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"Crash" tells interlocking stories of whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops and criminals, the rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless, all defined in one way or another by racism. All are victims of it, and all are guilty it. Sometimes, yes, they rise above it, although it is never that simple. Their negative impulses may be instinctive, their positive impulses may be dangerous, and who knows what the other person is thinking?

The result is a movie of intense fascination; we understand quickly enough who the characters are and what their lives are like, but we have no idea how they will behave, because so much depends on accident. Most movies enact rituals; we know the form and watch for variations. "Crash" is a movie with free will, and anything can happen. Because we care about the characters, the movie is uncanny in its ability to rope us in and get us involved.

"Crash" was directed by Paul Haggis , whose screenplay for " Million Dollar Baby " led to Academy Awards. It connects stories based on coincidence, serendipity, and luck, as the lives of the characters crash against one another other like pinballs. The movie presumes that most people feel prejudice and resentment against members of other groups, and observes the consequences of those feelings.

One thing that happens, again and again, is that peoples' assumptions prevent them from seeing the actual person standing before them. An Iranian ( Shaun Toub ) is thought to be an Arab, although Iranians are Persian. Both the Iranian and the white wife of the district attorney ( Sandra Bullock ) believe a Mexican-American locksmith ( Michael Pena ) is a gang member and a crook, but he is a family man.

A black cop ( Don Cheadle ) is having an affair with his Latina partner ( Jennifer Esposito ), but never gets it straight which country she's from. A cop ( Matt Dillon ) thinks a light-skinned black woman ( Thandie Newton ) is white. When a white producer tells a black TV director ( Terrence Dashon Howard ) that a black character "doesn't sound black enough," it never occurs to him that the director doesn't "sound black," either. For that matter, neither do two young black men ( Larenz Tate and Ludacris), who dress and act like college students, but have a surprise for us.

You see how it goes. Along the way, these people say exactly what they are thinking, without the filters of political correctness. The district attorney's wife is so frightened by a street encounter that she has the locks changed, then assumes the locksmith will be back with his "homies" to attack them. The white cop can't get medical care for his dying father, and accuses a black woman at his HMO with taking advantage of preferential racial treatment. The Iranian can't understand what the locksmith is trying to tell him, freaks out, and buys a gun to protect himself. The gun dealer and the Iranian get into a shouting match.

I make this sound almost like episodic TV, but Haggis writes with such directness and such a good ear for everyday speech that the characters seem real and plausible after only a few words. His cast is uniformly strong; the actors sidestep cliches and make their characters particular.

For me, the strongest performance is by Matt Dillon, as the racist cop in anguish over his father. He makes an unnecessary traffic stop when he thinks he sees the black TV director and his light-skinned wife doing something they really shouldn't be doing at the same time they're driving. True enough, but he wouldn't have stopped a black couple or a white couple. He humiliates the woman with an invasive body search, while her husband is forced to stand by powerless, because the cops have the guns -- Dillon, and also an unseasoned rookie ( Ryan Phillippe ), who hates what he's seeing but has to back up his partner.

That traffic stop shows Dillon's cop as vile and hateful. But later we see him trying to care for his sick father, and we understand why he explodes at the HMO worker (whose race is only an excuse for his anger). He victimizes others by exercising his power, and is impotent when it comes to helping his father. Then the plot turns ironically on itself, and both of the cops find themselves, in very different ways, saving the lives of the very same TV director and his wife. Is this just manipulative storytelling? It didn't feel that way to me, because it serves a deeper purpose than mere irony: Haggis is telling parables, in which the characters learn the lessons they have earned by their behavior.

Other cross-cutting Los Angeles stories come to mind, especially Lawrence Kasdan's more optimistic " Grand Canyon " and Robert Altman's more humanistic " Short Cuts ." But "Crash" finds a way of its own. It shows the way we all leap to conclusions based on race -- yes, all of us, of all races, and however fair-minded we may try to be -- and we pay a price for that. If there is hope in the story, it comes because as the characters crash into one another, they learn things, mostly about themselves. Almost all of them are still alive at the end, and are better people because of what has happened to them. Not happier, not calmer, not even wiser, but better. Then there are those few who kill or get killed; racism has tragedy built in.

Not many films have the possibility of making their audiences better people. I don't expect "Crash" to work any miracles, but I believe anyone seeing it is likely to be moved to have a little more sympathy for people not like themselves. The movie contains hurt, coldness and cruelty, but is it without hope? Not at all. Stand back and consider. All of these people, superficially so different, share the city and learn that they share similar fears and hopes. Until several hundred years ago, most people everywhere on earth never saw anybody who didn't look like them. They were not racist because, as far as they knew, there was only one race. You may have to look hard to see it, but "Crash" is a film about progress.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Crash (2005)

