Crash: White People and Movie
Crash (2004) Directory Paul Haggis Crash is a movie that takes place in a two-day period and puts racism right in the face of viewers. From the time the movie starts to the time the movie ends, there is racism covered. The opening scene shows a black couple driving and gets pulled over by two white cops. One of the white cops starts harassing the black couple and leads to comments about race. It quickly turns worse as the white cop starts molesting the female of the couple they pulled over. Which in turn then causes a debate between the black couple about being controlled by white people.
This was just the opening scene of the movie. This is a very powerful scene that leads up to all the events happening during the movie. There is racism in every part of this movie and from every angle. The movie shows how people themselves can be racist toward their own race and others. Crash breaks down stereotypes and shows how each has race certain features that the race has. There were scenes that showed what stereotypes Muslims have and how they talk to each other and own small convenience store. Later in the movie their store was trashed and spray paint on their walls called them “towel heads”.
There was a Mexican lock smith who was in a white woman’s house changing out locks and was said to have the look of gang members and go to his “homies” with an extra set of keys to rob them. Which later shows him with his family at home and him loving his daughter. The list goes on and on with each different race to show stereotypes and how they are perceived and then shows the character in the way they live their life in that movie, being that it a true state of truth or what the real life is. Crash brings real life situations to light. There is a lawyer who even uses a race card to try to get people on his side.
It is not how he honestly feels but it is how he is seen in the public eye. Brendan Fraser plays the, not so popular, role of the lawyer. A very different role for him to play and puts him as a bad character. Every movie he has completed, he has been a good guy type and lovable. Crash puts him into a category where later on could get fans to turn on him for this role. But he does a great job portraying this character truthfully. All the characters in the movie appear to have some kind of connection to each other, but not knowingly connected.
Each character starts their own story, but by the end of the movie, shows how they all are connected to each other. They movie ends with the racist white cop who molested the black female from the couple he pulled over in the beginning of the movie, saving her life from a firey car accident. She tries to reject his help because of what happened earlier, but knows she has no other choice to accept his help. It shows that sometimes first impressions are not always true and people could be different from what they pictured in their head.
When they showed the background on the racist cop, they showed he had troubles at home with is father that he loved and cared for. And he was not getting sleep because of the type of care he was giving him. Later on calling for help from his insurance company, who happens to be a black female with a “typical” black female name, causing another racist remark. But, again, the only thing he is looking for is help for his father. The black female insurance person was very angry about how she was being treated on the phone and that he was being racist. But later in the movie, it showed that she herself was making racist remarks.
This movie has very real life situations. This movie can and does happen in everyday life. I have seen it happen and been around it when it happened. Everyone has stereotypes towards all races. Is that racism? Maybe and maybe not! It’s all how you act out on it. And in this movie Crash, everyone acts out on his or her beliefs of every race. In fact, the movie was based on a real life incident, which happened to director and writer Paul Haggis when his car was hijacked in 1991. (“Crash(2004),” ) Since this story was created on real life, it could happen and will most likely happen again in life. I, personally, loved the movie.
It had a very powerful and strong message. Crash got you to hate and yet like the characters. Some parts pulled at my heartstrings and got me to cry multiple times. Why did I cry during this movie? I cried because I can see this happening everyday. I can see how this hurts people and how desperate people can be to make themselves look good. The movie did win BEST PICTURE and BEST WRITING awards at the Oscars the following year. The script was done perfect. A lot of thought went into writing this and brought in from personal experience. We all have own thoughts on how every race is seen in the public eye.
Everyone doesn’t know what happens behind closed doors. When things happen behind closed doors, we do not know the whole complete story. And that’s when judgment is brought out. Racism happens everyday. It can be happening right in front of us or we can be the guilty party of creating it. It is a hard battle to fight when there is so much happening everyday. We choose which we do. Stand together and fight against this evil or keep going living our lives with hate towards each other and act like nothing is wrong. Crash(2004). (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://www. imdb. com/title/tt0375679/faq
