Stereotypes In The Movie Crash
In the 2004 film Crash, writer and director Paul Haggis presents a complex story that intertwines characters of differentiating races, ethnicities, cultures, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds. It explores the controversial topics of stereotypical racial clashes and cultural diversity in the American society. The plot takes the viewer on a 36 hour, voyeuristic journey into the lives of whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops, and criminals, both upper and lower class. Haggis showcases characters that cross paths revealing the various complexities of the prejudices and racisms that are ingrained in interrelationships.
In the opening scene a black man, L.A. Detective Graham Waters, and his partner a female Latino detective, Ria, …show more content…
are involved in a rear end crash. As the driver of the vehicle, Ria steps out of the car and approaches an officer who is taking the report. The motorcycle cop is asking a woman of Asian decent for her registration and insurance as she retorts, “Why? Not my fault! It's her fault! She do this!”. The two exchange racial slurs and stereotypical epithets are thrown back and forth with Ria closing the scene asking, “Officer, can you please write down in your report how shocked I am to be hit by an Asian driver?”. Having properly set the overall tone for the film, Haggis pans back to Detective Graham walking up onto a crime scene, which is the initial cause of the crash. A fellow police officer informs Waters that they have a body as the scene flashes back to “Yesterday.”
At a gun shop a Persian man, Farhad, and his daughter, Dorri are trying to buy a gun due to a previous robbery during his wife’s shift. Standing on the other side of the counter is the gun shop owner, a white middle aged man, who automatically assumes that Farhad and his daughter are Arabs after the two traverse in Farsi trying to decide which bullets to buy for the gun. Impatiently awaiting the owner intentionally insults them by stating, “Yo, Osama! Plan the jihad on your own time. What do you want?" This only proves to escalate the situation with corresponding racial insults resulting in Farhad having to be escorted out of the store by security.
In the succeeding scene Haggis presents two African American men, Anthony and Peter, walking out from a restaurant. Anthony believes that they were victims of poor service resulting from racism, Peter is less serious about the situation and laughs it off. Along their walk they come across Jean and Rick Cabot, a white couple, walking down the sidewalk towards their vehicle. Jean notices the two black men and holds tight to her husband’s arm. Taking this reaction as a racial slight, Anthony preaches to Peter, “Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gang-bangers? Huh? No. Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared around here, it's us: We're the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the trigger happy LAPD. So you tell me, why aren't we scared?” but then the two young men proceed to pull out their handguns and carjack the Cabots and Peter ritualistically puts a St.Christopher statue on the dash board.
At the Cabots’ house Jean is still visibly upset by the robbing and loudly claims that she wants the locks changed again in the morning because she doesn’t trust Daniel, the Mexican American locksmith hired to change the locks, not to sell the key to one of his “homies”.
Transitioning to a diner where John Ryan, a LAPD officer, is on the phone with a HMO administrator in regards to his dad. Frustrated by the lack of help from the bureaucratic administrator for his sickly father, Ryan belts a racial prose once learning that the administrator’s name is Shaniqua. In disbelief she hangs up on him. Later on in the evening Ryan and his partner Officer Tom Hansen are on patrol when they notice a vehicle matching the description of the Cabots pull out in front of their patrol car. Even though Hansen states to Ryan that it is not the right plates Ryan proceeds to shine a spot light into the vehicle revealing a light skinned woman raising her head and looking back. After they pull the formally dressed black couple over Ryan asks Cameron Thayer and his wife Christine to get out of the car. Cameron is respectful and civil, his wife Christine, however, is slightly drunk and chooses to taunt the police making matters worse. This makes Ryan angry and he uses his position of power to sexually assault the wife while he is searching her for weapons. Realizing that Ryan is out of line, Hansen stands by and allows it to continue and Cameron remains obedient and stays quiet while Ryan gropes his wife only to be let off with a warning.
