powerful, truthful, honest, accurate

Rating: 9/10 (4 October 2005)

One reviewer said that 'societies stereotypes' were effecting peoples judgments. He missed the whole point of the movie. If that is what the movie said this would be just another Hollywood blasé movie about 'racism', which in itself just rehashes old stereotypes, usually about white people (All in the Family).
No, the power of this movie is that it shows that there is VALIDITY TO THE STEREOTYPES. And people suffer from these truths, they get robbed by a black guy, or cheated by an Asian, or find out the Russians next door are the new mafia. These stereotypes AREN'T created ex nihilo, out of nothing. They start out with a foundation of fact.
So there is a foundation of evil truth. This evil is then compounded when people who are EXCEPTIONS to the STEREOTYPE try to make their way in the world. They have a chip on their shoulder that is compounded by their own clumsy efforts to throw that chip off and others who mistake them for the stereotype. These are the true victims of racism in society  the exceptions.
The only true universal truths in the movie are: 1) there is good and bad in everyone and the bad is valid  as is the good. 2) the Universe is arbitrary or, as the Bible put it, the rain falls on the good and evil alike.
The movie itself demonstrates its greatness by inspiring discussion like this. I am sure there will be viewers who disagree with my viewpoint  passionately. Great! That shows what a great picture this is.
If you're sick to death about 'racism' and automatically tune out when the subject comes up (and many people are fed up) don't let that stop you from seeing this movie. Its not the usual Hollywood stereotype of 'all white people bad, everyone who's not white is good'. It is an honest look at race in America (and refreshing at that) and our society today. Not the simple, one dimensional 'white man bad' type of film of the past. Because of that, because of its unflinching and honest look at the truth, it has power.
Besides its courageous look at racial truth, what also makes this film succeed is that artistically it is a triumph. In its own way, it is tragically beautiful, a masterpiece of film.