Racism 101

Rating: 1/10 (9 May 2009)

The main problem with Crash is that it attempts to attack stereotypes by using stereotypical characters. Everyone in this movie is simply a prop for the movie's message about racism. I'm not sure exactly what that message was, but I'll get to that.
I dislike the trend in recent years towards movies with multiple plots. Some people seem to think multiple plots make a movie more meaningful, but I think they make it less so. Multiple plots are lazy and ensure that a movie will never have to fully explore the personalities and hidden motivations of its characters. In the case of "Crash," every plot in the movie is related to another, and the way in which they all just happen to intertwine becomes Ludicrous. (The site won't let me misspell this)
Most of the people in this movie have racist attitudes, but "Crash" portrays them in such a sympathetic light that you end up thinking they have a right to be the way they are. Sandra Bullock's character is wary of black people, but then her wariness seemingly becomes justified when some black people steal her SUV. Matt Dillon's character molests a random black woman by the side of the road, but later he ends up saving that very same woman from a burning car. Look at that, people! He may be racist, but in spite of that, he's an outstanding citizen. Obviously there must have been a really good reason for him to be racist. Thus the movie ends up attacking its own anti-racist sentiment.
Conflicts involving racism abound in this movie. But at the end everyone cries and hugs, the snow falls down because of course it happens to be around Christmas time, and you know everything is going to be okay. As an anti-racist movie, "Crash" takes an overtly simplistic view of racism and in the end, as many have noted, has no real message at all. Its high rating on here must be due to the fact that people like to show how much they hate racism, especially if it requires little real effort.
The best part about this movie is an amazing song by Bird York, "In the Deep." Perhaps that song confused people into thinking this was a good movie. Although not normally a fan of pop music I own Bird York's CD, and the rest of it is also lovely. Bird York's voice is sublime. But "Crash" is really not.