Indirectly Revealing of Contemporary USA

Rating: 1/10 (13 April 2006)

SPOILERS AHEAD! For those wondering how this thing could have won best film, here are a few clues: 1) white racist cop character is heroic, 2) unshaven Arab-looking character shoots gun at child, 3) Asian female and black (fat) female characters are shrieking shrews and bad drivers. I could go on but the simple fact is that this is a film about race for racists (there's even the "Bonfire of the Vanities" white-politician-making-hero-of-dead-black-criminal angle, although Haggis' script has no trace of Tom Wolfe's art and verisimilitude).
There is, in fact, nothing in the film itself (the way the actors talk and act) that has anything to do with modern, real life America. The fact that this film won the top award from the Academy does, however, speak volumes about where we are at as a society and the news isn't good. If anything should put the lie to the notion that Hollywood is a left-wing enclave, the Academy's elevation of this aggressively reactionary film should do it, but it probably won't.