Preview

Theme Based on the Movie Crash, Screenwriter Paul Haggis

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1103 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Theme Based on the Movie Crash, Screenwriter Paul Haggis
There are racisms, prejudice, and stereotypes that we faced everyday of our lives in this world. We may not see it, but consciously we know it is there. In contribution to this, the movie "Crash" written and directed by Paul Haggis shows individuals, such as, family members, business people, working people, and strangers say the most harmful and violent thing to each other. Every character in the movie have their own scenario or irony facing a range of prejudice: gender, class, and, above all, race. Crash is not just a matter of colliding cars against each other but also an indication of culture clashing with each other. In addition, the cars or someone or something relating to a vehicle is also a symbolism reflecting the characters or the setting. In the following, I will discuss examples of relations of the people in the movie that connects with vehicles.
In the beginning of the movie, there was car wreck between an Asian woman and a black detective cop 's Latina partner (Jennifer Esposito). The Asian woman accused the Latina for the wreck by saying "Mexican can 't drive." The Latina said that the Asian lady was too short the she could not see the top of her steering wheel and the Asian lady should be the cause of the wreck. This conveys the stereotyped and assumptions of that everyday Americans of all races face in L.A.
Yang 2

Another scenario is two black men (Larenz Tate and Ludacris), walking in the middle of L.A. downtown, talking about how white people are always getting better service than black folks. Ludacris was getting mad about the waitress, also black, serving white people because "black people don 't tip" and "she wasn 't [going] waste her time." This represents racial discrimination is everywhere and even in the professional field, people can come across discrimination of all kind. Plus, Crash also display humor in the scene of Ludacris 's friend saying, "how come you didn 't tip?" and he replied, "Because she was giving bad service."


Cited: Page Crash. Dir. Paul Haggis. Perf. Don Cheadle. Sandra Bullock. Matt Dillon; screenplay by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco. Bulls 's Eye Entertainment, 2005. Anonymous "Crash 2005" Rev. Crash, Dir. Paul Haggis. Movie Mom 's Review. Yahoo Movies. 6 May 2005. 11 November 2007
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary Of The Movie 'Crash'
    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Summary Of The Movie 'Crash'

    During two class sessions, we have viewed the movie Crash. In this particular movie, victims and offenders are shown to be victims of racism and end up being shown as a racist under different circumstances. This shows various characters of different backgrounds and ethnicities going through a certain roadblock in their lives due to a personal matter that may be because of a racial thought.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crashanalysis
    • 584 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Crashanalysis

    Another example of stereotype I saw in the movie was when a young Hispanic man was changing the locks in Sandra Bullock’s house. She took a look at him then turned around told her husband that she wanted to have the locks changed again the next day because he was a thug and was going to sell a copy of their key to one of his homeys. She just saw his exterior and made the assumption not even knowing he was a hard-working man and an amazing father to his little girl.…

    • 584 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Stereotypes In The Movie Crash
    • 1822 Words
    • 8 Pages

    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.…

    • 1822 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Racism In The Movie Crash
    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Examples Of Racism In The Movie Crash

    In the film, ‘Crash’, Paul Haggis forces us to see other people's perspective of their racially prejudiced actions. Paul Haggis has…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Movie Crash Essay
    • 1458 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Movie Crash Essay

    The movie tells stories about racism between whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops and criminals. The different levels of the rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless are also shown in the movie. The lives of the characters crash against each other. The most people feel prejudice and resentment against people of other groups.…

    • 1458 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Racism, Prejudice and Stereotype Comparison Between Film "Crash" and "So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans"
    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Racism, Prejudice and Stereotype Comparison Between Film "Crash" and "So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans"

    The movie Crash contains the stories of several different groups of people of all sorts of races. Their individual lives are played into one another through links of racism and social stereotypes of each ethnicity. As the thirty-six hour period progresses, the intertwining of the individuals and their partners eventually crash together, and they all become part of a single storyline that tells the tale of how racism exists no matter who you are.…

    • 1286 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Culture and Underlying Sociological Assumptions
    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Culture and Underlying Sociological Assumptions

    Another sociological term demonstrated in Crash is the theory of micro-aggression. Microaggressions would be defined as "Microaggressions are subtle insults (verbal, nonverbal, and/or visual) directed toward people of color, often automatically or unconsciously." While the individual effects of these particular instances may be small, the cumulative effects can be devastating. In Crash, I believe the character that most exemplifies this is the film director. Examples of these subtle insults would be things such as people telling him that he just isn't really black to them or the comments about language on the set of the movie. He advises him to tell the black character to make his language "more black." These are subtle but insults nonetheless. These kinds of comments, combined with the powerlessness he feels when his wife is sexually assaulted lead to the blow-up where he almost gets himself killed. He has endured these subtle forms of racism his whole life, and he reaches a breaking point where he just isn't going to take it…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Sociological Concept of Crash
    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sociological Concept of Crash

