"We Crash Into Each Other, Just So That We Can Feel Something" (Crash (DVD))

Member Name: plipplop

Product:	Crash (DVD)
Date:	19/04/06 (574 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Innovative, powerful story telling

Disadvantages: Not the most exciting movie that ever won an Oscar

Christmas in L.A. On their way home from a dinner party, the district attorney and his wife are the victims of a car-jacking, when two black youths force them at gunpoint out of their cars and onto the street.

On a routine patrol, LAPD officer Ryan pulls over a truck matching the description of a stolen car. Observing a young black woman behaving suspiciously in the passenger seat, he instructs the driver to get out of the car, on suspicion of drinking. Officer Ryan’s partner, Hanson, is not convinced that the incident is worthy of such scrutiny and watches his unpredictable partner nervously.

In a gun merchant’s store, a Persian men sets about trying to purchase a hand gun to keep behind the counter of his convenience store. After a fracas with the store owner, it is left to his daughter to complete the purchase.

In a bustling café, a Chinese business man seals a deal and sets off in his white van to deliver his load.

Called to the scene of a shooting, a stressed police detective finds the body of a black police officer, apparently gunned down by a white police man on suspicion of who knows what. In the boot of the dead officer’s car, he finds a hidden cargo.

By the end of the night all these people’s lives will be changed forever as the onset of destiny brings them inextricably and tragically closer together.

The biggest shock of this year’s Oscar’s ceremony was almost certainly the Best Picture prize being awarded to Crash. I’d heard good things about it (within weeks of its release it had made its way into the top 100 films of all time on the Internet Movie Database) but it never struck me as Oscar-worthy. Indeed, it is only now, several weeks after the ceremony was broadcast on television that I have actually got round to watching it.

Paul Haggis’s racial drama is an interesting tale, woven carefully around an ethnically diverse set of characters whose lives are gradually woven together over a period of twenty-four hours. I wouldn’t describe Crash as a thriller (it is seldom very exciting) but you have to admire the artful story telling that slithers around the wretched characters like some fateful serpent. In essence, it is not the story itself that compels. It is the manner in which the story is drawn together. As once character walks away from one particularly dramatic scene, he / she will walk past another character, somehow seemingly on his / her way to something equally unexpected. The film has those moments that make your mouth run dry; that feeling of dread that suddenly creeps up on you when you get a terrible realisation that something really bad is about to happen. Surprisingly, the film also has some laugh out loud moments, held together by some carefully timed and witty scripting. The film’s greatest strength, however, is the sheer raw emotion that oozes from the screen at key, select points in the film when characters and audience alike challenge what it is that they have seen so far.

There are many, many films about racism. Most of these films will tell the story of one person’s experience or struggle against the condition. Seldom, however, have I seen a film that made so many observations about the manifestation of racism in the modern world. The film is literally choked with relentless racially-driven scenarios, many of them subtler than you might expect. A white American shop keeper accuses a Persian man of being an Al-Qaeda terrorist. A South American police detective takes umbrage at being referred to as a Mexican. A streetwise black American chastises his friend’s ignorance of the roots of hip hop music. The district attorney’s wife doesn’t trust the locksmith tending to her front door because he looks like a Hispanic gang member. Officer Ryan pleads with a black health service official to sort his father out quickly and pleads for clemency on the basis that his father has employed “people like her” for years. And on and on it goes.

You might expect this to suffocate the film, as many a good story can sometimes be lost amidst a barrage of pushy preaching but Crash never succumbs to this. This isn’t because it’s subtle – it seldom is – but it works well because it is intriguing and unpredictable. It reminded of films such as 21 Grams and Traffic, each containing individual life stories gradually being woven together around a central theme. Crash doesn’t need to ram the idea down our throats as the film never really sets out a clear demarcation between right and wrong. And this is the whole point. Crash challenges stereotyping on the one hand and then proves its value on the other. The film challenges institutionalised racism in one breath and then justifies it in the second. The two street robbers who rob the district attorney initially take umbrage at the fact that his wife clearly feels threatened by them. One police detective requests a transfer to get away from his racist partner only to find himself just as guilty (albeit less conventionally) of jumping to conclusions. It’s very effective stuff; a compelling way to tell a story in a fairly unconventional story telling style, arguably more at home on the small screen. Indeed writer Paul Haggis’s credentials come mainly from television drama, with a lengthy CV that features the likes of L.A. Law and Due South. The writer clearly doesn’t want you to walk away from the cinema with one clear impression in your mind. He wants you to walk away and think about everything you’ve just seen.

Crash boasts an impressive cast of well-known names and faces, and yet never really used them as a promotional vehicle to propel the film’s success. Matt Dillon is excellent as embittered cop Ryan, who at first seems to be a “racist prick” and yet eventually demonstrates another side. Don Cheadle’s doomed police detective treads the line between the halls of power and the street, struggling to maintain his relationship with a mother who worries only for his juvenile brother. Cheadle’s eventual pain makes for one of the most moving scenes in the film. Sandra Bullock is a real surprise. I’ve got so used to seeing her in comedy / light-hearted roles that her serious turn as the attorney’s wife, Jean is quite a revelation. The “powerhouse” performance, if there is one, probably comes from Thandie Newton, whose unfortunate character Christine ends up in two distressing scenes, in both of which Newton excels.

Crash is a pertinent observation on the world today, using Los Angeles as a demonstrative example. It’s about the gun culture. It’s about the way that anyone can walk into a shop, purchase a gun and then kill somebody with it. It’s about the way that white politicians use racial tactics to remain in power. It’s about the “gangsta rap” lifestyle, adopted by millions of people who know nothing about its true origins. It’s about the police and other authorities, swamped in a world of crime and deceit, sometimes doing what they think is right and sometimes doing what they know is wrong. But above all, it’s about the fact that we live in a world where the colour of somebody’s skin still makes enough of a difference that you can make a challenging film about it. This is Crash’s most powerful and most lasting legacy and whilst it may not be a masterpiece, it is a very, very good film indeed.

Recommended

Summary: Compelling drama told in an innovative style