You have no idea...

Rating: 9/10 (5 March 2006)

To be honest, I began watching "Crash" an hour before the Oscars took place. Also to be honest, I had wanted to watch it for a long time, and even when I hadn't watched it, I kept claiming, for some reason, that it would win the Best Picture Oscar. To be more honest then, I finished viewing the film after the Oscars ceremony came to an end, and to be even more honest; I might not write enough to explain what this movie generates in the person who experiences it.
I find amazing how writers keep on finding ways to connect different people's lives. Writer/director Paul Haggis is not repeating any formula when he creates unions after a car crash; because he is taking his whole picture from a different angle. That's why it's amazing to me that today in Los Angeles racism is still a constant issueI don't know that, because I don't live there, but the first scene of this piece tries to analyze it.
Detective Graham (Don Cheadle) has just been in a car accident, and he talks out loud, about the people's sense of touch: "We miss that touch so much", he says, "That we crash into each other just so we can feel something". Moments later, Anthony and Peter (Ludacris and Larenz Tate) are walking out of a restaurant, discussing about a coffee that wasn't given to them and wondering why a white woman hugs her couple as she passes by. "She shouldn't be scared, we should be", Anthony shouts angrily.
What happens next is unbelievable as it is ironic. It shocked me and it will shock any viewer because people are not always like we think they are. Racial statements like Anthony's are all over the script, all over the film; but they're not stated just to be said: characters have motives to declare them. Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon) sees his father suffering every day because he's got nothing left; he also blames (somehow) the black people in his father's industry for what happened. He is a racist because he resents black people.
Due to his position, Rick (Brendan Fraser) must be partial with the black community, whether that causes them good or wrong. His wife Jean (Sandra Bullock) must also be careful with blacks and boys from gangs, even if she's naturally paranoid and asks her lock to be changed again after a young man with a tattoo (Michael Peña) fixes it. For our surprise, the guy turns out to be anything but a gang member.
As it occurs with black people, it occurs with Arabs and Persians, or Chinese persons who are American citizens. They are perceived as the same thing, and starred at with the same rejection, although they are different. And I believe that this could be happening right now; this things could be being said, this actions could be taking place, when nobody is probably watching, or listening. Haggis and Moresco truly think they can show us what we could be missing.
It's about films like "Crash", "21 Grams" and "Traffic" that we talk about infinitely; because they have original characters within; which include original and unique stories. Here, particularly, Haggis places each one of his characters (and I omitted many of them) in a contradiction and with an observing, confident camera, a lot of light and an overwhelming music (Mark Isham), he messes with them; with their heads and emotions so they can figure everything out.
Some of them are already messed up and so desperately in need that they hug the only person who's beside them; for the reason that they need to let it all out. We watch closely and we feel sorry for them; for what they've got and don't appreciateAnd what they lack and will never achieve.