Crash: A Movie Review
Most people are born with good hearts, but as they grow up they learn prejudices. “Crash” is a movie that brings out bigotry and racial stereotypes. The movie is set in Los Angeles, a city with a cultural mix of every nationality. The story begins when several people are involved in a multi-car accident. Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a mischief younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his wife, a racist cop and his younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife, a Persian immigrant father, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter.
As the movie progresses each character goes through a life changing event that changes their whole perspective. Paul Haggis shows these changes not only through the character’s actions but the mood tone, music, and settings of the movie as well.
Paul Haggis introduces the theme of the movie right from the beginning with the very opening line. The opening shots are of headlights and rainy windshields with a voice in the background saying “In LA nobody can touch you, always hiding behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much we crash into each other just so we can feel something.” Next we see the black police detective with his Columbian partner in the car as a fireman walks over and asks if they are alright. They were in a multi-car collision. The Columbian woman then gets out of the car and walks over to the other woman who is Chinese. The Chinese woman begins screaming “Mexicans don’t know how to drive. She blake to fast.” The detective replies with “Maybe if you saw over the steering wheel you’d blake too.” The male detective then gets out of the car and we are shown a crime scene and a lone puma shoe. This opening scene in which the credits are shown is an important part in relevance to the
As the movie progresses each character goes through a life changing event that changes their whole perspective. Paul Haggis shows these changes not only through the character’s actions but the mood tone, music, and settings of the movie as well.
Paul Haggis introduces the theme of the movie right from the beginning with the very opening line. The opening shots are of headlights and rainy windshields with a voice in the background saying “In LA nobody can touch you, always hiding behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much we crash into each other just so we can feel something.” Next we see the black police detective with his Columbian partner in the car as a fireman walks over and asks if they are alright. They were in a multi-car collision. The Columbian woman then gets out of the car and walks over to the other woman who is Chinese. The Chinese woman begins screaming “Mexicans don’t know how to drive. She blake to fast.” The detective replies with “Maybe if you saw over the steering wheel you’d blake too.” The male detective then gets out of the car and we are shown a crime scene and a lone puma shoe. This opening scene in which the credits are shown is an important part in relevance to the
Cited: Crash. Dir. Paul Haggis Perfs., Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillion, Jennifer Esposito, William Fischtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate, Micheal Pena. 2004. DVD. MMV Lions Gate Entertainment, 2004.