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"Crash" starts out with several small vignettes about numerous characters who do not seem to be connected with each
other, but they will all end up being connected as time goes on. While Los Angeles is a large city, it is not large enough
to prevent a lot of its citizens from running into each other. Which is also to say that there are far too many people out
there not to have the occasional "collision."
This film studies and analyzes what happens to them after they have met, or "crashed" into each other.
Haggis' premise is that Los Angeles is unique for the fact that its citizens go out of their way not to touch each other
physically. Everyone seems to wear an invisible sphere, a protective cocoon, surrounding them as they go about their daily
routine, and heaven forbid if a stranger should violate this personal space.
However, the flip side of this psychological state of being is that we as humans possess the natural instinct to connect
with each other, for "No man is an island" as expressed so long ago by John Donne in his poem.
Haggis' suggests that some of these "crashes" represent our repressed need to reach out and touch someone else,
and, if our subconscious need is great enough, then we might accomplish that end in a car crash or by some other similarly
violent method of connecting.
Haggis also hypothesizes that in a world where our "space" is violated, we feel violated, and we seek to strike
back with all the weapons at our disposal, including delivering verbally aggressive charges tinged with racism and hypocrisy
to the other party. This urge to resort to racial slurs is something that is common to everyone of every race in this film.
"Crash" starts out with a scene that really ends up being the end of the movie. A weary and weathered policeman,
Detective Graham (Don Cheadle, in a wonderful performance), is investigating a homicide just off the shoulder of a busy freeway.
He stoops to pick up a tennis shoe and we see that he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. Whether he has done this
for far too long, for far too many times or even for some other more personal reason, we don't know, but he looks very sad
and lonely as he searches the crime scene for clues.
Then in the confusion around the staked off crime scene with flashing lights and cars slowing to a crawl, another accident
occurs as a woman rear ends the car in front of her. While clearly guilty, we see a diminutive woman of Chinese heritage who
puts on a brave face and starts to shout at the female driver of the car in front of her. The second woman doesn't buy her
story. She makes fun of her heavy and almost unintelligible Chinese accident, which is all the more exaggerated by her emotional
condition. She begins to mimic her by repeating, "My blakes (brakes) didn't work." So the racial slurs begin...
Anthony (Ludacris) and his friend, Peter (Larenz Tate), are walking down a Los Angeles boulevard late one evening. They
notice that even though they are the only Black people on the street, the other White people present give them wide latitude.
The Whites also express looks of concern for their own personal safety that are hard not to miss even though they are in the
vast majority and that the area is well lit.
Anthony laughs and jokes with Peter that they are the ones who should be concerned for their own personal safety in this
sea of white faces.
Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Jean (Sandra Bullock) are slowly sauntering down the street from the opposite direction when
they see Anthony and Peter approaching them. Jean visibly winces and moves to one side to let them pass. Rick presses his
security key card and the "bleep-bleep" tells them they can now get into their huge black Lincoln Navigator which
is parked at the curb.
Anthony asks Peter why they themselves aren't scared, and Peter, assuming this to be a rhetorical question, answers, "Why,
because we have guns?" They do, and in a moment they jump into the now opened Lincoln Navigator, point their guns into
the faces of Rick and Jean, and then speed off, leaving the couple behind them shaking with rage.
The two Black men later chat in their newly stolen vehicle and Anthony defends his actions on the grounds that he only
robs people of other races, never his own Black people. He assumes a kind of Robin Hood like nobility for his actions. To
this film's credit, Peter is allowed to play the Devil's Advocate with Anthony's arguments and he is able to shoot a large
number of holes in his friend's very misguided and self serving morality.
The next morning Jean is still shaking with anger. She directs part of her hostility towards her Hispanic maid but more
at the Hispanic locksmith, Daniel (Michael Peņa), who is just now changing the locks on her back door. Jean, seeing the tattoos
on his neck, assumes him to be a gang member and she thinks that he will soon be giving a key to their home to his fellow
gang members. She demands that Rick call another locksmith, presumably a White man, who can be trusted not to sell their house
keys to a potential burglar.
Her husband, Rick, is a district attorney who is always trying to work every angle for his reelection. While he is upset
that their car was stolen, he is more upset that the car jackers are Black. He confers with Karen (Nona M. Gaye), his Black
aide, about how to handle this story sure to headline the newscasts the next evening.
Rick doesn't want to lose any Black votes, so he decides to offset this bit of bad news with a photo op where he will
present a posthumous honor to a Black policemen who has been recently killed in the line of duty by a fellow cop. There is
a fringe benefit here, for that fellow cop happens to be a White man who possesses two prior complaints about having killed
Blacks under somewhat questionable circumstances and this award will be sure to soothe an already agitated Black community.
