Crash film review

Crash is a film released in 2004 and directed by Paul Haggis. The characters are from different backgrounds and races in order to represent the widespread make up of the American population. From the start of the film is clear that racism is the main subject as most of the characters perform at least one act of racism, either minor or major throughout the course of the film. As the film employs an ensemble cast, each character has roughly the same amount of screen time allowing us to see the actions they perform and what happens as a result. By doing this, it shows that every act of racism and similar hateful acts have a consequence such as the black woman refusing to be rescued out of a burning car by a white cop because he had sexually molested her earlier in the film. The film also attacks racial stereotypes, showing how wrong they are. This is displayed in a scene in which a white woman played by Sandra Bullock wanted her locks changed again even though they had just been changed, because she thought that the Hispanic locksmith was a gang member, it eventually turned out that he was a devoted husband and father. Another point was to show the hypocrisy which people can show in regards to race. This is portrayed by the relationship between two white cops, where the younger of the two was so appalled at the racism the other one took part in that he decided to patrol the city on his own. However, he ends up assuming that the young black man in his car was going to shoot him, so he killed him, when in fact the black man didn’t have a gun, making him an even worse person that the person he was appalled at.

In conclusion, the film crash is extremely powerful, showing the problems and affects of racism with characters that seem like they could be real. As a result of most of the characters lives interlocking with each other at least once, the affects of racism and their actions can be clearly seen, which makes it an even more powerful and emotional film. Although there are many critics of the film such as David White who said that “it’s really funny when Hollywood decides to tackle a serious moral issue and throw star-powered weight behind something that everyone but Neo-Nazi’s agrees on already.” This, in my opinion is the exact type of person Crash is aimed at, someone who believes that racism hardly exists outside the extremely racist groups. I feel that the film Crash is trying to show people that racism is still rife, however minor, in American cities, even well known places such as Los Angeles, and only when people know it still goes on and change their actions because it is wrong, will it finally be gone.