Racist Reality

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2012)

The movie Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, centers around several individual lives and their imminent fate that leads them to cross each other's paths in a web of racism and violence. This film features well known actress Sandra Bullock and A list actors such as Terrance Howard and Matt Dillon. Bullock plays Jean Cabot, wife of the District Attorney, who is carjacked by two black men which fuels her racist attitude. Dillon is a racist LAPD Officer John Ryan that acts inappropriately towards a black couple, Cameron Thayer (Terrance Howard) and his wife. The intertwining events come full circle when a car crash occurs and Thayer's wife's life is at risk.
The strongest and most prevalent theme is racism. Almost all the characters have strong feelings of disrespect and dislike towards someone of another race. The main players include Officer Ryan, Jean Cabot, and the Thayer couple. However, lesser characters also allow racism to be an underlying tone. This includes an Iraqi store owner distrusting of a Hispanic locksmith and a cop duo comprised of an African-American male and a Hispanic female. The language and actions of the characters clearly demonstrate their attitudes toward others unlike themselves. Until the end of the film, the racism is unrelenting. There are other films that share a similar theme which includes Babel, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez. The characters in this movie are also victims of fate and unfortunate circumstances.
Some of the techniques in this film include the camera angles and lighting. The issue of race is general a dark theme. Most of the scenes throughout this film are also dark. The carjacking occurs at night in the darkness as opposed to in the daytime, which illustrates the severity of the incident. While the camera angles are varied, there are several scenes with long intense lingers on the character's face. This moment allows the viewer to get in touch with that character's feelings of angst, disgust or hurt.
Overall, the film touches all of the areas surrounding race from different cultures. The fact that this movie occurs within a short time period and in the same city, further points out what many of us come into contact with each day. Although at times the content may be offensive and may make the viewer cringe, it is very poignant.