I finally got my hands on a copy last night, and was anticipating a real thought provoking, honest film. I would have gotten what I was expecting if I was twelve years old again and the movie was an after school special on ABC in 1987.
Basically, the movie is a mosaic of people from many different backgrounds and ethnicities in Los Angeles; there's a towelhead, a chink or two, some spicks, some honkeys, and a couple of niggers. (I kid, I kid.) Anyway, the film spotlights not only the stereotypes all these people have held against them, but also the bias they each have against people of other races. The stories of everyone is interwoven, and shows how one person's ignorant attitudes and beliefs can have a rippling effect throughout other's lives.
To have a movie that aims to show how all of us have biases and how they act as a poison to everyone in the community is excellent; more films should try and take on tough subjects like this. We've had enough romantic comedies and shitty horror films, and it's time Hollywood gets rid of these formulaic movies in favor of those that will spark thought and change in the world.
However, this movie doesn't accomplish that goal. I give Lions Gate credit for taking a chance and not making another movie starring Ben Stiller and that whole bunch of unfunny retards. But the problem is, this movie didn't really break any new ground or give anything to the audience that they could walk away with and truly look inside themselves at the stereotypes they walk around with.
The best analogy I can think of for what this movie really was is a classic sitcom storyline, say from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air: Uncle Phil has some clients over ,and he wants to appease them in any way he can so he'll get the big account. Turns out the head guy, Mr. Anderson, is a racist, and says things to the family like, "I'm glad to see a black family making a difference in the world instead of dealing drugs and robbing people." The audience goes, "OOOOOOOOOOH!!!", Will says something like "Oh no you didn't!", everyone laughs, and Uncle Phil left with a choice: keep kissing the guy's ass, or throw him out and lose the big account. In the end, Uncle Phil doesn't let his family be abused by this bigot, and throws him out, with the studio audience cheering.
This to me is a good description of most of he characters in Crash; most of them are so blatantly racist, they are not believable characters. Not many people are so openly racist to say things like, "Shaniqua? Figures a NIGGER would say that," or "I don't want this spick gangbanger in my house. He's going to give copies of our keys to all his drug dealer friends and they'll come in with Uzis and kill us."
This is too common a way to portray racists, and fortunately most people aren't this blatant with their biases. The one character who I think was an excellent example of how most people can be bias was Ryan Phillipe's character: he doesn't put up with his cop partner's racial profiling, and is respectful to his black superior officer. But when he picks up a black hitchhiker, and he thinks he is about to pull out a gun, the fear he has of African Americans is shown. To me, this was the best written character and scene in the movie. Most people won't walk around with a Confederate flag wrapped around their head, but whose true colors will show when they feel in danger.
Also, they movie really gives no resolution to the story; it shows each person's racist views, but doesn't really show anybody learning their lesson, or somehow changing their ways. It does this on only a very slight scale. I would've been much more satisfied by the film if it contained some scene where two people with different ideologies frankly discussing why they have the biases they do, and receiving some understanding from each other on how they're wrong. But that didn't happen. I really didn't get the feeling at the end of the film that any of the characters would change their ways. And sure, you could make the argument, "But that's how life really is, most people don't change," but I don't buy it.
Crash could have dealt with bias other than race as well. There was nothing in the film about stereotypes stemming from religion or sexual orientation. Personally, I think there is more hate against gays today than any of the races combined. Stereotypes against Jewish and Islamic people were also inexplicably left out of the movie. To leave this out of the film in this day and age makes the movie much less valuable.
I didn't think Crash did anything different than other movies about racism. It had characters that embodied every bad thing about their race, whose ignorance was on a scale rarely seen today (at least publicly.) If the characters had been better written, and had included many various types of bias, I would have appreciated it much more.
Overall, this is a rental at best, but only if you're very interested in the topic.
Grade: C+
See? This is what I mean, the movie is so unrealistic. Everyone knows
black men don't wear scarfs.
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