Haggis produces something that makes us aware; that tells us to open our eyes. Intriguing and often quite powerful.

Rating: 8/10 (29 February 2008)

Until very recently, this film held a high spot on my own personal top 50 films; that is until I re-watched it and it fell a few dozen places. But let that not fool you, for Crash is still a well made and in depth look at life, race, racism in society and that element of fate that binds us all; wherever we live. When you deal with films that tackle race and racism, it's always good to make your first port of call information on the writer. From what we know, Paul Haggis is a white Canadian and yet he includes characters in his film who are of the Asian, African-American and Hispanic decent. I would not say he does all of them justice but one theme that lies within Crash is, in fact, stereotyping and how we perceive someone of another race on first glance.
I think when I saw this at the cinema two years ago; I came out thinking I'd seen something that was brilliant. Two years of maturity towards other races and having met many more people, some of which are not of my own white, Caucasian; the film does not seem as spell-binding and amazing as I first thought although the scene in which one character's little girl 'saves' him form a bullet still pulled at the emotional strings; a little harder this time around for some reason  maybe because I watched it alone this time, who knows. But anyway, Crash remains a smart and somewhat deep film. The idea at its core is 'how do we see people around us of different descent?' A very early scene has Anthony (Ludacris) comment, out loud, on his distaste for Jean Cabot (Bullock) as she displays defensive body language upon seeing two black people walking down the road together. It is all about first impressions and how we perceive other people. The twist or the sting in the tail is, of course, that what follows is a carjacking of said persons.
But Haggis does not make the error of making a point and then counteracting it. Later on, a Persian (not Arab, they want you to know) shopkeeper gets extremely hostile toward Daniel (Peña), a Mexican locksmith, but only does so through his own lack of ability to speak the language native to the country he is a citizen of (English in America). Similarly; when Jean and her husband Rick (Fraser) get home from the carjacking, Jean has similar antagonistic feelings toward Daniel because she has just suffered at the hand of rejecting her instincts for another ethnic group: she isn't going to make the same mistake and goes with her hunch by insulting Daniel who she believes will pass on their keys to his burglar 'amigos' after changing the locks. We find out a scene later than Daniel is a loving and caring father with a wife and kid; one of whom it would seem has suspended his own dreams in order to move out of a rough neighbourhood after a stray bullet crashed through his daughter's bedroom. This perception Jean has is wrong; she was correct in thinking Anthony and his buddy were hostile but grossly incorrect in Daniel - this is the theme; perception.
Crash is set over the Christmas period; a time of year difficult for most people given the reunion with families (some of which people will not like) and everything is very busy and highly strung. This creates the perfect backdrop for Crash and its issues. Likewise, staying with the initial perception theme; police officer John Ryan (Dillon) is a racist and a bigot when he is faced with extreme situations or times of testosterone rush: the phone conversation with Shaniqua and the frisking of the other black woman are examples of this; I mention this because our usual perception of white cops may be that they are law abiding and upstanding  something Ryan's partner Tom Hansen (Phillippe) certainly embodies although the denouement in his life occurs when the obnoxious, hitchhiking African American he is giving a lift to later on acts suspiciously when he reaches into his pocket; what follows is nothing short of typical, for a number of reasons that would spoil the film if I went into them.
I think an important scene in the film that embodies the films themes is the one in the TV studio; the director comes down from the gallery and states that a character didn't say the line 'black' enough. Such a situation highlights, once again, the difficultness we have of coming to terms with stereotypes and what's what. If the African American did not say the line like he did then maybe that's not how he speaks after all; likewise, who wrote the script within the script? A white man? A black man? We'll never know, and we'll never know if he imagined black people to talk like that. Needless to say, the director that comes down is white and he says it to a black floor director. Crash itself may have be written by a white Canadian but it does show at points; the Korean characters of Mr and Mrs. Ho aren't well written and there are some needless arguments spawned by race; a black character and someone Hispanic argue over what should have been said over a phone call and it seems all a bit silly but there you go. In the end, no one has really 'won'. Detective Waters has found his brother; John Ryan's father is still very sick; the Cambodians that are found are let loose into the streets of hate and racism without any aid at all and people still shunt one another in their cars. It may not be a pretty film but it's often powerful, often interesting and makes you think about those of different race around you.