Rated R for language, sexual content and some violence

112 minutes

Sandra Bullock as Jean

Don Cheadle as Graham

Matt Dillon as Officer Ryan

Jennifer Esposito as Ria

William Fichtner as Flanagan

Brendan Fraser as Rick

Terrence Dashon Howard as Cameron

Ludacris as Anthony

Directed by

• Paul Haggis
• Robert Moresco

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• Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.
• Over a thirty-six hour period in Los Angeles, a handful of disparate people's lives intertwine as they deal with the tense race relations that belie life in the city. Among the players are: the Caucasian district attorney, who uses race as a political card; his Caucasian wife, who, having recently been carjacked by two black men, believes that her stereotypical views of non-whites is justified and cannot be considered racism; the two black carjackers who use their race both to their advantage and as an excuse; partnered Caucasian police constables, one who is a racist and uses his authority to harass non-whites, and the other who hates his partner because of those racist views, but who may have the same underlying values in his subconscious; a black film director and his black wife, who believes her husband doesn't support their black background enough, especially in light of an incident with the racist white cop; partnered police detectives and sometimes lovers, one Hispanic female and the other black male, the latter who is dealing with a drugged out mother that feels he isn't concerned enough about taking care of family; an East Asian man who is run over but who is hiding some valuable cargo in the back of his van; a Persian store owner, who feels he isn't getting satisfaction from American society when his store is robbed time and time again; and a Hispanic locksmith, who just wants to keep his family, especially his young daughter, safe in a seemingly unsafe world. — Huggo
• Set in Los Angeles, California, a vivid tapestry of people, coming from both sides of the tracks, unfolds. Detective Graham and his partner, Ria, investigate a potentially racially motivated crime. Meanwhile, desperate Persian shop owner Farhad seeks protection in all the wrong places. Elsewhere in the city, District Attorney Rick and his wife Jean fall prey to a pair of carjackers linked to Park, a Korean man. Then, prejudice affects Hispanic locksmith Daniel Ruiz. After crossing paths with TV director Flanagan and his wife, Christine, bigoted veteran police officer Sergeant Ryan locks horns with his rookie partner, Officer Hanson. As racism, hostility, hatred, and fear become inextricably intertwined with the lives of everyone involved, the perfect strangers are bound to crash into each other over the next 36 long hours. — Nick Riganas
• Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more. — Martin Lewison <[email protected]>
• A black man, Detective Graham Waters, speaks dazedly about the nature of Los Angeles and the need for people to crash into each other. A Latino woman in the driver's seat of the car, Ria, mentions they were hit from behind and spun around. She gets out of the car and goes to the cop and the other driver, an Asian woman. The two women blame each other for the mishap and make racial jibes. The Latina identifies herself as a detective. Waters gets out walks toward more police cars and a crime scene. Another cop mentions they have a body. An intense stare crosses Waters' face as he looks at something. The scene flashes back to "Yesterday." At a gun shop a Persian man Farhad and his daughter Dorri are buying a handgun. The shop owner gets upset with the Persians speaking Farsi and the two men quickly begin exchanging angry insults. Farhad leaves fuming and Dorri tells the shop owner that she'll either take the gun or take their money back, stating that she hopes she gets the money back. She also selects a red box of free bullets as she takes the gun, despite the owner making a cryptic remark about the type of bullets she's chosen. Two young black men, Anthony and Peter, leave a restaurant. Anthony claims they were victims of racism and poor service, Peter laughs it off. Jean and Rick Cabot, a white couple, walk down the sidewalk. Jean notices the two black men, averts her gaze and clutches Rick's arm. Anthony takes it as a racial slight, but then the two young men suddenly draw handguns and carjack the Cabots' black Lincoln Navigator. Peter places a St. Christopher statue on the dashboard over Anthony's objections. Detective Waters and his partner Ria arrive at a crime scene. A uniformed cop tells them there was shooting between two drivers. The surviving white man is identified as an undercover cop named Conklin. The dead driver in a Mercedes is also a cop, a black man named Lewis. The investigators are unsure who started the shooting in the road rage incident. At the Cabots' house Jean is still upset, and even though a locksmith is already changing the door locks. Seeing that the smith has several tattoos and is Latino, she angrily tells her husband she wants the job done again the next day. Jean loudly claims the locksmith will sell the keys and they will be robbed again. The locksmith, Daniel, overhears and leaves two sets of keys on the kitchen counter as he leaves. Rick is running for District Attorney re-election and wonders how to use the car jacking to an electoral advantage while talking to his assistants. In a diner two Asian men talk about pickup of items. Nearby LAPD Officer John Ryan phones an HMO Adminstrator about his father's medical ailment, the administrator seems sympathetic but remains bureaucratic. When she mentions her name is Shaniqua, Ryan makes an angry comment and she hangs up. As he leaves the police station, a white van driven by the Asian man from the diner passes in front of Ryan. Ryan and his partner Officer Tom Hansen patrol and notice a black Navigator. Ryan follows but Hansen states it is not the same plates as the report. As they close up behind the SUV Ryans shines a light into the vehicle causing a woman to raise her head and look back. Ryan turns on the lightbar and pulls over the truck. The cops ask the well dressed black couple inside, Cameron, a movie director, and his wife, Christine Thayer, to get out. Cameron is overly polite and deferential, saying they are close to their home, Christine is slightly drunk and taunts the police. Ryan is angry and makes a point of slowly physically searching the woman, who is wearing a revealing cocktail dress. Hansen realizes his partner is out of line, Cameron remains quiet as his wife is groped. The cops finally let the Thayers go. Farhad is a shop owner himself. His wife Shirin complains the door doesn't close properly. Dorri loads the pistol and puts it in a drawer at the counter for easy access. At their home, Christine Thayer rips into Cameron for not standing up to the cops. Cameron attempts to rationalize why he didn't do anything as they erupt in a bitter argument. At his home Daniel talks to his 5-year-old daughter hiding under her bed. She is still afraid of bullets from the bad neighborhood they recently moved away from. To protect her from bullets, he gives her an invisible cloak, then lovingly puts her to sleep. He gets a page and goes out on another locksmith job. In the SUV, Anthony and Peter continue to discuss race and country music. As the two joke and talk, they pass a white van with the side door open, feel a thump and realize they hit something. Getting out they find an Asian man stuck under the vehicle. After discussing what to do with the "Chinaman," they roughly pull him out. Hansen talks to Lt. Dixon about changing partners. The lieutenant, a black man, tells Hansen that claiming Ryan is a racist will make the lieutenant look like a bad manager. If Hansen wants to change, he has to claim to have a flatulence problem himself and needs to ride alone. The two young men in the hijacked SUV drop the injured man in front of a hospital emergency room. Daniel replaces the lock but tells Farhad the door needs to be replaced. Farhad, who can't speak English very well, expects Daniel to fix the door, thinks the locksmith is cheating him, and argues about the bill. Disgusted, Daniel just tears up the bill and leaves. At a chop shop, the owner Lucien tells Anthony and Peter he can't buy the Navigator parts because of the blood stains, claiming that he'll wind up on the Discovery Channel after the police perform forensics tests. Graham and Ria are having sex when the phone rings. Ria is upset that Graham stops to answer it; it's his mother, asking where Graham's younger brother is and why he hasn't found him yet, knowing he's a criminal but denying he's a bad person. Annoyed by his mother's call, Graham tells her he's having sex with a white woman to anger her. Ria is insulted and upset that Graham treats his mother so poorly and informs him that she's both Puerto Rican and El Salvadorian. Graham hurls an insult and she storms out. Farhad returns and finds his shop trashed and covered with anti-Arab graffiti. He is devastated. Anthony and Peter walk and continue to discuss black people. Jean Cabot is angry her Mexican maid Maria hasn't emptied the dishwasher. Anthony refuses to take a bus, saying it is degrading, and claims he will never steal from another black. Ryan goes to see Shaniqua in person. Initially apologetic, he tries to explain his father's HMO doctor is incompetent and he wants a second opinion, but Shaniqua says it wouldn't be covered by the plan. Ryan gets upset and says his father was a victim of affirmative action and that she, as its beneficiary, should help him. Shaniqua is not impressed, and calls security to kick Ryan out. Shirin attempts to clean the graffiti at the vandalized shop dismayed that the haters didn't even know they were Persian rather than Arab. Graham goes to visit his mother. She lives in a small apartment and seems slightly daft, worried about the younger brother who has run away and been missing. Graham again promises to find him. Before leaving, he notices a bottle of sour milk in the fridge. Outside, Ria tells him Internal Affairs found something in the Mercedes. In the studio a white producer tells Cameron the black character in a scene didn't speak with enough ebonics. He's supposed to be "stupid" and doesn't talk ebonics enough to sound stupid. Cameron thinks the man is joking but it is made clear they have to reshoot the scene. The racial bigotry confronting Cameron is starting to overwhelm him. Christine arrives at the studio and tries to talk to Cameron about the previous evening; she concedes that he might have saved their lives, but he tells her to go home and leaves angrily. Christine is left in tears. An insurance man tells the Iranians they aren't covered for the vandalism because the door wasn't fixed - exactly as the locksmith had said. Farhad therefore blames Daniel and tries to find out his name to exact revenge. The Lock company receptionist refuses to give it and hangs up on him. Going out on shift, Ryan sees Hansen and wishes him well. He also prophetically warns Hansen that he may not know himself as well as he thinks he does. Ryan then cheerfully calls out to his new partner, Gomez, Hansen gets into a police unit by himself, and the dispatcher makes a fart joke. Ria and Graham go to the impound yard and are shown a spare tire in the Mercedes' trunk with $300,000 hidden inside. Farhad finds out Daniel's name using the crumpled up lock workorder. Arriving at an accident scene Ryan runs to a rolled car, someone is trapped inside. It is Christine Thayer and already scared, she becomes distraught when she recognizes Ryan, and refuses his help. Ryan insists harshly that he won't hurt her and tries to free her as there is spilled gas and a burning wreck nearby. The fire races toward the inverted car, other cops pull Ryan out as the car catches fire. He breaks free of his colleagues' grip and goes back into the car and cuts Christine free of her seat belt, pulling her out just before the vehicle explodes in a fireball. Christine is taken away badly shaken as she looks back at now heroic John Ryan. Flanagan, Rick Cabot's campaign manager, talks to Graham. He says they know the white cop has a history of shooting black men and Cabot wants to go public blaming Conklin for the shooting. Graham suggests the black cop was up to something suspicious. Flanagan brings up details about Graham's missing brother and some criminal charges against him which could be dropped He also hints at a good job with Cabot if Graham agrees with the story to blame the white cop. Graham reluctantly agrees and Cabot immediately announces the lie to the press. Driving alone his black Navigator, distraught from all the happenings, Cameron comes to a stop sign. Suddenly Anthony and Peter appear with guns drawn to carjack him. They are surprised he is black. This time, Cameron fights back and gets the gun away from Anthony, starts kicking him on the ground. Peter points his gun, threatening to shoot Cameron but he can't. A police car sees the scuffle from a distance and starts toward them. Peter runs off and Anthony and Cameron get in the SUV and drive off. After a short chase, two police cars corner the Lincoln. Anthony shrinks down in the passenger seat, afraid to get out, but Cameron does get out and confronts the police. Hansen is one of the responding officers and recognizes him; he tells the other cops the man is a friend, convincing them to back off and lower their pistols. Hansen, with the previous injustice clearly on his mind, is able to g. Finally the two are let go. Cameron gives Anthony his gun back and tells him he is an embarrassment as he drops him off. Farhad confronts Daniel in the driveway, pointing his gun at him and demanding money to repair the ruined store. Daniel tries to calm him down when his daughter runs out to protect him with her "invisible cloak." As she jumps into her father's arms, Farhad fires a shot from close range. Daniel screams in agony, holding his daughter, as Farhad stands stunned on the sidewalk. Daniel checks the girl and finds no blood. She is all right. Stunned and surprised he brings her inside leaving a bewildered Farhad in the street. Graham returns to the mother's place with fresh groceries. He places them in the fridge as she sleeps unaware. Jean Cabot talks on the phone to a friend, saying she doesn't understand why she is angry all the time. Hanging up she slips and falls down the stairs, lies whimpering on a landing. Hitchhiking back to town later that evening, Peter is picked up by the off-duty Hansen. They chat, but Hansen thinks Peter is mocking him and tells Peter to get out of the car. Peter begins laughing at the St. Christopher statue on the dashboard and reaches into his pocket to show his. A nervous Hansen thinks it's a gun, then draws his gun and shoots him dead. Shocked by what he did, he pushes the dead Peter out of his car on an isolated dark road. Back to the scene at the beginning, Graham arrives on the crime scene and sees his lifeless brother, Peter Waters, by the side of the road. Anthony has taken the step of riding a bus, without his faithful sidekick, but out the window he notices that a white van has the key left in the door. He drives off in it. At a hospital the same Asian woman shouting in the accident at the beginning arrives, desperately calling for her husband. Her husband, the Korean man in the white van who was run over by Anthony and Peter, is wounded, bandaged up but coherent. He tells his wife to quickly go cash a check in his coat pocket. Anthony brings the newly stolen white van to the same chop shop, where they find several Cambodian illegal immigrants chained up in the back. Lucien offers to pay Anthony $500 for each person. A look of remorse crosses Anthony's face. At a hospital, a grieving Mrs. Waters sees her dead son, Peter. She blames Graham for not finding his brother earlier as promised and states that Peter's last act was to deliver fresh groceries to her. The detective takes it stoically. Dorri comes to see her father Farhad. Placid, he says he found an angel and gives her the handgun. Dorri goes to check the red box of bullets. They are labeled ".38 Special Blanks". Rick and Jean talk on the phone. Jean is OK as the maid had taken her to the hospital and that she has a bad sprain. Maria brings her a cup of tea and the two women hug, Jean hugging Maria more intensely. Jean calls the maid her best friend. Hansen abandons his car after lighting it on fire. Cameron stops his car as it starts to snow lightly. He sees the burning car and goes to the fire to throw stuff on the flames. His phone rings, Christine is calling and they say they love each other, reconciling. Graham returns to the place his brother's body was found. He finds Peter's St. Christopher statue. Anthony lets the illegal Asian immigrants out in Chinatown. Leaving them $40 for some "chop suey", he drives off, feeling pleased with himself. Across the street a minor rear-ender occurs and we see Shaniqua get out of her car, berating the other driver. Snow falls as a crowd gathers around them.

