Using racism to achieve more...

Rating: 8/10 (26 April 2006)

Not just a grade-school lesson on racism, Crash is a well written and superbly acted film about strangers that meet by chance. Yes, the theme of racism that is repeated throughout the film is rather simple and contrived in that it takes the form in clichéd jokes and stereotypes, however it serves an important purpose. The tagline for the film is, "You think you know who you are. You have no idea." This is exactly what the film is about. A handful of people in LA who hold onto a certain belief of themselves at the start of the film are forced to re-evaluate those beliefs by the end. Writer and director Paul Haggis uses the vehicle of racism to achieve this self-reflection and purposely uses, I think, common stereotypes and jokes because the focus of the film is not to uncover the "truth" about racism or some other elevated goal, but to tell a story about people.
And I think the clichéd jokes and stereotypes work for the audience as well. For instance, in one scene the young black man, Anthony says, "Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys (...) and her reaction is blind fear." Anthony then pulls out a gun and carjacks the white woman and her husband-- and I laughed a little. Was I supposed to laugh? Was I being racist for laughing, or was it supposed to be funny? Haggis does this throughout the film to the point where some viewers might say "okay, I get it, people are racist" but that's not it; Haggis is trying to get viewers to reach that same self-reflective conclusion that the characters do by getting a wide range of audience members to relate to the stereotypes or clichés.
Overall, Crash's ensemble cast works well together with exceptional performances by Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, and Terrance Howard. The intertwining narrative keeps the story moving and the element of chance that brings the characters together does not come across as contrived but more as a gentle reminder of how we're all connected to one another.