Review of Crash (2005) by Michaeldn — 03 Mar 2015

People are judging this movie for the wrong reasons. I usually hate when people say something like, "If you didn't like this movie, you didn't understand it," but I'm actually reading the reasons people don't like, and they seem to indicate just that. They say the message is obvious, and then they go on to say the message is that racism is bad. That's not the message. It's already assumed that racism is bad. The movie is pointing out where it exists in seemingly normal circumstances. It challenges the viewer to question how they would've handled certain situations; if they would've been as prejudiced as the characters. The dialogue is thought provoking and interesting. Some say it isn't natural, but neither is Shakespearean dialogue, or the characters singing conversations in movies. It's used to challenge the viewer, and to make them think about important issues that we don't think about. It's not just racism, it's the details of racism's effect on various different people. The discussions may not be natural, but they're based on very real issues.

The movie is also, as Ebert said as well, more about ideas than people. For those who want more character depth, it's not really about the people themselves, but about how people in general are conditioned by society to handle certain situations. It's better that the people be as generic as possible, to show that the way they're acting isn't because of their specific personalities, it's because they are normal people, acting as an average person would. It challenges you to question yourself, instead of showing you a person who has a specific personality that is nothing like yours. Basically, this movie is good in a way that doesn't follow the formula of what traditionally makes a movie good. That's why people have a problem with it. The use of connecting the storylines is not just made for poignancy, it's to show how closely we are connected to each other; how our thoughts and actions have effects on people, and we don't even realize it. It's about how society's views creep so easily into our minds and become our own views, without us thinking anything of it. And to the person who said this writer is in high school, no. He's actually a three time nominee for writing. Two of his movies one Best Picture, another was nominated, and two others got rave reviews and made a ton of critics' lists. He knows what he's doing, even if some people don't understand it.