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Intercultural Communication: Paul Haggis’ “Crash” Essay (Movie Review)

This research paper looks at the movie Crash of the director Paul Haggis. The film was released in 2004 and received three Academy Awards in 2005. This research draws upon mostly primary sources including articles, published reviews, and the book about intercultural communication. The aim of this paper is to highlight and describe the most important issues raised in the movie in accordance with the book. The results show that the film covers and demonstrates the social contradictions of identified themes.

“Moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other” ( Crash , n.d, para. 2). This statement is the tagline of the movie called Crash. It reflects the real world where a lot of people are living nowadays, and where they bump into each other every day in streets, parks, and shops. Some of these meetings are fleeting and not significant, while others give a variety of emotions and new acquaintances. Thus, such substantial events have a considerable impact on the people’s future. In Crash , the director Paul Haggis is focused on demonstrating several short stories, united in a few car accidents, shootings, and robberies with the focus on the theme of the place of a human in the modern world and society.

The movie is made very professionally. Despite a large number of characters and storylines, the plot develops gradually and quite logically. It allows the audience to see the interconnected networks of social relationships that draw the characters together.

The film begins with the policemen who find the corpse of a black man somewhere outside the city. Further, events go back a day ago, and the viewer watches short episodes from the life of different people living in this city. These individuals and events, happening to them, are somehow related to each other and closely intertwined.

There are four main storylines. Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser) is the District Attorney of Los Angeles, a big boss. Nevertheless, two African-American guys, threatening him with a gun, take his car. The robbery of the District Attorney is a good story for the news media, but Rick cannot afford such a scandal because the voices of black voters are very crucial to him. The African-American policeman Graham (Don Cheadle) knows about the situation of the white policeman, but he cannot help him. He has to keep silent because prosecutors threaten his brother, who got into a bad company. The police officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) scoffs at an African-American couple in front of his young teammate Hansen (Ryan Phillippe). The Iranian gets a weapon to defend his small shop, the only thing he has. Ironically, this gun will be pointed at the same poor immigrant. Some storylines of Crash come to their logical conclusion, the other part remains unfinished (there is a clear sense in it), but at the final culmination all the same happens – the killing of a black man. This murder connects most of the characters.