Los Angeles Police Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon) is a hardened traffic cop of the old school. While a professional, he is
also a hot tempered bigot who deeply resents the gains that Blacks have made under the Affirmative Action programs. His anger
spills out at a Black health insurance agent who can't find the coverage necessary to relieve Ryan's poor dad who is suffering
from a urinary tract problem. Ryan lives with his dad, a former policeman, so he also suffers in agony each evening while
his poor father lives in pain.
Officer Hanson (Ryan Phillippe), Ryan's new partner, is a young kid still filled with idealism and joy at being able to
serve the public as a respected policeman. The two hear the dispatch about the car jacking of the black Lincoln Navigator
belonging to the DA and his wife and spot a car matching this description driving down the street in front of them. As they
pull it over, Hanson complains to Ryan that while the car is a black Lincoln Navigator, nothing else matches. The license
plates don't match and this SUV has a Black man and a woman inside instead of two young Black men.
No matter. Officer Ryan pulls the car over and gets out to pull a power play on the couple, Cameron (Terrence Dashon)
and his wife, Christine (the very beautiful Thandie Newton). It is obvious that this very well dressed couple has nothing
to do with the car jacking and they also show proof of ownership of their car. However, Ryan is not to be deterred and he
humiliates Christine in front of her husband. Cameron is wise enough not to press the situation and end up being shot as Ryan
puts the mortified Christine through a very invasive full body search.
His partner, Officer Hanson, is deeply offended by this display of overt bigotry and he expresses his misgivings to Ryan.
Ryan passionately replies to him that, "You THINK that you know who you are, but you have NO idea." He used to be
young once, too, and somehow we know that this warning will come back to haunt the fresh faced Hanson.
Hanson complains to his station captain the next day and expresses his wish to be transferred to another car with a new
partner. The police captain, who is Black, responds to Hanson that he is not about to stir up a hornet's nest over racial
bigotry. It took him 15 years to make the grade of captain and he is not about to risk his position to do what ordinarily
would be called the right thing to do with his White superiors, many of whom may still be closet racists. And so it goes...
Hanson's only hope is to request a single man car because he has a problem with "flatulence." The district captain
agrees to consider that request and Hanson leaves the station the next morning to a chorus of farting catcalls from his fellow
officers.
Farhad (Shaun Toub) has fled his homeland in the Middle East and he is attempting to achieve the American dream with his
small store in a racially mixed, high crime neighborhood. He is concerned about his safety and has called in a locksmith,
who just happens to be Daniel, the same man who worked on Jean's back door.
Daniel finishes installing the new door lock and submits his bill to Farhad, but he adds that the work won't be any good
at preventing a break-in unless Farhad also replaces the shabby door. Farhad, whose command of English is very weak, misunderstands
Daniel, thinking instead that he is trying to scam him for more money. His anger rising, Farhad accuses him of being a thief
and insults his ethnicity before he refuses to pay the bill and throws him out of the store.
This is just before the arrival of his beloved daughter, Dorri (Bahar Soomekh). Having grown up in America and speaking
fluent English, she could have been very helpful, but she arrives too late to be of any help. Now all that the very angry
Farhad wants his daughter to do is to buy him a gun so that he can protect himself.
Even Detective Graham, the hero of this movie if there is one, is prone to the same feelings as everyone else. After all,
he is only human. He has a long running relationship with a fellow detective, Ria (Jennifer Esposito), who happens to be Hispanic.
Graham is reluctant to introduce her to his mother because she isn't Black, and he further diminishes her by referring to
her as "Mexican," when, in fact, she is from another Central American country.
But the brilliance of "Crash" is that this movie is wise enough not to classify anyone as a "hero"
and others as "villains." They are all human, and they are all imperfect specimens of humanity with much the same
foibles, to a greater or lesser extent, as the ones that everyone else has.
"Crash" is done with feeling and conviction and a throbbing intensity beautifully enhanced by a lively musical
scoring with an urban hip hop mix. I don't normally like this kind of music, but it is perfect in this film.
One one level, "Crash" is comparable to last year's brilliant "Collateral" in that both movies make
Los Angeles come alive. This film is indelibly infused with the personality of that large city filled with such an eclectic
mix of people and cultures. Special credit goes to cinematographers Dana Gonzales and James Muro.
Every single character in this film has been cast to perfection. Sandra Bullock surprises us by throwing her sweet character
aside to play a very angry and bigoted bitch of a woman. Cheadle has the same wonderful intensity as he did in last year's
"Hotel Rwanda."
I could go on and on with this outstanding ensemble cast, but go see this film for yourselves. I plan to see it again
before it leaves the theaters. It's too good a movie not to see twice.
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