Color as a Narrative Strategy in the Provocative Movie Titled Crash

Color creates an environment that makes stories more affective. Color themes can have an impact whether it is what the characters are wearing or the cars they're driving. Even subtle tones throughout can have an incredible impact on how the story is understood. There are themes of color in Crash that help get the message across powerfully including: black SUVs, beige bedrooms, red bullet box, red clothes, yellow light rays, and even contrasting skin colors. However, one overlooked color theme is the cool bluish tone that hovers over the film, particularly at night scenes. Due to meanings of blue and cool colors along with the color's subtle correlation with the movie's other themes, Crash becomes more intense and the anti-racist message more stabbing.

Although many movies should not be judged by their cover, Crash's DVD cover introduces the movie's feel. The DVD design for Crash is an affective narrative strategy because the audience goes into it knowing they are in for an emotionally intense ride. The cool tones on the DVD cover along with the sorrowful faces create a sense of melancholy, a primary feeling in Crash caused by racism and its existence today. If warm colors, especially red, took over the DVD cover, viewers would go into the movie ready to get angry; however, the softer green-blue color theme leads viewers into the movie ready to feel glum, yet more accepting of the reality Crash portrays. The colors on the DVD cover help begin the story and ultimately deepen its message. The cool tones seep behind the viewers' minds making the affect subtle, even unconscious for some, but nonetheless have an impact on how the viewer takes in the movie.

In many cultures blue represents youth, unity, spirits, and tranquility. In a physical meaning, blue represents the sky and the ocean. Crash is anything but a soothing or tranquil film; yet, the cool tones, particularly blue, are used. To make unity among the characters, blue and other cool tones are subtly thrown throughout Crash because of their overpowering ocean-like qualities. This bluish overtone or blue feeling is shown in many night scenes; one that stands out is when Christine is sexually assaulted by Officer Ryan. Despite connections here and there, some of the characters never meet, so the overall color theme helps the viewer believe and keep track of the various storylines.

Color themes, specifically in Crash, help strengthen other narrative strategies, advance the messages, and further other themes. It is hard to follow Crash's narrative strategy of making connections by giving bits and pieces; for example, there is no direct connection between the Persian daughter and Detective Graham except when the viewer sees that she is assisting the autopsy of his brother. Because some of the connections between characters like this are indirect, the overall feeling, cool tone, and color themes of the movie help viewers simultaneously sympathize with all characters. This also ties into an important message the creators of Crash wanted to indicate-there is no real antagonist. The unity and overpowering qualities of cool tones encourage viewers to make similarities between characters. At first glance, there are no similarities between Jean, the rich wife, and Anthony, the black thug; however, by analyzing each character, the viewer can see how incredibly alike they are. As Jean said, "I am angry all the time and I don't know why." They are both angry, mainly at society. The most noticeable theme in Crash is racism. Each character at some point is in a scene where there are blue or cool color themes. If blue acts as a race and each character is partly blue, it elevates proof that the characters have more in common than first realized. This may even confuse the viewer about why they treat each other so differently-the color themes make the race differences less important to the viewer; hence, the interaction between the characters due to race feels more exaggerated.

Color themes, tonal themes, and even emotional themes in movies are often subtle. Yet, they play a large role in how a story is told and how a story is taken in. In Crash, the cool color tones evident in many scenes makes the viewing of it different than if there were warm or no color tone themes. The bluish tone in Crash creates an overwhelming melancholy feeling that communicates to the viewer that society can be racist, but people still accept it and that is a sad quality. The anti-racist message in Crash becomes more intense and affective due to the use of cool tones in certain scenes. Meanings of blue and cool colors along with the color's subtle correlation with the movie's other themes gets the overall message of Crash across.