Review of Crash

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2010)

Today's day in age there is a lot of racial discrimination against every race on this earth. This film brings this to the big screen and to every viewer's attention. This film makes the viewer realize how common it is and how maybe even themselves may be guilty of it. This film has many popular actors and actresses including Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Loretta Divine, Matt Dillon, Ludicrous, Ryan Phillippe, Terrence Howard, Larenz Tate, Jennifer Esposito, Thandie Newton, Michael Pena, and William Fichtner. The story begins with a crash where racial slurs are thrown amongst those involved. The story then rewinds back to the beginning and begins to tell the story of all the actors and how they all are discriminated upon because of their race and vice versa. Throughout the movie, based in Los Angeles, California, many of the stories amongst the actors begin to intertwine with each other over the course of two days. Those that was once guilty of having racial discrimination come to terms that those that they discriminate against may be the ones that rely on the most. The many different stories that are told within the one film and the relationship amongst the characters were similar to the film Training Day with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke.
The first scene as mentioned is the car crash involving Ria, Jennifer Esposito, and an Asian woman who does not speak very well English. The Asian woman pronounces brake light as "blake light" and she immediately discriminates against her as being less intelligent because of her accent. The next story evolves with Anthony and Peter, played by Ludicrous and Larenz Tate. As they are walking down the street after leaving a restaurant in an upper class section of L.A., Ludicrous begins to tell how they were discriminated against in the restaurant by a lack of service due to being black and stereotyped as cheap. He then notices how Jean, played by Sandra Bullock, grabs her husband's arm when she sees them assuming because they are black they may rob her, which they actually do by holding them at gunpoint and stealing their car. The navigator is reported stolen and the next story evolves involving Cameron and Christine, played by Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton. They own the same car as Jean and her husband, Brendan Fraser, and are followed by Officers John Ryan and Tom Hansen, played by Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe. John witnesses Christine having sexual relations with her husband and pulls them over and discriminates against them because they are black and uses his badge to physically harass her in front of her husband. Jean also discriminates against the Mexican man that is changing all of their locks after they were robbed. Because the young man wore his pants a little lower than normal and had tattoos, she stereotyped him as being in a gang, and raised the possibility that he could go sell their new house key to his "homies" to rob them. After each characters story is laid out, the film begins to twist and creates a relationship amongst all of them. Christine was involved in a near fatal car accident and is saved by Officer John Ryan who has sexually assaulted at a prior pullover. Cameron is almost robbed for his vehicle by Anthony and Peter and refuses to let it happen and fights for his car with Anthony and pulled over by the police. He is let go by Tom Hansen who was the other office at the prior pullover. Peter who gets away when Cameron fought back at the robbery hitchhikes and is given a ride by Tom Hansen which leads to him killing Peter. The relationships evolve and are what makes the film so interesting and keeps the viewer speculating.
Motifs throughout the film are the associations directed at common racial stereotypes with each characters story including black people being associated with crime and being cheap, those from the middle east being associated with thoughts to harm Americans, those speaking English not so well being assumed to be less intelligent, or young males with tattoos and wearing over-sized clothing being involved in a gang. Another technique throughout the film was the lighting. Nearly the entire movie was shot in dim lighting leaving it dark and full of suspense. Overall, fantastic movie, great story plot, and an excellent choice of characters!