Some people say that the main subject of the movie Crash is political correctness, and due to it, the film won the Academy Award for the best picture in 2005. However, this movie is not limited by political correctness issue. The plot of Crash is focused on the numerous difficulties of coexistence in a huge multinational state. The director accentuates the idea of understanding. According to Neuliep (2015), people from different nations think differently. Indeed, sometimes it is very tough for a human of one culture to accept some habits and traditions of the completely different world because people think through categories. People use categories in the process of thinking to reduce uncertainty (Neulip, 2015). It is necessary for a human to use categories to make an inference and increase the accuracy of understanding. What is more, categorization is an essential part of intercultural communication because when people meet something or someone unfamiliar, the first thing they do is trying to compare the unfamiliar subject with the familiar one. Thus, culture is connected with the theory of uncertainty. The problem of misconception is the central theme of Crash, and Paul Haggis shows the tragic consequences of such misunderstanding.

Other issues, which are raised in the movie, are political correctness and ethnocentrism, which are directly related to intercultural communication. The movie shows how people from different cultures are under pressure, and how others oppress them. Some characters in Crash tend to offend and disadvantage members of a particular group. The brightest example is attitudes and actions towards African-American individuals. Although the United States of America is a multinational country that gathers immigrants who come to the United States to get a better life, there is a decrease in tolerance and increase in distrust in American society nowadays. The majority of people do not like foreigners, and Paul Haggis shows it in his movie. The problems of intolerance and ethnocentrism are the most burning nowadays. However, governments and different media pay a lot of attention to them. For example, the video from Globe Today (2016) demonstrates how judgmental the world is today. Tolerance is one of the most important human characteristics.

Except for political correctness, uncertainty, and ethnocentrism, one more theory is used in the movie. This theory is the theory of stereotype. Though this term is a part of categorization to some extent, it is necessary to highlight. On first glance, some characters can seem negative and primitive to the viewer. For instance, on the one hand, the Iranian is a very unfavorable character, but on the other hand, he is just an unfortunate man. The locksmith with tattoos, who looks like a truly criminal, is a quiet and peaceful family man, adoring his daughter. The young police officer, who was extremely outraged by the actions of his racist partner, saves a black TV producer from certain death. However, on the same day, he kills an African-American boy for no apparent reason. These actions are examples of controversial human nature. It is important to emphasize that there is no clear concept of good and evil in the movie. The characters are not divided into two groups: innocent and guilty people, or heroes and villains. All people are ordinary with their advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses. Their behavior is a reaction to the outer world, and their actions depend on different circumstances.

To sum up, despite the annoying performance of some artists, Crash is a deep film. The film received mostly positive reviews from such influential media sources as Washington Post, Rolling Stone, USA Today, Empire, and others. The movie Crash is completely independent work, and Paul Haggis, who is better known as a screenwriter and whose screenplay for “Million Dollar Baby” led to Academy Awards, fulfills different tasks as a director, producer, and screenwriter at the same time. The plot of Crash is vital and urgent because it reflects today’s problems. The movie demonstrates social contradictions, and it contains hurt, cruelty, and anger. Haggis emphasizes that every very person is unpredictable, and no one can know what will happen tomorrow. The movie shows that there is not any clear line between good and evil. Not everything that is done by rules and laws is good, and not all people who defy the laws are criminals. However, there is always hope and faith. It can be unseen, but kindness exists within people, even behind the destructive behavior.

Crash . (n.d.). Film info. Web.

Globe Today. (2016). I am not black, you are not white. Web.

Neuliep, J. W. (2014). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach. Sage Publication.

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IvyPanda. (2022, June 13). Intercultural Communication: Paul Haggis' "Crash". https://ivypanda.com/essays/paul-haggis-crash-movie-analysis/

"Intercultural Communication: Paul Haggis' "Crash"." IvyPanda , 13 June 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/paul-haggis-crash-movie-analysis/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Intercultural Communication: Paul Haggis' "Crash"'. 13 June.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Intercultural Communication: Paul Haggis' "Crash"." June 13, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/paul-haggis-crash-movie-analysis/.

1. IvyPanda . "Intercultural Communication: Paul Haggis' "Crash"." June 13, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/paul-haggis-crash-movie-analysis/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Intercultural Communication: Paul Haggis' "Crash"." June 13, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/paul-haggis-crash-movie-analysis/.

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2004, Drama, 1h 52m

What to know

Critics Consensus

A raw and unsettling morality piece on modern angst and urban disconnect, Crash examines the dangers of bigotry and xenophobia in the lives of interconnected Angelenos. Read critic reviews

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Crash   photos.

Writer-director Paul Haggis interweaves several connected stories about race, class, family and gender in Los Angeles in the aftermath of 9/11. Characters include a district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his casually prejudiced wife (Sandra Bullock), dating police detectives Graham (Don Cheadle) and Ria (Jennifer Esposito), a victimized Middle Eastern store owner and a wealthy African-American couple (Terrence Dashon Howard, Thandie Newton) humiliated by a racist traffic cop (Matt Dillon).

Rating: R (Sexual Content|Language|Some Violence)

Genre: Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Paul Haggis

Producer: Cathy Schulman , Tom Nunan , Mark R. Harris , Don Cheadle , Paul Haggis , Bobby Moresco

Writer: Paul Haggis , Bobby Moresco

Release Date (Theaters): May 6, 2005  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Dec 4, 2014

Box Office (Gross USA): $54.6M

Runtime: 1h 52m

Distributor: Lionsgate Films

Production Co: Bull's Eye Entertainment

Sound Mix: Surround

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Sandra Bullock

Don Cheadle

Matt Dillon

Officer Ryan

Jennifer Esposito

William Fichtner

Brendan Fraser

Terrence Howard

Thandiwe Newton

Ryan Phillippe

Officer Hansen

Larenz Tate

Michael Peña

Loretta Devine

Shaniqua Johnson

Beverly Todd

Graham's Mother

Keith David

Paul Haggis

Screenwriter

Bobby Moresco

Cathy Schulman

Mark R. Harris

Sven Clement

Executive Producer

Marina Grasic

Jan Korbelin

Andrew Reimer

James Munro

Cinematographer

Hughes Winborne

Film Editing

Original Music

Laurence Bennet

Production Design

Brandee Dell'Aringa

Art Director

Linda Lee Sutton

Set Decoration

News & Interviews for Crash

Know Your Critic: Writer and Editor Nicolas Rapold

New on Netflix October 2019

Aldis Hodge’s Five Favorite Films

Critic Reviews for Crash

Audience reviews for crash.

While it's heart is in the right place, and it has some truly fantastic scenes, it suffers from over sentimentality and a lack of subtly that it so desperately needs. The characters are more like caricatures of specific archetypes that it feels almost comical at points, though at others it feels genuine and powerful.

Fantastic! I think this won the Best Picture Oscar awhile back, and it totally deserved it. This film is just so indescribably entertaining, with great characters and storyline. Definitely check this out.

Solidly entertaining racial soap opera melodrama.