Returning back to Farhad’s story Daniel, the locksmith, is at the Persian’s store replacing the lock on the door when he informs Farhad that he needs to fix the broken door. In a case of cultural miscommunication Farhad believes that he is being cheated and begins to yell at Daniel. Frustrated, he leaves the store without being paid. Upon arriving at home Daniel goes in to check on his daughter Lara and finds her sleeping under the bed, she is scared because she heard a gunshot. Consoling her he tells her story about a fairy that came into his room at night when he was a child, giving him an impenetrable cloak, which he then gives to her. Shifting back to Farhad, his store has been broken into and vandalized with Arab racial slurs on the walls. When the insurance company informs him that they will not cover the damages because the locksmith told him he needed to replace the broken door Farhad is devastated. Believing that Daniel is the culprit Farhad finds where he lives, grabs his gun, and waits for him to return home from work. He decides to hold Daniel at gun point and demands reparations for the damage to his store. Amidst the chaotic argument Farhad accidentally fires his gun at Daniel as his daughter, Lara jumps into her dad’s arms to protect him with the impenetrable cloak.
Turning back to the Thayers’ story, Christine has shown up at the studio to try and talk to her husband Cameron about the illicit incident with Officer Ryan that occurred the previous evening. After a toss of emotional reasonings in effort to explain why he did nothing Christine leaves in tears. Switching back to Officer Hansen and Ryan going on shift, Hansen in disgust from Ryan’s racist methods as asked to be reassigned. Ryan sees Hansen and gives him warm wishes and adds that Hansen may be sure of who he is now but Ryan proclaims, “Wait 'till you've been on the job a few more years.” Cheerfully greeting his new partner, Ryan leaves out on patrol as Hansen pulls off solo. Officer Ryan arrive at an accident and he runs to an car that has flipped and is leaking gasoline with another car nearby on fire. Peering in the broken window he sees someone is trapped inside, it is Christine Thayer. She is scared and becomes hysterical when she realizes her savior is actually her tormentor and refuses his help. He conveys that he is not going to hurt her and tries to free her. As the fire ignites the gas and it burns toward the car Ryan is pulled out by his partner. He heroically goes back into the car and cuts Christine free from her seat belt, pulls her out, and the car erupts into a fireball.
Returning to Anthony and Peter they are yet again, involved in a car jacking.
Coincidentally it is Cameron and after all he has been through in the last 24 hours he snaps and traps Anthony in the car after he takes his gun. Peter runs away when cop cars approach the scene. After a brief chase, two police cars stop Cameron and orders him to get out of the vehicle with his hands in the air, however, he is uncompliant and confronts the police. Hansen being one of the responding officers recognizes him and tells the other police officers that he is ok. Finally they are let go and Cameron gives Anthony his gun back and tells him, “Look at me. You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.”, Anthony says nothing. Later that evening, Peter is hitchhiking back to town. He is picked up by Hansen who is now off duty. Once Peter is in the car a blasé conversation is addressed when Peter notices the St. Christopher statue on Hansen’s dash. Thinking that Peter is mocking him Hansen asks Peter to get out of the car. Peter in an attempt to explain reaches into his pocket to pull out his statue when Hansen believes he has a weapon, fires and shoots him dead. In shock he pushes Peter out of his car onto the side of the road and drives off. Returning to the opening scene, Officer Graham is approaching the crime scene with the dead body. Upon examining the body he realizes that it is his brother. Lose ends are tied up in the consecutive scenes all based around racial and cultural differences. The past 36 hours has transformed the culturally learned racial stereotypes of all occurring
characters.
After viewing the movie I was in tears. Racially motivated hatred is a subject that is close to me personally. My sons are biracial and I grew up in a racially divided house hold. My mother and father would freely and openly tell “black” jokes in front of me at a young age. It made me uncomfortable and it confused me. I had many friends and their economic or cultural background did not play into the value they had as a person. Even though Crash shows the harsh realities of racism and a social segregation that exist in America today I am an idealist. The scene involving Christine and Officer Ryan in the flaming wreckage was the most prominent to me. It showed that racism is not an inherited trait but a characteristic that is bred in the society and life experiences that each individual experience. I want to believe that all people are born good in heart. That we are all equal in the commonality of being a human being. Maybe it would be best if we all adopted childlike qualities that are pure and non judgmental. After all, in the end the one commonality we all share no matter the class, race, culture, or prestige is our own shared mortality.
