Review of Crash (2005) by Filipeneto — 09 Oct 2020

This film is quite interesting for several reasons, and I can understand why it won the Oscar for "Best Film" in 2006: its a film that combines several stories around a theme that was relevant that year: racism and prejudice. At that time, many people thought that it won this award so that it wouldn't end up in more "gay friendly" films ("Capote" and "Brokeback Mountain", also nominated), but I think that's an unfair idea. "Crash" is a film with more merit than it looks, although it went unnoticed through the theaters then.

The script joins a series of isolated stories and sub-plots around a single theme: prejudice, the way we judge someone by their color, ethnicity or social origin. In the film, this is the great "leitmotiv" that unites all the stories, making the plot very difficult to describe succinctly. The characters do not know each other, they are not connected, but they get to know each other through casual situations, which could happen to ourselves: going to a store, repairing a lock, stealing a car, a routine police stop. Its necessary to pay attention, and even so I guarantee that many intentional details will go unnoticed - I had to see the film three times to be able to evaluate it fairly, and to write this review cost me a few hours of reading too.

Another important detail is the extreme quality of the dialogues. There is no theatricality or politically correct: a negro is a negro. The language is crude, although it does not use profanity or slang. The way it affects the characters is genuine and we can put ourselves in their shoes. About this, its a film that can be quite hard to endure, especially for those who have been through situations of prejudice. Of course, its an admittedly militant film with some moralizing edge, given that it tries to convey an anti-racist message and defend this, but the cinema is full of militant films and I think this will only displease seriously those who oppose that more fiercely. Personally, I handled it very well.

Although it has a carefully selected cast, with some big names, we cannot say that there is a protagonist. Everyone is a protagonist in the story that concerns them. Personally, I liked the performance of Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe in the role of two very different policeman; Don Cheadle wears the skin of an investigator; Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser gave us characters from the white elite; Thandie Newton and Terrence Howard were also excellent in the role of rich and successful black people; Larenz Tate and Ludacris are good at the two outcasts; the film also features the excellent performances of Michael Peña, Bahar Soomekh, Loretta Devine, Jennifer Esposito, Howard Fong and Shaun Toub. Of course, given the theme, many of the characters - not to say almost all - will have attitudes that will displease us, but they were thought like that.

Technically, the film has one of the best editing works I've seen in a long time: despite the intricate plot and mix of stories, everything is logical and in the right place, justifying the Oscar for Best Editing that it also received. The film runs at a very pleasant pace too, without wasting time. But its basically just that! The film conveys the feeling of having been thought for TV and is marked by uninteresting technical elements: a regular cinematography, sets and costumes and an almost atonal soundtrack. Technically, its a film that I would compare to food without salt: it has no flavor.