows the racial and social issues in America. The movie uses Los Angeles, California as the setting. The movie was a big success in box office and won many awards including three academy awards. The movie features a long list of stars like Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Brandon Fraser and so on. Race is a word that is very common in our society in the past and present. We live in a multi-racial country with people of different background. Through the different characters in movie, the director shows the way we as a society of diverse people are linked one way or the other in our day to day life. Racial tensions have a big history in the United States. In this movie the director portrays this idea of racial tension in the society. The movie has a wide variety of characters of different racial and economic backgrounds. In the beginning we see a young white couple who were carjacked by two young black men, an Iranian man who faces racism when trying to buy a gun. Then we have the racist behavior of the carjacked white family towards a colored locksmith. We then have the racism that an innocent black couple faces from a police officer mistaking the carjack. Likewise we see different scenarios in the movie were characters of completely different backgrounds run into each other. The term race is often difficult to define because the society often has its own definition based on physical appearance. In reality, as anthropological studies states, there is no real complete race. We all are of mixed racial background. We have diverse genetic makeup, which means we have genes from different parts of the world. For example someone could be labeled black by the society just on the basis of his or her physical appearance but in reality could have genes from Europe, Asia and so on. As we see throughout this movie, societies often fail to recognize the different culture and heritage of different people and assign race solely on the basis of visible physical characteristics. Likewise another important concept that we see throughout the movie is the practice of racist behavior on the basis of stereotypes. In the movie we see the racism, the colored (Mexican) locksmith and the innocent black couple faces after two black men carjacked a white family. As the movie portrays, stereotypes is something that is very common in our society, it is often the root cause of racial tensions and problems. To make it simple, we are often victimized for the actions of someone who happened to have the same skin color or other physical characterizes we have. To conclude, this is not a movie that focuses on a particular character or plot. There are many characters and plots in the movie that connect one way or the other very interestingly. At the end after all the struggles and actions, most of the characters will find some kind of happiness and meaning to their life. Through this movie director Paul Haaggis shows the highly controversial topic of race through the characters and plots in the movie. The characters are there as a means for us to think about ourselves and the way we see others in our society. The movie tries to teach our diverse society a lesson.