Crash Review

Rating: 9/10 (31 January 2011)

Crash begins with Graham Walters (Don Cheadle) and his partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito) getting into a nighttime fender bender. Graham mumbles "We crash into each other so we can feel something." Walters is a police detective on his way to investigate a murder. Someone's body was found on the side of the highway.
Crash exposes racial prejudice in the United States with a variety of characters. They include the following: two young black male criminals, an Iranian convenience store owner and his daughter who is a doctor, a Latin locksmith and his 5-year old daughter, two white, male police officers, a black detective and his Hispanic partner, a successful black Hollywood director and his wife, a Korean couple, a black health insurance employee and a white district attorney and his white wife. It is a story about the collision of races, cultures and classes. Each character is a victim of racism and in turn guilty of racism in some way.
Two young black men, Peter and Anthony, are strolling down the busy, well-to-do boulevard and are watching the affluent district attorney and his wife (Jean). Peter says to Anthony, "We're the only black people, surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people â€“ why aren't we the scared ones?" A few minutes later, Peter and Anthony are hijacking the district attorney's car after they shoved a gun in his wife's (Jean) face. In the next scene, Jean, played by Sandra Bullock) wants the locks in her house changed again because a Latino is changing them the first time.
The movie was real. Racial issues were in your face. They were complex and emotional. A negative attitude can be felt all through the movie, from the white cop stopping two innocent black people in a fancy car to the woman moving closer to her husband as they are passing two black teens.
Gran Torino also raises questions about racism. Walt Kalwoski (Clint Eastwood) is prejudice against almost everyone he meets. But, the other characters are accepting of Walt. In Crash, each character is a victim and guilty of racism.
The music used throughout the film stimulates emotional responses. There is wide range of music which represents the diverse cast of characters. You hear rap, country, Latin music and music from the Middle East. It always correlates with the scene and conversation that is taking place. The film is realistic due to the variety of everyday life in Los Angeles. Because Crash is full of crimes and action scenes, silence is a powerful sound effect.
Crash shows that we all tend to judge others based on race. It forces us to look outside our own lives and see that we are more alike than we think. As each character crashes into another, they learn many things about themselves. In today's society is difficult to look beyond our differences. Crash is a movie that makes you think!