Crash--or more appropriately, "2 Degrees of Separation: The World's Angriest Racists"--is a load of Oscar bait fluff. While racism is an important issue to address, so is verisimilitude in a screenplay, and Crash disservices worthy movie material. Overall, Crash proves to be a poorly constructed story with too many characters whose lives are intertwined by a series of implausibly tragic miscues, each ultimately reshaping the respective bigoted worldviews. And while Crash isn't all bad--there are some decent performances to be salvaged--it is predominantly an over-blown, pretentious piece of crap.

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Crash, Movie Review Example

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The movie “Crash” was produced in 2005 and is a story based upon racial and social tensions in the City of Los Angeles.  The film, in broad terms, examines the nature of the LA populace and how they crash into one another.  Early in the movie a Latino woman is driving a car and someone crashes into the rear of it.  Upon exiting the car she gets out to confront the Asian woman driving the car and a police officer.  At this point they start to exchange racist remarks about one another.  in the confrontation to follow the Latino woman (Ria) reveals her true identity as a detective.  This is the commencement of a journey of violence and action scenes across Los Angeles.  From this point on every conflict in crash seems to either be racially motivated or have racial undertones.  The director of the film seems to go about this line of enquiry with extreme prejudice.

There are numerous memorable moments in the film and perhaps early on when we are introduced to four of the leading characters.  Anthony and Peter, two young black men emerge from a restaurant where Anthony complains about poor service being racially motivated, whereas Peter laughs this off.  As they depart down the street they bump into Rick (local DA) and his wife Jean.  At the site of these two Jean clutches the arm of her husband  and the men interpret this as a racist gesture and decide to carjack them.  Hence they break into his Lincoln car and Peter leaves a St Christopher statue on the dashboard.  Two themes emerge here with Peter being relatively cool about the racism but needing to make a point by leaving the statue on the car dashboard.  Anthony’s resolve is re-enforced by the act of Jean.  Jean demonstrates stereotyping by judging the two black men on appearance and retreating to her husband for protection as opposed to just acknowledging the two men.

Another incident involves two policemen pulling up a black man and his wife in their car. The police order them to exit the car but the black man ( a director) tells them they are close to home. The wife who is a little drunk taunts the policemen.  The result being that one of them frisks her in an act of sexual molestation.  The partner of the policeman ignores this and subsequently they are both released.  The woman is furious that her husband said and did nothing but he points out that any action on his part would have resulted in him being killed.  Another direct reference to racism and the power bestowed to the police authorities and how they are seen to abuse this.  Even a person of social standing, because of his colour, is considered stereotyped in Los Angeles and has to adjust his behavioural patterns to fit the circumstances.

There are some valuable personal lessons that you can take away from the movie.  The concept of stereotyping people e.g. just because they are a certain race or colour means they are subservient and to be regarded in a hateful way. Like the character jean, played by Sandra Bullock in the movie.  The old adage of ‘never judge a book by its cover’.  The question of racial tolerance will become more important as we all have to live in the global village.  We all need to understand and be tolerant of other peoples culture and respective points of view.  Most of this is born out of ignorance and a lack of education, hence LA depicts the more extreme point of view because of the poverty and lower echelons of society that manifest criminal behaviour.  We also learn about the concept of prejudice and bigotry from the movie.  The movie does focus and depict on the more darker side of human behaviour.  There are good positive examples of social integration in the USA and Canada and both countries work hard towards adapting a model of social integration and multiculturalism.  I view this type of movie as rather ‘raw’ and somewhat bias towards the more sensationalist aspect of human behaviour.  The media tends to feed on this type of depiction and whilst it may be somewhat representative of the seedier side of Los Angeles it is not truly reflective of other Cities in the United States.

The movie does serve a purpose in illustrating the futility of violence and how society can degenerate by unacceptable behaviour towards one another.  People should learn to respect one another in terms of their ethnicity, cultural background and their role and place in Society. No matter whether rich or poor we all have a valuable role as human beings in society.  By the act of debasing another human being, like the cop with the frisking of the coloured lady, he is really debasing himself  and abusing the trust bestowed upon the office he represents.

The concept of stereotyping is also highlighted by the Middle Eastern Shopkeeper who feels he has to have a gun to protect his family after the 9/11 attack.  Not everyone who wears a beard and dresses in Arabic dress can be thought of and described as a terrorist.  Again the media has a huge responsibility in what it portrays to the more radical and less educated elements of society.

In general the movie involves many inter twined stories in the general day to day life of people living in the poorer side of Los Angeles life.  It does not make any statement or conclusions but leaves you gasping at the racial intolerance and stereotyping that still takes place within the big Cities contained in our society.  It describes the vulnerability of all people in our society that become victims to this kind of abuse or treatment.  It does not necessarily leave you with a sense of hope but more of a warning to where society may ultimately end up.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Crash Movie — A Review Of The 2004 Movie Crash

A Review of The 2004 Movie Crash

• Categories: Crash Movie Movie Review

About this sample

Words: 698 |

Published: Feb 8, 2022

Words: 698 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Works Cited

• IMDb. (n.d.). Crash (2004) - IMDb. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375679/
• Haggis, P. (Director). (2004). Crash [Motion picture]. United States: Lions Gate Films.
• Ebert, R. (2005, May 6). Crash Movie Review & Film Summary (2005). RogerEbert.com. Retrieved from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/crash-2005
• Mowatt, R., & Lemieux, C. (2008). The meaning of the movie Crash and its application to real life. Journal of Religion and Film, 12(1). doi: 10.18081/2154-9787-2008-12-1
• Mazierska, E., & Rascaroli, L. (2009). Crossing New Europe: Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie. Wallflower Press.
• Kellner, D. (2009). Cinema Wars: Hollywood Film and Politics in the Bush-Cheney Era. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Shaw, T. M. (2012). Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. Routledge.
• Naficy, H. (2012). An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. Princeton University Press.
• Thompson, K., & Bordwell, D. (2013). Film History: An Introduction. McGraw-Hill Education.
• Maniquis, R. (2016). The Representation of Race and Racial Relationships in the Film Crash. In A Companion to American Indie Film (pp. 392-410). Wiley-Blackwell.

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by Paul Haggis

Crash character list, graham waters.

Though the film features no one particular main character, the nearest thing to a protagonist we have is Graham Waters. His story intertwines with many of the plot’s events, and his commentary at the beginning establishes the film’s tone and one of the film’s main themes. Waters is a seemingly well-respected detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. We soon discover that he is sleeping with his partner, Ria, and that his brother is a missing criminal-at-large. In one of the film’s emotional scenes, Ria comments on Waters’s distant behavior. As the story unfolds, we find that Ria’s observation is true—Graham covers up his insecurities by denying his family situation and making numerous racially insensitive comments.

Graham’s mother repeatedly asks him to use his position in law enforcement to find his younger brother, Peter. However, Graham continually brushes this mission aside in order to advance his career within a racist establishment. Graham eventually discovers and identifies his dead brother next to where he and Ria experience a car accident in the film’s opening scene. Graham’s opening commentary about why people in LA “crash” into one another indicates that he is much more perceptive and impressionable than he initially appears.

