No-One is Wholly Good or Wholly Evil

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2009)

"Crash" is often described as an "anti-racist" film, but it does not fit the normal template for issue movies about racism, which normally deal with some injustice perpetrated by white racists against blacks (often in the Deep South) and with the efforts of black people, often assisted by liberal whites, to combat that injustice. "Crash", which is set in Los Angeles, has a complex plot consisting of a number of separate, but interlocking, sub-plots dealing with various aspects of racial tensions in the city. The cast is made up not solely of Caucasians and African-Americans but also contains Hispanics, Koreans, Chinese and Iranians. The title refers not only to an actual car crash which plays an important part in the plot but also to the ways in which people "crash" into one another when their lives collide.
The plot is too complex to summarise here. Some of the main characters, however, are the following:- Rick Cabot, the city's white District Attorney and his wife Jean.
Anthony, an African American car thief and Peter Waters, his Anthony's friend and partner in crime.
Graham Waters, Peter's brother. Whereas Peter has chosen a criminal lifestyle, Graham has made a career for himself as a detective on the police force.
John Ryan, a bigoted white police officer and Tommy Hansen, his partner.
Cameron Thayer, a black television director and his wife Christine.
Daniel Ruiz, a Mexican-American locksmith.
Farhad, an Iranian shopkeeper.
Although the main characters are drawn from a variety of different racial backgrounds, many of them (and some of the minor characters as well) are guilty of displaying racial attitudes- not prejudice towards blacks, but also prejudice towards whites, towards Hispanics, towards Asians and towards Middle Easterners. Even those who are the victims of prejudice themselves may also display it towards other races. Farhad, for example, experiences racial harassment from white Americans, who mistakenly refer to him as an "Arab", but his reaction makes it clear that he finds this offensive because he himself dislikes Arabs and resents being taken for one. Other characters may not display racism in the sense of prejudice towards another race or favouritism towards their own, but are nevertheless prepared to exploit racial tensions for their own ends. An example is Cabot, who is prepared to manipulate the evidence against a white cop accused of shooting a black colleague in the hope that this will win him votes among the black community.
Yet, despite the prejudices they display, most of the characters are not wholly evil. One character who seems to have aroused particular controversy is that of Ryan. In one scene he is seen to be abusing his authority by sexually molesting Christine under the pretext of searching for weapons. Yet in a later scene he bravely and selflessly risks his life in order to rescue from a burning car a woman who, in an ironic twist, turns out to be Christine herself. Ryan's racist attitudes are explained in terms of the damage done to his father's business by local affirmative action policies.
What is so controversial about Ryan is that he offends against our preconceptions (about movie characters if not about real life individuals) that a person who commits one base action will inevitably prove to be an irredeemably corrupt villain in all other respects. Ryan, in fact, is only one example of a theme running throughout the film, the idea that no person can be regarded as wholly evil or wholly good. This idea is applied generally, not merely to questions of racial attitudes. Anthony, for example, seems at first sight to be a thoroughly unpleasant individual, yet at the end of the film he saves a group of illegal Asian immigrants from a life of virtual slavery, even though he does not like "Chinamen", as he calls them.
On the other hand, characters who initially appear admirable show that they have a dark side. Hansen at first seems to be a liberal; he requests a transfer because he is offended by his partner Ryan's racist attitudes. Later, however, he shoots a young black man dead when he over-reacts during an argument. Graham also appears at first sight to be a conscientious officer, but he later agrees to withhold evidence and thereby pervert the course of justice in order to have the District Attorney drop a case against his brother Peter. (Ironically, Peter turns out to be the man killed by Hansen).
I must admit that I have never seen "Brokeback Mountain", so am unable to enter into the controversy as to whether that film should have beaten "Crash" to the Best Picture Oscar in 2005. I can, however, say that "Crash" is an excellent film which certainly makes a worthy winner. It is a good example of ensemble acting, with all the cast making a valuable contribution, even though there are no outstanding star performances. It has an intelligent, well-written script which asks some difficult questions, not just about racial issues but also about human nature in general. It is not, however, a dry, abstract exercise in social or moral philosophy but also a powerful human drama with a number of emotionally gripping scenes. Occasionally the complexity of the plot makes it difficult to follow, and there seem to be one of two loose ends, but overall this is a very good film indeed. It is remarkable that Paul Haggis, the co-writer, co-producer and director had previously directed only one feature film, "Red Hot" eleven years earlier. 8/10