In the opening scene a black man, L.A. Detective Graham Waters, and his partner a female Latino detective, Ria, …show more content…
are involved in a rear end crash. As the driver of the vehicle, Ria steps out of the car and approaches an officer who is taking the report. The motorcycle cop is asking a woman of Asian decent for her registration and insurance as she retorts, “Why? Not my fault! It's her fault! She do this!”. The two exchange racial slurs and stereotypical epithets are thrown back and forth with Ria closing the scene asking, “Officer, can you please write down in your report how shocked I am to be hit by an Asian driver?”. Having properly set the overall tone for the film, Haggis pans back to Detective Graham walking up onto a crime scene, which is the initial cause of the crash. A fellow police officer informs Waters that they have a body as the scene flashes back to “Yesterday.”
At a gun shop a Persian man, Farhad, and his daughter, Dorri are trying to buy a gun due to a previous robbery during his wife’s shift. Standing on the other side of the counter is the gun shop owner, a white middle aged man, who automatically assumes that Farhad and his daughter are Arabs after the two traverse in Farsi trying to decide which bullets to buy for the gun. Impatiently awaiting the owner intentionally insults them by stating, “Yo, Osama! Plan the jihad on your own time. What do you want?" This only proves to escalate the situation with corresponding racial insults resulting in Farhad having to be escorted out of the store by security.
In the succeeding scene Haggis presents two African American men, Anthony and Peter, walking out from a restaurant. Anthony believes that they were victims of poor service resulting from racism, Peter is less serious about the situation and laughs it off. Along their walk they come across Jean and Rick Cabot, a white couple, walking down the sidewalk towards their vehicle. Jean notices the two black men and holds tight to her husband’s arm. Taking this reaction as a racial slight, Anthony preaches to Peter, “Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gang-bangers? Huh? No. Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared around here, it's us: We're the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the trigger happy LAPD. So you tell me, why aren't we scared?” but then the two young men proceed to pull out their handguns and carjack the Cabots and Peter ritualistically puts a St.Christopher statue on the dash board.
At the Cabots’ house Jean is still visibly upset by the robbing and loudly claims that she wants the locks changed again in the morning because she doesn’t trust Daniel, the Mexican American locksmith hired to change the locks, not to sell the key to one of his “homies”.
Transitioning to a diner where John Ryan, a LAPD officer, is on the phone with a HMO administrator in regards to his dad. Frustrated by the lack of help from the bureaucratic administrator for his sickly father, Ryan belts a racial prose once learning that the administrator’s name is Shaniqua. In disbelief she hangs up on him. Later on in the evening Ryan and his partner Officer Tom Hansen are on patrol when they notice a vehicle matching the description of the Cabots pull out in front of their patrol car. Even though Hansen states to Ryan that it is not the right plates Ryan proceeds to shine a spot light into the vehicle revealing a light skinned woman raising her head and looking back. After they pull the formally dressed black couple over Ryan asks Cameron Thayer and his wife Christine to get out of the car. Cameron is respectful and civil, his wife Christine, however, is slightly drunk and chooses to taunt the police making matters worse. This makes Ryan angry and he uses his position of power to sexually assault the wife while he is searching her for weapons. Realizing that Ryan is out of line, Hansen stands by and allows it to continue and Cameron remains obedient and stays quiet while Ryan gropes his wife only to be let off with a warning.