Ria is Detective Waters’s professional partner. Along with Waters, Ria experiences the car accident that rocks the film’s opening scene. At the scene of the accident, Ria mocks the other driver involved, Kim Lee, for her Asian heritage. Although she is depicted as racially insensitive herself, Ria is also repeatedly mocked for her ethnicity. Both Kim Lee and Detective Waters wrongly assume that she is Mexican, when she is, in fact, half Puerto Rican and half Salvadorian.

Jean Cabot, the wife of District Attorney Rick Cabot, is a wealthy, WASPy housewife. Though her life is undoubtedly privileged, Jean remains deeply unsatisfied. After she is carjacked in the beginning of the film, a general sense of fear begins to dominate Jean’s daily life. This suppressed fear eventually manifests as her mistrust of minorities. She primarily takes out her frustrations on Maria, her loyal housekeeper. Towards the end of the film, Jean realizes that her issues stem from within—she is frustrated that her life lacks direction and that she incessantly feels isolated. After this realization, Jean apologizes to Maria and recognizes that her housekeeper is her only “true friend.”

Rick is the District Attorney of Los Angeles. After he and his wife, Jean, are carjacked, he aims to find a way to manipulate the press so that he does not look like the victim of a black-on-white crime. Rick is preoccupied with his political image and career. Despite his own racist attitudes, he aims to depict himself as a progressive politician that demands racial equality. But over the course of the film, it becomes clear that Rick only desires to secure the “black vote” for his upcoming re-election. His wife Jean’s unhappiness seems to be caused by Rick’s neglectful treatment of his wife and family.

Officer John Ryan

Officer Ryan is a racist, power-hungry Los Angeles police officer. At home, he lives and cares for his sick father. He repeatedly gets into arguments with Shaniqua Johnson, the representative for his father’s health insurance company, because he feels she is preventing his father from getting medical care. He uses his position as a white police officer to take out his anger on minorities. He repeatedly insults Shaniqua for being black, and he calls her an affirmative-action hire. Additionally, he molests Christine Thayer during a “pat-down” in front of her husband. Though he attempts to redeem his past actions by saving Christine from a burning car, his hatred is indicative of a greater problem—the racist practices of American law enforcement.

Officer Tom Hansen

In the beginning of the film, young Officer Hansen is a foil character to his partner, Officer Ryan. While Ryan is confrontational, Hansen is incredibly passive—he stands by as he watches Ryan molest Christine, and he is unable to admit the true reasons he seeks reassignment. However, unlike many of the other characters in the film, Hansen appears to have a moral conscience—he recognizes Ryan’s wrongdoing and later successfully defends Cameron. Yet, as Officer Ryan once predicted, Hansen’s idleness eventually transforms to aggression. This anger culminates in the scene in which he shoots Peter in his car.

Cameron Thayer

Cameron Thayer is a successful television director. He drives the same model of car as the Cabots, and he and his wife, Christine, are pulled over during the night of the carjacking. It is significant that both he and Christine are light-skinned—their appearance further complicates their relationship with their racist society. After he fails to intervene as Christine is sexually assaulted by Officer Ryan, Cameron’s marriage begins to deteriorate. We learn that Cameron faces discrimination in his professional life, and he attempts to hide his frustrations in an effort to conform to his white-dominated workplace. After Christine’s assault, we begin to see Cameron’s anger. When Anthony and Peter attempt to carjack his vehicle, his fury explodes—he is willing to risk losing his life in order to fight back against his aggressors. While Christine tries to confront Cameron about her racial identity, Cameron remains unable to voice his true feelings. In this regard, Cameron is characterized as possessing feelings of both rage and shame.

Christine Thayer

Christine Thayer is Cameron’s wife. After the couple is pulled over, Christine confronts Officer Ryan for his unjust practices. Christine’s combat is met with further violence, as Officer Ryan molests her during a “pat down.” Following this incident, Christine becomes infuriated at her husband’s passivity. At their home later that evening, Christine tells Cameron that he is ashamed of his blackness. Later in the film, she must come face to face with her aggressor as Officer Ryan rescues her from a dangerous car accident. During this confrontation with the police, Christine, like her husband, acknowledges her overwhelming feelings of shame.

Anthony is Peter’s friend and accomplice. While Peter is generally amiable and forgiving, Anthony is angry about the injustices that he faces as a black man in Los Angeles. This frustration fuels his criminal activities. In one of the film’s opening scenes, he retaliates against Jean Cabot’s microaggression and carjacks the couple’s vehicle. Soon, it is revealed that the two regularly steal cars at gunpoint in an effort to earn money. Anthony’s behavior changes after he fails to successfully carjack Cameron’s SUV. When Cameron offers to take the fall for Anthony and then explains how Anthony’s behavior is “shameful,” Anthony changes for the better. In the film’s final scene, he is shown releasing the human trafficking prisoners.

Peter is Anthony’s friend and accomplice. Though he participates in numerous criminal activities, he seems to believe that people are inherently good. Unlike Anthony, Peter is not fueled by anger or frustration. Peter is spiritual, and he carries around a small statue of Saint Christopher for good luck. Ironically, this statue brings him to his unlucky and unjust death. As he reaches in his pocket to show Officer Hansen his statuette, Hansen suspects that Peter is going to pull out a gun. The officer hastily shoots Peter, killing him instantly. Later, we discover that Peter is Graham Waters’s missing brother.

Daniel Ruiz

Daniel is a locksmith who consistently faces discrimination in the workplace. Along with his wife and five-year-old daughter Lara, he has recently moved from a dangerous neighborhood with rampant gun violence. Both Jean Cabot and Farhad racially profile Daniel and unfairly suspect him of criminal activity. However, Daniel remains calm, and he continually takes the shorter end of the stick in order to avoid confrontation. Farhad wrongly suspects Daniel of breaking into his store, and he seeks to avenge this innocent family man.

Lara is Daniel’s five-year-old daughter. After work one night, Daniel arrives home to find Lara hiding from the sound of gunshots under her bed. In order to ease her anxieties, Daniel gives her an “invisible impenetrable cloak.” Later, when Lara witnesses the argument between Farhad and her father, she jumps into Daniel’s arms in order to save him from Farhad’s gun. In just a matter of seconds, Farhad shoots Lara. However, it is revealed that Farhad’s gun was loaded with blanks instead of normal bullets. Lara and Daniel both emerge from the altercation unscathed.

Farhad is a Persian man who owns a convenience store in Los Angeles. We are first introduced to his character at a gun store, where he is purchasing a weapon to protect his family from the vandals who deface his business. In post-9/11 Los Angeles, Farhad is targeted with Islamophobic remarks. After Farhad’s store is robbed and destroyed, he blames Daniel for not changing the locks properly. He aims to avenge Daniel, and stalks the locksmith at his house. During their argument, Farhad shoots Lara, who has jumped into Daniel’s arms mid-fight. However, thanks to Farhad’s daughter, Dorri, his gun is loaded with blanks. Farhad is incredibly grateful that Daniel and his family are unharmed, and he considers Lara his “guardian angel.”

Dorri is Farhad’s adult daughter. Throughout the film, Dorri takes on the role of mediator—she translates for her father and attempts to make peace with the people he comes in contact with. After Farhad is kicked out of the gun store, Dorri completes his gun purchase. However, instead of buying standard bullets, Dorri asks for blanks. This act saves the life of Lara when Farhad aims to shoot Daniel after Farhad’s store is destroyed.

