The movie ‘Crash’ is an Oscar winning movie directed by Paul Haggis and released in year 2004. The movie received an overwhelming response and praise from the different types of viewers. Crash clearly depictsthe true image of life of people living in metropolitan city. The movie is a drama based on race and gender and their impact on lives of people living in Los Angeles. The movie presents some hard realities of our society that are rare to see in any movie. Race not only increase awareness of people on social issues such as race and gender but also encourage audience to closely inspect these issues in their societies. The objective of this paper is to analyze how plot of the movie, characters, setting, symbols and other techniques are utilized by the director to presents racism and gender issues in Los Angeles.
The movie at different levels shows how racism is deeply rooted in our society and touching lives of people. In very first scene of the movie Farhad and Dorri, who are Persian, are purchasing a revolver. The owner of the gun store refers Farhad as Osama. However, despite of trouble given by the shop owner, Dorri purchased a revolver. This scene clearly shows how people who are not white are facing trouble in their normal life. The scene also portrays how people from other races sacrifice even when they are American citizen and paying for the products they are purchasing or services they are availing.
In another scene of the movie Rick and Jean Cabot were carjacked by two black carjackers. Later on a Hispanic locksmith came to Cabot’s house to change their locks and Jean Cabot complained that he is a black person who might provide duplicate keys to his gang members. In this scene, Jean Cabot clearly mentioned that all black people are directly or indirectly linked with some gangs and hard to trust.
The racism is clearly depicted by the director through the movie. The movie also shows the issue if racism prevailing in police department. However, police department should be unbiased towards any race or gender. The movie certainly presents realities prevailing in our society but in not very realistic way. In the movie it is difficult to know much about different characters, but the purpose of presence of each character is clearly visible and understandable in the movie.
The movie presents variety of characters from different races such as Persian, Asians, African American, and Hispanic. The transition between one scenes to another scene is smooth and interlinked. For example Cabot family came into the picture because black men carjack them. Similarly Hispanic locksmith is hired by Persian shop owner who was struggling to live life of an immigrant. All these main characters in the movie shows struggle of people from other than white races (Farris).
Crash also tries to show the real status of women in our society. All leading female characters in the movie are unstable, weak, easy to melt-down, racist, and docile to their male characters. Female characters in the movie are dependent on their husbands and also very respectful towards male’s sexual advances. In the movie, Thayer’s wife i.e. Christine performed fellatio on Thayer when cops pulled both of them. She did made any effort to protect herself from white officer when he molested her. However, she scolded her husband by saying that how he allowed a person to molest her. In later scene, she not only apologized to Thayer, but also welcomed him back into her life with wide arms.
Sandra Bullock i.e. Jean Cabot, another female character in the movie is shown as weak and racist white woman. Jean holds her husband’s hand tightly when see two black carjackers. Jean shows her depression and fear and look forward to her husband for the support. Jean’s facial expressions and feeling shows her dependency on her husband.Ria who is girlfriend of detective Graham also shown as submissive woman who resist her sexual encounter with Graham when he called her a Mexican. All female characters in the movie are just to please their male counterparts and empowering their lives.
The movie shows suffering and pain of people from different races and why some people do not proud in what they are. In the movie, Cameron Thayer is very successful television producer. Thayer is portrayed as real entertainer in the movie who was scared to reveal his real identity to the people. Thayer did not protect his wife who was molested by a white officer because “[he was] afraid that [his] good friends at the studio were going to read about it in the morning and realize that, you know what, he’s actually black!”(Beilin).
Haggis, in his movie, presented two sides of the same story. For example, Jean get scared when she saw two black men and the very next moment black men stole her car, which proves that she was right. Jean also complains domestic helpers for not fulfilling her demands, but she gives hug to Hispanic domestic helper. Jean also called Hispanic helper as her best friend. On one hand Haggis shows racist behavior of white characters, and on other hand, he undoes that behavior after certain time (Orbe and Kinefuchi).
The movie succeeds in fulfilling expectations of audiences at all fronts. Direction, acting, light, camera, editing work appears to be good and influences audiences. The movie is acclaimed by audiences, as well as critics. The story and script is very solid and the movie, ‘Crash’ has set new standards in the film making. ‘Crash’ indicates that entertainment can be done with issue based movies. The ‘Crash’ has attracted a huge attention due to touching some hardcore social issues of utmost importance.
After considering all related aspects of the movie, ‘Crash’, it can be concluded that the movie depicts racial discrimination in a new perspectives. The movie succeeds in delievering a bigger message. The movie entertains and educates audiences in a subtle manner. the ‘Crash’ is one of excellenat movies that expresses the emotions of a community that feels discriminated. The movie depicts various emotional scenes and incidents that compel audiences to rethink on the issue in a serious manner.
Works Cited
Beilin, Aliza. "The Racism and Sexism of “Crash”." 2012. alizaba.tumblr. Electronic. 11 December 2014.
Farris, Christine. "Crash Course: Race, Class, and Context." College English, 69(4) (2007): 346. Print.
Orbe, M.P., and Kinefuchi, E. "Crash Under Investigation: Engaging Complications of Complicity, Coherence, and Implicature Through Critical Analysis." Critical Studies in Media Communication, 25(2) (2008): 135-156. Print.
