Crash (2004) Directed by Paul Haggis. Stars Don Cheadle, Ryan Phillipe, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Karina Arroyave, Keith David, Tony Danza, Ludacris, Larenz Tate, Michael Peña, Terrence Howard, and Brendan Fraser.
Film reviews in five words or less: Man, white people just suck!
Head Hanky but not Arab?
Have to disagree here Jeff. Other than the cretinous, redneck gun shop owner, I found all of the characters anything but stereotypical.
I went into the movie looking for leftist offense and – after the subplots started to interweave and the characters to develop – I found myself truly moved. The minority characters were just as flawed, complex and interesting as the white ones.
I didn’t think the white characters were complex or interesting at all. In fact, they represented nothing so much as the spectrum of racism—from the overt to the opportunistic.
Only Matt Dillon’s father is presented without racist taint—but even that is mitigated by the narrative fact that everything we know of his character comes from his son, who is clearly determined to justify his own racism (Dillon’s character reminded me of the Edward Norton character from American History X).
Did ya notice the corn-rowed carjacker use the word “articulate” as being complimentary of African Americans?
So did the movie, which was about as nuanced and thought provoking as stubbing your toe. It was like a mad scientist found a way to grow irony and it escaped the petrie dish and took over the whole film. Man, did I hate this!
I thought the movie was fair. No one escaped condemnation; except maybe the maid, Maria.
What about the locksmith? Or the Persian daughter and mother?
Besides,the question isn’t so much about escaping condemnation; what interests me is what are the various characters being condemned for?
I thought the movie was absolutely atrocious in dealing with race. In fact, it struck me as one of those movies that thought itself brave for dealing with the “tough issues” of race—then created ludicrous caricatures to fulfill that mandate. It was a joke.
It’s modern-day puritanism. We live in a fallen world where everybody sucks, especially us (whoever is making the statement takes pains to highlight the extent to which the speaker is the lowliest of the lowly). When people actually bought into it, it did help prevent the unbearable smugness you get a lot these days.
Of course, the Puritans also had God’s grace to celebrate – the evidence indicates that they were, surprisingly, pretty happy people all in all. Of course, today’s puritans have forgotten the grace/happy part, so all they’re left with is that everybody sucks, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.
What the hell was the moral of American History X? Am I the only one that come away thinking that all the lessons Norton learned about how ignorant his racist ideas are, were pretty much destroyed when his little brother was murdered by those black dudes.
One day someone will make a (good) film from “Absalom, Absalom” and that’ll be the definitive movie about race.
The movie’s biggest sin is that it overstated its case by such a wide margin that whatever was worth listening to got lost in the noise.
To an extent, a movie always has to exaggerate to create drama–if the movie was just a dry retelling of daily events, it would be about as interesting as Al Gore (pre-firebrand of the party version). I accept this as fact. But this movie was just so unrelenting and condemnatory that it because, as Jeff said, a caricature of reality.
What may have galled me most was, in listening to the “making of” extra features, hearing them talk about how their only guide in writing the script was whether it was a reflection of reality. Bullshit. They had an agenda and concocted a story (not completely without merit) to support that agenda. I defy anyone to tell me that the mush of violence and racism that they concocted was part of typical life in America.
The merit? It allowed the “saints” of the movie to be human and have moments where they do bad things, and there were some good performances.
It was hardly the worst movie I’ve seen, but it still had me shaking my head by the end. There were a few funny moments, a few moments where it almost seemed thoughtful, and then a ton of stuff that just didn’t come close to touching the reality of the America that I live in.
For the record, I loved American History X, but that would be another conversation.
There were a few funny moments,
Many funny moments.
I defy anyone to tell me that the mush of violence and racism that they concocted was part of typical life in America.
A few acts of violence in one 36 hour period are nothing compared to the reality.
I think the portrayals of racism were a challenge to the audience; people of every race. I know there is an assumption by some people that we all have latent racism and in the right circumstance we might allow it to rise to the surface. I don’t think it’s as widespread as some believe, but it is certainly there. This is nothing new. Abigail Adams once wrote about her revulsion upon seeing in a play Desdemona in the arms of the ashen Moore. She quickly reprimanded herself for what psycho-babble types would today call her latent or unexamined racism.
I think two characters in the film exemplified what I find most annoying among some of my fellow crackers. The D.A.’s assistant and Tony Danza’s character. They try to relate, to say, “hey it must be rough, I’m not black, but it just seems, I’m not the expert here,†but in the end they look like assholes.
The Crash DVD cover on the shelf said something like it was “easily the best American movie since Mystic River,” which just made me laugh and walk away without it. Mystic River was absolutely craptastic–preachy, self-satisfied, over-dramatitised, simplistic, predictable, and BORING. And if Crash was “better” by those standards, no thanks.
(I note that even Salon thought it was preachy, unrealistic and overwroght.)
How about when Keifer licked that chick’s leg thingy, gah!
I watched “Infernal Affairs” this weekend, a Chinese mob/cop movie. Highly recommend it if you can handle subtitles (or better yet, speak Manderin). Excellent story line, great acting.
In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s review of Crash, the reviewer made the brave assertion that the movie reveals the TRUTH that…wait for it…”we are all racists.”
To which I would reply, fuck you, self-satisfied prick – regardless of your race.
There were a few problems with Crash. First, there were just way too many coincidences. Sure, they happen, but not on this level. I mean cripes, Ludacris, just happens to be riding on a bus that goes right past the van whose owner they practically killed hours earlier? Ryan Phillipe just happens to be out cruising around in his car right in the area where Larenz Tate is hitching a ride. I know it’s a movie, but really.
With regard to the issue of dealing with race, it struck out. People were saying things we know the majority of people do not say in front of others. It just doesn’t happen. In addition, nobody in the story was truly forced to confront their own racism. It was just left out there.
I thought the performances were top notch and I like the way the film was shot, but I didn’t even think too much about the moral part of the story because I was too busy rolling my eyes at how easily these characters intersected.
Am I the only one that come away thinking that all the lessons Norton learned about how ignorant his racist ideas are, were pretty much destroyed when his little brother was murdered by those black dudes.
I don’t think so. It was the racist ideals he passed on to his younger brother that had him blowing smoke in that kids face and antagonizing them at the park. We witnessed Derek’s character change because of his father. And we saw Danny change because of Derek and his skinhead friends who had full access to Danny while older brother was in prison.
just watch ong bak: the tai warrior… I happened to buy both of them the same day and enjoyed ong bak enough that I didn’t care that I wasted $20 on Crash (and burn)