Shaniqua Johnson

Shaniqua Johnson is a representative at a health insurance company. Officer Ryan calls her in order to negotiate a different health plan for his sick father, but Johnson is unable to help. Frustrated, Ryan lashes out and attacks Johnson with a series of racial slurs. The next day, Officer Ryan comes to Shaniqua’s office in order to ask for assistance once again. After recognizing Ryan and his behavior from their previous phone call, Johnson refuses to help Ryan. After Ryan calls her an affirmative action hire, he is escorted out of her office. In the film’s closing scene, Shaniqua exchanges a series of racially-charged slurs after she is rear-ended by an Asian driver.

Kim Lee is the wife of Choi Chin Gui. She gets into an accident with Detective Waters and Ria as she is on her way to visit her husband in a hospital. She insults Ria for being Latina, while she herself faces discrimination for being Asian.

Choi Chin Gui

Choi Chin Gui is Kim Lee’s husband. He is run over by Anthony and Peter in the middle of their carjacking operation and later brought to a hospital. At the end of the film, it is revealed that Gui is involved in a human-trafficking scheme.

Crash Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Crash is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Anna was paired with Danielle and said she liked being her partner. She also says, ”I wonder now if Mr. Terupt knew what he was starting between me and Danielle” (37). What does she mean by this?

I litterally love these books, okay so Mr. Terupt just made a bond between Danielle and Anna when he had paired them together so they had starting talking more and more as time porgressed

Why didn't the insurance cover (Persian guy's) ruined store?

I believe the store wasn't covered because the door hadn't been fixed properly.

Why was Jean yelling at Rick in their house?

Jean yells at Rick because he doesn't take her seriously when she says she wants the locks changed.

Rick: You've had a really tough night. I think it would be best if you just went upstairs right now and... Jean: [Interrupting] And what? Wait for...

Study Guide for Crash

Crash study guide contains a biography of director Paul Haggis, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Crash
• Crash Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for Crash

Crash essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Crash directed by Paul Haggis.

• The Damaging Treatment of Racism and the Assertion of Stereotypes in “Crash”

Wikipedia Entries for Crash

• Introduction

Crash Movie Analysis: All You Need to Know in a Nutshell

Students who are assigned a Crash movie analysis frequently have more questions than answers.

If you have conflicting feelings after watching this 2004 American drama film, you are not alone. However, you shouldn’t worry, because here you will find everything you need to know to make your Crash film review just perfect.

Positive or negative review?

The first thing you should know when starting your Crash film analysis is that you should not make it totally positive or totally negative. Yes, this movie received three (!!!) Oscars and was included in several lists of the best movies of all times.

However, it was reasonably criticized for reinforcing racial stereotypes and indirectly promoting the idea of white supremacy. Paradoxically, the movie motivating spectators to end racism on a personal level is full of prejudices and underlying motifs of white privilege. These are the questions you may ask in your film analysis essay:

• Why are all white characters in the film socially and economically secure?
• Why does a Hispanic character Daniel go with a shaved head and heavy tattoos?
• Why do Asian characters lack development and only exchange racial insults with others or are run over by a car?

Memorable scenes

The second thing you should remember is to minimize the Crash film summary. Most tutors will not appreciate a complete retelling of the plot. It would be better to express your stand and discuss only the most memorable episodes to support your claims. Here are some impressive scenes you may include into your Crash movie analysis to show that everyone has racial stereotypes:

• People do not trust a Hispanic locksmith Daniel, assuming that he is a member of a gang on no other grounds except the fact that he has many tattoos and a shaved head. A white middle class woman, Jean, is afraid that Daniel will give copies of their keys to the members of his gang. A Persian shop owner, Farhad, does not believe Daniel and refuses to change a shattered door of his shop. Because of that door, Farhad’s shop is robbed.
• Daniel’s daughter is afraid of sleeping in her bed when she hears a gunshot in their street. Daniel wants to comfort his child and tells her to use an imaginary cloak making her invisible. Later on, the girl tries to save her father with that ‘invisible cloak’ from angry Farhad who decides to take revenge for his shop.
• Tom Hansen is a white policeman who is irritated by the racist remarks of his partner Ryan and asks to switch his partner. However, Hansen kills a black guy, Peter, thinking that Peter draws a gun on him, whereas in fact Peter does not.
• Ryan is a white policeman who makes racist remarks and sexually molests a black woman, Christine, when searching her, but later saves Christine’s life by pulling her out of a burning car.

Wow, I’m the first to comment? I thought the movie was excellent! All I saw was how much that we are alike as human beings. We all want to help our parents (the little girl, the 2 cops & the shop owners daughter). When we as human beings realize that we all have more in common than differences, then we can all understand each others differences. Families love each other regardless of race or culture! That’s what I got out of it!

Why are all white characters in the film socially and economically secure? Um…. the white couple whose car was stolen were well off, but the white cop whose sick father couldn’t get decent health care and was in excruciating pain every night was hardly socially and economically secure! And the Hispanic dad’s tattoos were from when he was younger — they don’t exactly rub off. (eye roll)

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Movie Review “Crash”

