Review of Crash (2005) by Donp — 04 Jun 2005

This film bravely looks rasicm in the eye and exposes it for what it is - cultural insensitivity and misunderstanding that becomes generalized to a set of people defined by color or race or whatever. There are a number of scenes where a person of one race or background doesn't get what a person of another race or background is doing, saying, or intending with his actions and the results are tragic (or potentially so).

Sure it's unrealistic in terms of too many coincidences but the whole idea is he's telling the story of people who's lives were intertwined by the various car accidents. To suggest that Haggis was supposed to offer a solution to the racial conflicts in this film, misses the point.

By showing how insensitivities balloon into true danger (or in a few cases how being sensitized can help defuse a difficult situation) he is giving us all a mirror into which we can look and ask ourselves: do I do that? And if enough people asked that, and dealt with it, we'd have a less racist society.

There is no other solution that could be offered. I never saw the "Magnolia" movie people mention here but I did see parallels to "Amores Perros" and to "21 Grams". Tthe method of story telling is a fairly effective way to draw together all these disparate people into a series of mini-dramas that you could follow in one film.

Finally I was surprised by Sandra Bullock, who I thought was great, and thought all the performances were superb. Tell everyone to see this movie.