Oscar bait with broad appeal - yet a remarkably thought-provoking film and one of the most interesting portraits of L.A. to date

Rating: 9/10 (12 August 2005)

Writing, directing and producing Crash, even through a heart attack, suggests that Paul Haggis is perhaps a remarkable individual, though not necessarily remarkable at any or all three. The result, however, suggests that he is. Crash is remarkable and noteworthy for a number of reasons, and could repeat some of the success of Million Dollar Baby (which he wrote and produced although, perhaps unfortunately in the opinion of this reviewer, allowed Eastwood to direct).
The start of the movie shows the scene immediately after a car crash. A number of people start arguing, racist remarks are made. It is set in L.A. - a challenging city in many ways, not least for its complex racial mix.
Crash goes on to look beneath the surface of such destructive attitudes by examining a number of incidents the day before the crash in question. In doing so it achieves not only challenging self-reflection but maintains the dramatic pace in a way that many such movies fail to accomplish.
In many ways, American society (ie US society) has got itself into problems that are nigh impossible to fix (and often not for want of trying). With race relations, Haggis looks at deeply embedded attitudes and failings that are not only common to many ethnic groups (including white American) but where people are in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't," situation.
Sandra Bullock (in a relatively small part but one of the best she has tackled) has relatively few pressures in her life. She is married to a D.A., has a housekeeper and a gardener, but finds she is waking up angry every day. An intelligent individual, she goes as far as seeing it is something within herself rather than just blaming everyone else. Her questioning goes further when she has a small accident (that lands her in hospital) and her 'best friend' is having a massage and hence too busy to help.
Earlier in the film, Bullock asks herself: if she sees a black man in a white neighbourhood and (instinctively) knows that he means to harm her, she will be dubbed 'racist' if she takes steps to protect herself yet come to harm if she ignores her well-seated gut feeling. (Her gut feelings are not always right, but how often do you want to gamble when it's your life at stake?)
We see similar dilemmas (also often over-exaggerated, misconstrued, or interpreted with tragic lack of streetwise, from the point of view of Blacks, Hispanics, Chinese and Iraqis).
The subplots of various characters keep us glued to the screen; any simple value-judgements are confounded. We see the love and (sometimes counter-stereotypical) bravery of the most 'unlovable, 'racist' characters. We see the real people behind what others (ie others of different ethnic origins) see. We question the obvious 'answers'.
The USA is imbued with ideologies that, whilst survivalist, are not self-healing (transferring the government of, say, New Zealand for 25 years might help). Traditional Christian virtues alone are insufficient to deal with such problems (the 'Good Samaritan cop not only gets himself in deep water but ends up doing more harm than good.) But so is populist psycho-savvy: " . . . if we can't duck this thing, we're gonna have to neutralize it." (D.A. faced with a politically problematic prosecution of a black man who's given him problems.) "What we need is a picture of me pinning a medal on a black man. The fire-fighter - the one that saved the camp or something - Northridge... what's his name?" It didn't matter that the hero was an Iraqi - but it mattered that he happened to have the common first name of 'Saddam' - no good for P.R. that one . . .
The principled approach of Don Cheadle's character has similarly little effect. He tries to be an upright Detective in a politically corrupt system and so gets caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. There are very few winners in Crash.
Yet the overall formula is a winner. It lacks answers, just as America probably lacks the ability to use applied philosophy to solve problems in its own back yard - at least in the foreseeable future on this issue. But it's integrity as art, its ability to move us - to laughter, to tears, to compassion, to shock - to enable us to look within ourselves, that integrity and independence of thought is quite strong and all the more remarkable for an American movie these days. It even lacks the self-congratulatory tone of Million Dollar Baby (which may be invisible to many Americans, especially those not extensively exposed to European and other cinema that is more art-based than big-business based). If you've had six pints of lager and want lots of explosions, Crash may not rock your boat but, for mainstream quality cinema-lovers, it is a breath of fresh air.