Updated 14 April 2022

Subject Movies

Downloads 50

Category Entertainment

Topic Crash ,  Movie Review

“Crash” is film that was directed by Paul Haggis, and launched in 2005 as a social commentary concerning social and racial pressures in Los Angeles. In the beginning of the film, one of the black characters, Graham Waters, says that he believed that Los Angeles did no longer have any touch sense between people, and that men and women crashed into each other with an goal of wanting to feel something. In essence, a contact is a form of human connection, while the phrase feel is used to mesmerize an emotional sense. In a society, people desire to have associations with one another, be moved and experience a shared human existence. Although there are very many peripheral issues in the society that divide humans, their search for a common human connection persists (Taulbee, 2006). This search for a shared connection between humans in the society provides the movie “Crash”, with various sociological themes that will be explored in this paper, especially the theme of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and global inequality, social structure and interactions.Gender and SexualityThe film has shown the manner in which people’s connection with one another can be hindered by gender roles. Especially, “Crash” has examined the traditional role of men of providing and protecting. In a particular scene, Cameron, who is a film director of African American origin is pulled over together with his wife by John Ryan, who is a racist officer of police. Soon the police officer starts checking for weapons and frisks Cameron’s wife in a sexually manner. The wife expected her husband to protect her, but Cameron responds to the officer with no aggression. The wife goes ahead to accuse her husband of permitting the police officer to humiliate her so that the people he worked with would not read about the incident in the papers and realize that he was black. However, it could be argued that Cameron was torn between his role as a protector and as a provider because if he lost his job as a result of the incident, he would not be able to provide for his family, but this strain of role is perceived as precipitated by the encountered discrimination based on race. On the other hand, Cameron is portrayed as angry concerning his wife’s initial hostility towards the officer despite his orders to comply, which according to Cameron was reckless. This same recklessness brought them trouble, and the wife ended up wounding his pride by making him feel insufficient.Race and EthnicityThe conflicts that are portrayed in the film are shown to have been rooted on unfounded conjectures and fears concerning race and ethnicity other than individual’s own. The film has explored many interconnected plots that vividly portray the dilemmas and complexities established by distorted attitudes towards the skin color of people. For example, in the scene of the shopkeeper that is half American and half Iranian, due to his manner of talking and his looks, the neighbors presumed that he was Arab, which is a race that was judged an intolerable. Due to this assumption, when his store was robbed, no neighbor empathized with him and the looters felt no tinge of guilt in their actions. However, the shopkeeper was guilty of ethnocentrism as evidenced in the manner he treated the locksmith. Since the locksmith was a Latino, even though he was very hard working and was an ideal worker, he was suspected to be a member of a gang by the shopkeeper, and fears that he would set up another robbery after repairing the locks. Throughout, the film has portrayed varying appearances of racism and ethnocentrism among the characters and the incorporated plots (Hsu, 2006). Class and Global InequalityThe movie explores the theme of class and global disparity in the contrast of the characters. For instance, the director, who is from African American Origin together with his wife are portrayed to belong in the upper class both in terms of income and education. The director has a good job that he protects and is able to provide for his family’s financial needs. On the other hand, the detective, who is also from African American origin, has worked his way up into a middle class employment, although his mother is an addict of drugs and his brother is involved in unlawful activities. The movie has also shown the District Attorney’s wife that lives in the wealthy neighborhoods, in Brentwood location of Los Angeles, who because of her class cannot have connections with the nanny, who is a struggling Latina due to her class in the society (Taulbee, 2006).Social StructureIn the movie, gender and race are considered as social constructions and not physical qualities. The film depicts the Los Angeles District Attorney fraught to reclaim his public appearance among the voters of black origin by seeking an African American that he could publicly reward. However, although he considered a firefighter that was black who had courageously executed his job, another person says that the firefighter was no black but Iraqi. It is clear that the District Attorney did not know the background of the firefighter as he had no idea that he was Iraqi, but believed him to be African American. According to this scene, it is evident that the racial categories were established and used by people, but the categories failed to comprehensively say much concerning an individual’s true natural heritage and culture. In addition, in another scene of the film, the detective is shown referring to his love partner as Mexican, while she confirms she was not by telling him that her father was from Puerto Rico and her mother from El Salvador.InteractionsIn a society interactions entail manners of actions occurring as people have effects upon one another. “Crash” has depicted various forms of interactions that hinder connections in the Los Angeles society. For example, an innocent woman is humiliated by the police officer, a suffering man is capriciously denied services by the HMO representative, and a man that is outraged purchases a gun to seek revenge against a man that is innocent (Cheadle, Harris, Schulman, Moresco & Haggis, Moresco, 2004). ConclusionThe director of this film had the intention of showing the horrible outcomes of racism by using characters that mirror countless individuals whose assumptions hinder them from seeing the real persons around them. He has ensured that the film portrays the consequences that people in the society endure when they fail to completely consider other people that they inhabit the world with. Paul Haggis has carefully made the audience examine the manner in which people view every walk of life, and shows the outcomes of compromising the basic beliefs of humans as well as the manner in which people in a society live with the outcomes. ReferencesCheadle, D., Harris, M. R., Schulman, C., Moresco, B., & Haggis, P. (Producers); Haggis, P., Moresco, B. (Writer/Director). (2004). Crash. United States: Lionsgate Entertainment.Hsu, H. L. (2006). Racial Privacy, the LA Ensemble Film, and Paul Haggis's" Crash". Film Criticism, 31(1-2), 132-156.Taulbee, S. J. (2006). Film review of the movie Crash. Pastoral Psychology, 55(2), 247-251.

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Film Summary – Crash Essay (763 words)

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In the crime-drama film, “Crash,” several stories of social injustice are portrayed negatively across the city Los Angeles, California. The film discusses the issue of racism towards both individuals and oppressed groups. These character stories: a racist white police officer, a black detective, his brother and a gang member; a rich white business man and his wife, a Persian family that owns a convenience store; a black TV producer and wife; a Hispanic locksmith and daughter all suffer from discrimination based on their race and ethnicity.

Crash captures the realism of these situations happening on a day-to-day basis and the struggle for people to decide what is right and wrong for themselves. The conflict throughout the film is brought in by the character’s mind set on certain stereotypes for certain races. John Ryan (Matt Dillon), the white LVPD police officer calls the local clinic to find he is speaking to a black women when she answers the phone as ” Shaniqua Johnson. In seconds John replies, ” oh big fu*king surprise that is ? making an assumption based on a stereotype of her name and hangs up. When John visits the clinic in person and is greeted by Shaniqua, he is refused the help he needs and continues to insult her. This, however is a case where the victim has more power over the victimizer, which is uncommon. The other case happens more frequently in the movie. The Persian immigrant family has a broken lock and door on their store so they call the Hispanic locksmith for repairs.

The locksmith switches the lock and tells the owner the door has to be changed in order for it to lock to work, creating an argument between the two. The next day the store is broken into and the Persian owner is left blaming the locksmith that he broken in, based on his race, not the facts. Over and over unfair stereotypes are engraved on groups negatively that only result in conflict. Crash also demonstrates that if stereotypes are created it may be more reason for some people to follow them.

Just before two black gang members steal a couples SUV, they look to each other as the wife clings on to her husband while they walk by ” Look around you, you couldn’t find a whiter, a safer, better lit part of this city right now, but yet this white woman sees two black guys that look like UCLA students strolling down the sidewalk and the reaction is blind fear. ? From the lady’s perspective, it is obvious she is scared of the two men, but later in the movie she mentions she did not intentionally mean to be racist. Does this make stereotypes a part of the way we behave and live life?

There is no instance where racism portrays a positive outcome. Whether it is towards someone, or against you, the effects are all prejudice. Paul includes an example where the Hispanic locksmith’s family being almost broken apart because of the convenience store owner’s discrimination. The owner assumed the locksmith was the one to break into his store and threatened to kill him family soon after. Or when one of the black gang members hitched a ride with a white man. The black man wanted to show him something in his pocket and before he even had the chance the white man pulled a gun and shot him.

This ultimately shows that he assumed the worst in this man when all he wanted to share with him was a keychain he saw as good luck charm that resulted with his life was taken. Finally Crash includes how racial discrimination can be ended. When Jean (Sandra Bullock) the rich wife falls down the stairs, unable to get up, she calls her best friend to come over. Her supposed “best friend ? though chooses to get a massage instead of come help. Jean instead called her Mexican maid, Maria whom she treats unfairly all the time. Maria then takes care of her bringing Jean to an epiphany that her only true friend is Maria.

In conclusion, the film “Crash” provides a strong message of the situations racial discrimination portrays in society daily. The stereotypes people have enforced, are now a part of life, whether it’s intentional or not. What makes the movie’s message more powerful and persuasive than others is that Haggis leads the audience to choose what they truthfully believe is the right versus wrong rather than just tell you what is. Altogether, “Crash” demonstrates the realism of social injustice throughout our societies by racial and ethnicity discrimination.

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Film Summary – Crash Essay (763 words). (2018, Jul 23). Retrieved from https://artscolumbia.org/film-summary-crash-53788/

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