"Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gangbangers? Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared, it's us: the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the triggerhappy LAPD. So, why aren't we scared?" Anthony (Played by Ludacris)
The movie "Crash", written and dirceted by Paul Haggins, is a mixture of irony and stereotypes. It takes the viewer through the lives of several different main characters, each having differnent backrounds and upbringings, that just so happen to be involoved one way or another with the other main characters lives.
Throughout "Crash" we find one major, and obvious, theme, being racism. Haggins uses characters and irony to show that each person, be it subtle or obvious, has some bit of prejudice or racist thoughts. Lippman would say that we have preconcieved pictures in our heads of they ways in which people of a certain race or gender are to act. We, finding out the opposite is also true, tend to be shocked and awed. Although Haggins does show racism in a few scenes subtly, most of the time his tactics are a bit over the top. This, among other things, makes the movie most unblievable.
That is probably the biggest downfall of the movie. Something like this should be able to send a message, really make the viewer feel it and want to act, or atleast think, differently after having watched it. It should be powerful, not poking fun or over the top.
I'm not saying I've wasted part of my life by viewing the movie, but I wouldn't take the time to watch it again.
Think I've crashed and burned? Read this...
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