Obtain and Watch Crash, Essay Example

The basic premise of this movie is how several characters living in the greater Los Angeles area interact with each other by either direct or known interaction or by chance through a series of sometimes purposeful actions and sometimes by coincidence.  Over the course of two days a multitude of characters interact.  These characters include an African American Los Angeles Police officer, his younger brother that is associated with a gang, a Caucasian District Attorney and his wife, a racist police officer an African American director, an immigrant shop owner and a Hispanic locksmith.

Through the course of the two days the interactions and blatant overtone of racial inequalities are represented in the interactions that each cast member has with one another.  The racism is not brash and one sided but the undertone is that all people involved have their stereotypes and racial issues.  These racial tensions stem from misunderstanding and ignorance of the other’s culture and background.  The first interaction tracks along a crime scene where there was a discrepancy on who had the right of way and this lead to a verbal altercation between an Asian couple exchange racial slurs with the other party in the crash.  Just hours earlier, the immigrant shop owner went to purchase a gun for protection from a local gun shop.  Meanwhile the district attorney is carjacked and his Cadillac Escalade is taken.  When the DA returns home his wife is complaining about the problems with minorities and how they are thieves and thugs.  The Hispanic locksmith is upgrading their locks and overhears the comments made about him.  Later that day, police officers respond to a shooting in which a black male was murdered and a white male was the shooter.  Both were undercover officers.

The Cadillac that was stolen was on the police officer’s radar and so the police officers pull over a Cadillac even though the description does not fit.  The black director is driving and he is removed from his vehicle while his wife is physically abused through a pat down.  The people that did steal the Cadillac ran over an immigrant Asian man and dropped his body off at the hospital.  The Hispanic locksmith is now at the shop owner that purchased the gun.  He tries to explain that the door is broken but the shop owner does not understand him and thinks he is trying to con him out of money.  Later that day the shop is broken into and the shop owner vows revenge and find the address of the locksmith on the invoice.  The shop owner goes to the house of the locksmith with his new gun and opens fire on the locksmith.  The bullets his daughter had purchased were blanks.

The director’s wife that was accosted was in an accident.  The person that committed the physical assault finds the wife and must help her get out of the car.  The wife is screaming due to the fact the savior is also the person that harmed her.

The black police officer’s brother is picked up hitchhiking by one of the car thieves.  Through a misunderstanding the car thief thinks the police officer’s brother is pulling a gun and is shot dead.  The other carjacker returns to the point where they ran over the Asian man.  He takes the Asian man’s van and goes to a chop shop.  At the chop shop it is found that there are a group of illegal immigrants in the rear.  Each are set free after the carjacker is paid for the van.

Reference

Crash. Dir. Paul Higgis Perf. Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate, Michael Pena DVD. Lionsgate, Pathe`.