at January 13, 2006 1:54 PMWow! I really don’t know how to describe this movie. I could say it is a study of race relations, racial tensions and emotions in America, but that would make the movie sounds too artsy and stodgy - something which this movie is completely not. (Now, “Birth” is another issue and might be the topic of another review). Crash in a nutshell is the story of a complete day in the lives of a lot of people living in LA, how their lives intersect through the day and in my husband’s words, “set off a chain reaction” that ultimately ends in the death of a black man.
The movie has pretty much every racial stereotype you can think of - Hispanic housekeeper, thuggish black people, racist white people, Chinese people who say “blake” for “brake” and illegal immigrants. There are Persian shopkeepers who think all Hispanics are out to cheat them - there are black guys who think the Whitey’s keeping them down - there are white people who think all black people are out to rob them. What keeps the movie from becoming a parody or a preachy lecture is the heart that the movie manages to find in it’s characters - the characters are all shades of gray - none really evil (well, maybe a couple who frame an innicent white cop so they can get the black vote).
I thought the most complex interesting characters were those of the black director(Terrence Howard) who thinks he has to shut up and let people walk over him so he can get on with his life - he doesn’t want to cause any ripples. He is too afraid to even speak up when Matt Dillon’s racist white cop (another very interesting character) pretends to search her while actually feeling up her skirt. He would rather stand there and let him and his wife be publicly humiliated than do something - all this pent-up frustration causes him to erupt at quite an unlikely time that puts his life in real jeopardy.
Matt Dillon’s portrayal of a racist cop seemed run-of-the-mill initially till you realize there are layers of empathy, frustration and hurt below his hard surface once you get to know him. It was commendable of the movie makers to not take any sides in the argument, but simply present the various sides of the race story. What got me were the scenes of confrontation between Thandie Newton who plays the wife humiliated by Matt Dillon and her husband. The wife is screaming at her husband in frustration - angry that he, her protector simply stood by and watched while she was being molested on a road by another man. She is humiliated not only for herself, but also for him that he couldn’t muster up the dignity to fight back. He, on the other hand is passive-aggressive and punishes the only person whom he can safely stand up to - his wife - by refusing to talk to her, and playing the martyr while at the same time choosing to ignore the fact that it was she who was molested and she, who is in greater pain than he could possibly be in.
Ryan Phillippe has an interesting little arc playing the honset sidekick to Matt Dillon who requests a reassignment since he cannot stand his partner’s racism, but in the end realizes there in inherent racism within himself too - whether he acknowledges it or not.
All in all, a very interesting movie - well-made with gripping characters that stay with you long after the movie has ended. A well-told tale that probably comes as close to balanced as it can when it comes to the state of race relations in America.
For some weird reason, a lot of this movie reminded me of Magnolia - I think it was two things - firstly, the way all characters in the movie have some connection to each other and secondly, remember the ending of Magnolia when frogs rain down? The snowfall-in-LA ending of this movie seemed very similar.
update: “Crash” scores upset victory at SAG awards - awesome!
Posted by shanti at January 12, 2006 8:58 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.realwomenonline.com/scgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/3338
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Crash (2005) - Movie Review:
Good review - and I also loved the movie - I saw this movie last week and was taken away by the way the movie is structured and how effective it is in showing the racial tensions in this country.
Suyog
PS: Isn’t this is a 2005 movie?
Posted by: Suyog at January 12, 2006 6:51 PM
I liked the way the movie avoided being preachy more than anything else, in the typical tradition of Hollywood. I honestly have no idea when the movie originally came out, but IMDB has it listed at 2004. I could be wrong, though.
Posted by: shanti at January 13, 2006 1:54 PM
Mama Mia!! I feel the same way too! The movie could have been screwed up in so many ways, such as trying tp preach, and yet, it was avoided. The way rascism is portrayed is stunning. So, do we see an oscar?
Posted by: Sriram at January 13, 2006 3:44 PM
I too saw this movie last week. And I think Matt Dillon’s character was the most interesting of them all. His reasons for being a racist and the subsequent revelation makes the viewer think, without taking any sides.
Loved the movie for its stunning handling of the subject.
Posted by: Nilesh at January 18, 2006 8:52 AM
While the movie was pretty good, I don’t share your enthusiasm for it. I do think Matt Dillon’s performance was strong, but there were too many predictable plot twists. While watching the movie with a friend, we were watching the scene where the former Latino gang member goes home to his family, and spends time with his cute daughter, I turned and said, Something is going to happen to the daughter - in movies, tragedy always falls on cute kids. I was almost right.
The one area where I thought the movie did have some courage was to express the fear that many people have not of black people, but of a sub-culture of black criminals. This was put to strong effect by Sandra Bullock’s character, who yells at her husband for urging her not to stereotype, when she points out that had she listened to her gut instinct, they would not have gotten car-jacked.
The peek into LA’s black upper class was weakened by Thandie Newton’s shrill acting, whereas Terrence Howard’s slow-boil of a man who plays by teh rules, yet cannot escape harassment by the white police or the black criminals, was more believable.
But, how can you set a movie in Los Angeles, and not have any Jews? The scene where Tony Danza (as a TV show producer) urges Terrence Howard to dumb down the language of a black character so that he appears “more authentic” was chilling. But come on, not to generalize too much, when was the last time you heard people say, “Man, Hollywood is run by the Italians.” BTW, prominent Italian-origin story-tellers like Scorcese, Coppola, David Chase live in NY, not LA.
Posted by: KXB at January 19, 2006 9:54 AM
Ooops, Coppola lives in Northern California, on his vineyard.
Posted by: KXB at January 19, 2006 12:19 PM
Great Review. I weas planning to review it tonight ironically. They say a movie is good if it stays with you days after watching it. This is one of those movies. Rya Phillippe’s character moved me the most because of his choice in that car. Because he started off as a person I could relate to when his actions change I felt I understood his thought process better… and that’s scary. What would I do if I wasin that posiiont? would i shoot? Would I confess once I shot?
It also broke my heart at the end where the detective’s brother died and his mother blamed him and even gave credit for all his good deeds to the brother who was never there for his mother while the detective always was.
Matt Dillon desrves an Oscar for his performance because he brought humanity to a racist that I never thought could be possible after his audacious stunts earlier.
Posted by: Aisha at January 22, 2006 12:20 PM
i really liked the movie it opened my eyes to a lot of things that happen every day i really didn’t notice. plus i really liked how everything was connected. awesome movie.
Posted by: ashley at February 6, 2006 12:46 PM
i can´t describe with words what i´ve seen . this movie is great, emotional ,unpredictable,i never have seen a movie like that before.
Posted by: Alexandra at April 24, 2006 12:38 PM