Review: "Crash" Directed by Paul Haggis

Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, is a film that exposes stereotypes about the diverse cultures found in the city of Los Angeles. The movie takes you on a journey through the lives of people who hold preconceived notions about the people they come in contact with everyday. Each character represents a specific race and social class, and finds themselves judging others based on appearances, some to be justified and others to be fatally mistaken.

I found Crash to be eye-opening in the sense that we realize that these stereotypes are out there, but we rarely get to see how they affect the person on the receiving end of them. I think we just have come to terms with the fact that people are going to stereotype different races, and we don't always consider what harm they can do. In fact, we often find such stereotypes used in a comedic sense, which reinforces that they are nothing but humorous and harmless jokes. Crash, attempts to bring all the commonly used stereotypes to the forefront in order to show the negative impact of having such mindsets.

A good example of how stereotypes are created and continue is shown in one of the first scenes in the movie. The character played by Ludacris and his friend come out of a diner and complain that they got bad service because they were Black. He continues to explain that he believes they got bad service because of the stereotype that Black people don't tip. His friend then asks "Well, did you tip her?" Ludacris' character responds "Hell no, not for that kinda service!" It is humorous, but it also makes you think into it a little more. Maybe this is how the stereotypes are created, and perhaps they will continue if the same behavior keeps on happening.

Another scene that affected me was when Matt Dillon's character, a racist cop, pulls over a black couple for no apparent reason. He then tells them to step out of the car and searches the woman in front of her husband. He puts his hands up her dress and assaults her and her husband does nothing about it. He feels helpless in the presence of authority, who is supposed to be upholding the law. Matt Dillon's character is showing that he can do whatever he wants because he is in a position of power, and there is nothing that they can do about it. I think this scene frightens the viewer, as it did me, that this sort of thing is probably happening all of the time. It makes us afraid that some Police Officers could be corrupt and using their own prejudice to make decisions instead of the law.

In a scene toward the end of the movie, this same cop tries to save a woman from a burning car, and in the process realizes it is the same woman that he assaulted days earlier. Fearing for her life, she has to plead for his help, and in a moment of human compassion he comforts her and saves her from the burning wreckage. I think this is a powerful scene because it shows that no matter what we look like on the outside, we are all still human beings. We all have the same feelings, hopes, and fears, and that should transcend any racist judgments we make about each other.

The scene that I got the most out of was the scene that involved the shooting outside a Latino man's home. After many separate happenings we learn the events in the two men's lives that lead up to this point. One man, a hardworking Latino man trying to provide for his family, and another, a Middle Eastern shop owner who felt he had been wronged. Seeking revenge for a burglary that he feels is the Latino man's fault, the Middle Eastern man raises a gun to shoot the Latino man, and pulls the trigger right as the Latino man's daughter runs in the way of the "bullet" trying to protect her Daddy. For that second everyone feels horrible and realizes that revenge and race war is not worth the life of an innocent girl who has no conception of what stereotypes mean. It is a heart-wrenching scene to watch and it makes you ask yourself if it is all really worth it.

Crash, although almost humorously stereotypical at points, is extremely effective nonetheless. It proves its point that living in Los Angeles can cause people to come in contact with different races on a daily basis, and that stereotyping can affect the lives of everyone involved. I found it to be thought provoking and cleverly written as all the characters somehow become intertwined in the end. It shows that although we may seem distances from each other in our vastly diverse lives, we are really all not that different.