Racial discrimination and its prejudice

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2011)

Crash (2004) is drama film produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. The film focuses on racial discrimination and its prejudice in California (Los Angeles). The movie relates several interwoven stories about different group of people and their dramatic scenarios: a black Hollywood TV director Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) and his wife Christine (Thandie Newton) who has to deal with a white racist officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon). John unsuccessfully try to get medical attention for his sick father from a black insurance representative staff Shanigua Johnson (Loretta Devine); a gang of two black teenager Peter Waters (Larenz Tale) and Anthony (Ludacris) carjacked, at gunpoint, the District Attorney Rick Cabot (Brandon Fraser) and his wife Jean (Sandra Bullock). Sandra takes out her anger on Daniel (Michael Pena), a Hispanic locksmith who is changing the door's locks to their house; an immigrant father who is discriminated by a shop's owner when he was buying a gun to protect his belonging. The movie theme refers to how racial conflict remains a subconscious matter that the mind can fail to control. The movie starts with Los Angeles detective, Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) who was investigating the crime scene where his partner and he were involved in a car accident. The accident and the crime were not connected. From there the film back up to the day before the incident. Throughout the movie, the sequence of events shifts between different characters; at the end of the film, characters switch from good to evil or vice-versa.
Officer John Ryan rescued Christine from her car accident. Before the incident, the same officer sexually molested her during a patrol. As opposed to his partner Tom Hansen who transferred to a one-man car to avoid his racist behavior, Tom ended up being involved in the murder of Graham Water's young brother (Peter). Jean changed her attitude towards her maid.. The camera angles in this movie were excellent; they make viewers feel as they are part of the action. Variety of sound is used from one scene to another to enhance the message the editor want the audience to get. From the opening scene to the final scene, the background music plays an important role. Haggis did a great job of telling the truth of how people can react when it came to racism. The use of music, sound links, dissolve transition, outside/in and inside out pattern, parallel cuts help to make Crash an excellent movie.