Crash, Movie Review Example

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.