Returning back to Farhad’s story Daniel, the locksmith, is at the Persian’s store replacing the lock on the door when he informs Farhad that he needs to fix the broken door. In a case of cultural miscommunication Farhad believes that he is being cheated and begins to yell at Daniel. Frustrated, he leaves the store without being paid. Upon arriving at home Daniel goes in to check on his daughter Lara and finds her sleeping under the bed, she is scared because she heard a gunshot. Consoling her he tells her story about a fairy that came into his room at night when he was a child, giving him an impenetrable cloak, which he then gives to her. Shifting back to Farhad, his store has been broken into and vandalized with Arab racial slurs on the walls. When the insurance company informs him that they will not cover the damages because the locksmith told him he needed to replace the broken door Farhad is devastated. Believing that Daniel is the culprit Farhad finds where he lives, grabs his gun, and waits for him to return home from work. He decides to hold Daniel at gun point and demands reparations for the damage to his store. Amidst the chaotic argument Farhad accidentally fires his gun at Daniel as his daughter, Lara jumps into her dad’s arms to protect him with the impenetrable cloak.
Turning back to the Thayers’ story, Christine has shown up at the studio to try and talk to her husband Cameron about the illicit incident with Officer Ryan that occurred the previous evening. After a toss of emotional reasonings in effort to explain why he did nothing Christine leaves in tears. Switching back to Officer Hansen and Ryan going on shift, Hansen in disgust from Ryan’s racist methods as asked to be reassigned. Ryan sees Hansen and gives him warm wishes and adds that Hansen may be sure of who he is now but Ryan proclaims, “Wait 'till you've been on the job a few more years.” Cheerfully greeting his new partner, Ryan leaves out on patrol as Hansen pulls off solo. Officer Ryan arrive at an accident and he runs to an car that has flipped and is leaking gasoline with another car nearby on fire. Peering in the broken window he sees someone is trapped inside, it is Christine Thayer. She is scared and becomes hysterical when she realizes her savior is actually her tormentor and refuses his help. He conveys that he is not going to hurt her and tries to free her. As the fire ignites the gas and it burns toward the car Ryan is pulled out by his partner. He heroically goes back into the car and cuts Christine free from her seat belt, pulls her out, and the car erupts into a fireball.
Returning to Anthony and Peter they are yet again, involved in a car jacking.
Coincidentally it is Cameron and after all he has been through in the last 24 hours he snaps and traps Anthony in the car after he takes his gun. Peter runs away when cop cars approach the scene. After a brief chase, two police cars stop Cameron and orders him to get out of the vehicle with his hands in the air, however, he is uncompliant and confronts the police. Hansen being one of the responding officers recognizes him and tells the other police officers that he is ok. Finally they are let go and Cameron gives Anthony his gun back and tells him, “Look at me. You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.”, Anthony says nothing. Later that evening, Peter is hitchhiking back to town. He is picked up by Hansen who is now off duty. Once Peter is in the car a blasé conversation is addressed when Peter notices the St. Christopher statue on Hansen’s dash. Thinking that Peter is mocking him Hansen asks Peter to get out of the car. Peter in an attempt to explain reaches into his pocket to pull out his statue when Hansen believes he has a weapon, fires and shoots him dead. In shock he pushes Peter out of his car onto the side of the road and drives off. Returning to the opening scene, Officer Graham is approaching the crime scene with the dead body. Upon examining the body he realizes that it is his brother. Lose ends are tied up in the consecutive scenes all based around racial and cultural differences. The past 36 hours has transformed the culturally learned racial stereotypes of all occurring
characters.
After viewing the movie I was in tears. Racially motivated hatred is a subject that is close to me personally. My sons are biracial and I grew up in a racially divided house hold. My mother and father would freely and openly tell “black” jokes in front of me at a young age. It made me uncomfortable and it confused me. I had many friends and their economic or cultural background did not play into the value they had as a person. Even though Crash shows the harsh realities of racism and a social segregation that exist in America today I am an idealist. The scene involving Christine and Officer Ryan in the flaming wreckage was the most prominent to me. It showed that racism is not an inherited trait but a characteristic that is bred in the society and life experiences that each individual experience. I want to believe that all people are born good in heart. That we are all equal in the commonality of being a human being. Maybe it would be best if we all adopted childlike qualities that are pure and non judgmental. After all, in the end the one commonality we all share no matter the class, race, culture, or prestige is our own shared mortality.