    The main issue throughout the movie is racism and the perspectives on different cultures. The movie is set in Los Angeles, a city with a cultural mix of every nationality. The movie starts out at a scene of an accident. In the first line, Graham (Don Cheadle) says, “It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something”. That line describes the movie of how everyone “crashes” into each other. As that happens, not everyone gets a nice feeling. The movie continually shows negative feelings people have towards each other.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    African American Stereotypes In The Film Crash
    • 2121 Words
    • 9 Pages

    African American Stereotypes In The Film Crash

    The movie “Crash” is a stuck-to-your-seat thriller with true meaning. It is easy to see why is has been so successful and garnered so many awards. The viewer is witness to a great cast with several intertwining story lines that centralize around the common stereotypes of many races that plague our society today. We see several important characters that tell the story through several dynamic perspectives that are detrimental to understanding the film, as well as to the understanding of how we can get past these stereotypes and misconceptions in order to not just better our society as a whole, but better our businesses and employees in entirety.…

    • 2121 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Racial Stereotypes in Crash
    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Racial Stereotypes in Crash

    There are many instances of racial stereotypes throughout the movie. One of the first is when the two black men just left a restaurant and Ludacris is complaining about how they got poor service because they were black. He then goes on listing all the things that people thought of them because they were black, and then proved all of them to be true. He points out that Sandra Bullock clung on to the guy who played George of the Jungle’s arm when she saw them, and pointed out that she immediately felt afraid because she saw them. He and his friend then proceed to steal their car and take it to a chop shop. I thought it was ironic how he had thought how wrong it was for people to stereotype him, and then do all the things he said people assumed he did.…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Media And Race: Desensitizing The Movie 'Crash'
    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Media And Race: Desensitizing The Movie 'Crash'

    The events depicted in Crash suggest that racial stereotypes are only accurate characterizations of certain individuals. To use such generalizations to define an entire group is ignorant and sometimes hateful. The characters of Crash are given opportunities to change their thinking.…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Stereotypes In The Movie Crash
    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Stereotypes In The Movie Crash

    In the movie Crash there is racial conflicts throughout the entire movie. In the beginning of the movie it shows two cops (Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe,) pulling over an African American couple, (Terrence Howard, Thandie…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Crash
    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Crash

    The movie promotes racial awareness, but like any conversation about race, it demands close inspection. We see a variety of African American men and women, several Hispanic characters, a Persian family, and several Asians. A scene will switch to another only because the initial characters story line is intersecting with that of the next. We meet the Cabot family because two young black men, stars in the scene, steal their car. Likewise, the Hispanic locksmith looking to make a living for his family is hired at the shop of the Persian man struggling with life as an immigrant. These are the lead characters, all intertwined in their daily lives. An idea or event is presented from the perspective of one person or family, and then the same event is expanded on by another characters connection to it. to present racism: Most of the characters are provided life circumstances to help us see where they are coming from The circumstances include Officer Ryans sick father, Jean Cabots depression, and the shopkeepers struggle with being a new immigrant. Each serves as an excuse for the characters racism (or at least a way to lessen its severity).…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Crash
    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Crash

    Crash is highly ambiguous in the depiction of multiculturalism in American society. Almost all the ethnicities depicted in Crash question the perception others have their particular group, but at the same time affirm the different stereotypes surrounding their ethnic group. For example, one of the black characters (‘Anthony’) remarks that they should be afraid in a white neighborhood, due to their group’s association with crime. Following this intelligent observation, he and his friend (‘Peter’) proceed to steal a car from a white couple (Rick and Jean Cabot), affirming the stereotype whites have of them. Another example would be the Persian-American father, who is accused by a gun-store owner to be a danger to society, The father denies this fact, but ends up shooting a child.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Crash
    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Crash

    From the opening scene until the end of the movie the amount of racial notions that were made are mind blowing. The start of the movie a Mexican woman is rear ended by an Asian lady. Which they were both conversing with the officer remarks like “Mexicans can’t drive” and “Asians cant even see over the wheel” where made. The once that could be debated is the fact that the white woman got cold when she saw the two black guys. This could be debated because she did that as soon as she saw them but it turns out they are the ones who end up robbing their car. Her actions could be classified as racist or it could have been her wise thought but as a third the woman could have just been cold. This woman really showed which side she was on when inside her house a worker was hard at work fixing a lock and she is telling her husband how she wants it changed because she doesn’t want him and his “amigos” to rob the house. The part that many people may disagree with me on in the film is where the two African Americans get pulled over. The cop knew they weren’t doing illegal things BUT he had no right to make them get out the car without reasoning.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics