Crash is Paul Haggis’s famous follow up to his first critically acclaimed film Million Dollar Baby, and with his reputation on the line, Haggis has rolled up his sleeves to create a film that in many eyes is a rarity. Crash is a hackneyed masterpiece.
The film portrays the lives of many characters over thirty six hours as they encounter taut situations of racial discrimination. Among the mass of characters that plague the film, several others stand out and prove to be more than their one dimensional stereotype. Characters like Jean Cabbot (Sandra Bullock), a rich and spoiled housewife whose nerves erode and shatter after being carjacked; Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), a son of a sick father and racist cop who sexually harasses a black women; Daniel (Michael Peña), a Hispanic locksmith who aims to provide for his naive daughter Laura despite being stereotyped as a “gang member” and Farhad (Shaun Toub), a Persian shopkeeper with an ‘Osama’ face of which he holds a grudge to after the disturbing 9/11 disaster. Are you exhausted yet? I know I am. Set in modern day Downtown LA, all characters are linked together by a chain of events that has turned into a cascade of problems and mistakes.
Crash is a perfectly good film for it’s sad tone and I have to say that I enjoyed it far more that I should have but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. …show more content…
There’s nothing it does rather strongly, that hasn’t at least been equaled, and in similar fashion, by preceding films. Discrimination, segregation and hate. Whilst very important, it is overplayed. It’s ethnocentric themes are standing in the long shadow of previous films who have otherwise attempted the same ideas with success. Films like To Kill a Mockingbird, Jungle Fever and Remember the Titans have outshone the film’s themes and plot. By now, a film about racism is too common for the 21st Century and has resulted it in becoming very, very
The film portrays the lives of many characters over thirty six hours as they encounter taut situations of racial discrimination. Among the mass of characters that plague the film, several others stand out and prove to be more than their one dimensional stereotype. Characters like Jean Cabbot (Sandra Bullock), a rich and spoiled housewife whose nerves erode and shatter after being carjacked; Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), a son of a sick father and racist cop who sexually harasses a black women; Daniel (Michael Peña), a Hispanic locksmith who aims to provide for his naive daughter Laura despite being stereotyped as a “gang member” and Farhad (Shaun Toub), a Persian shopkeeper with an ‘Osama’ face of which he holds a grudge to after the disturbing 9/11 disaster. Are you exhausted yet? I know I am. Set in modern day Downtown LA, all characters are linked together by a chain of events that has turned into a cascade of problems and mistakes.
Crash is a perfectly good film for it’s sad tone and I have to say that I enjoyed it far more that I should have but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. …show more content…
There’s nothing it does rather strongly, that hasn’t at least been equaled, and in similar fashion, by preceding films. Discrimination, segregation and hate. Whilst very important, it is overplayed. It’s ethnocentric themes are standing in the long shadow of previous films who have otherwise attempted the same ideas with success. Films like To Kill a Mockingbird, Jungle Fever and Remember the Titans have outshone the film’s themes and plot. By now, a film about racism is too common for the 21st Century and has resulted it in becoming very, very