Compelling and Powerful Like No Other Film of 2005!

Rating: 10/10 (4 February 2006)

Paul Haggis, the writer of the Academy Award Winning "Million Dollar Baby," makes his directorial debut in the year's most compelling drama, "Crash." Unintentionally, Haggis has created a film about race relations in Los Angeles, however, the situations could relate to almost any American city. What is unique about the many characters is that through their discrimination, be it serious or in jest, all present fallacies on the parts of others. Yet, they all speak from a perspective where the viewer, of any ethnic background, can find reasoning in their racial profiling. It is as if the film acknowledges racism, finds understanding and sympathy for it, and then manages to show how absolutely detrimental it is not only for society, but the individual person as a whole. By writing the film in such a way where the characters can be understood by the viewer, Haggis allows the audience to be intimate with those characters. We know that their assumptions are dead wrong, but we never find ourselves truly hating any of them. Take Matt Dillon, for example, who plays a racist, sexist cop. On a routine pull-over, he makes a black couple get out of their car. He frisks them both, but actually gropes the wife. In a later scene, we see this same woman, played by Thandie Newton who has gotten into a terrible accident. She is trapped in her burning car. Who should show up and save her life, but the same cop who accosted her. This is actually one of the films lighter moments of genuine intensity through emotion. But what it represents is the hypocrisy of all the characters. This was a racist cop who pulled this husband and wife over because they were black, and he groped the woman. Yet, he is here saving her life and wants nothing more than to protect her from a horrible death. Watching "Crash," I felt so affected by its brutal honesty and ability to unite its many characters into one giant understanding of the story as a whole. It is the most powerful film to tackle race relations since Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing."