Crash was a film that debuted in 2004. The movie told the story of various individuals and families of different ethnic backgrounds. The film showed a lot of different scenarios through the eyes of the people living in Los Angeles, California. This shows that everyone no matter race or other group identity face discrimination in their own right. The message shown was that many people of other ethnic backgrounds either face discrimination directly or acted upon discrimination as their paths cross one another.
The film was shown through the viewpoint of many characters and how they reacted to numerous events which a lot promoted discrimination or stereotyping. The film was very well put together. The audience got to see the viewpoints of discrimination through the eyes of different individuals and see their outcome. When showing the topic of discrimination it opens people’s eyes to the very same discrimination acts that they do in their daily lives. The film was convincing cause it showed real life situations and showed how everyone is tied to an event and how different parties react differently based on their ethnic identity.
The resources used was problem from the directors own experience as well as the many accounts that many people have told their experience about racial discrimination. The story connects with people because many people either went through something similar or still go through it day to day. For example the crooked racist cop stopping the black couple then sexually assaulting the black man’s wife because the officer gave the man an ultimatum to either go to jail and receive very embarrassing charges or humiliate him by saying he is sorry while the cop fondles his wife.
While the scene was going on the cop’s partner stood by and was silent during the duration on the act. The film did over emphasize the role of African-Americans and discrimination in today’s society. The other individuals played a minor role to the story or basically moved the story along but it was primarily focused on the black point of view on racism and how they deal with it. With the heavy emphasis on the black characters in the film it was an unbalanced in regards to the reactions of what the others races, those being not black or white, endure in their daily lives.
However, I think that the other poles that played a minor part in the storyline should have been brought up more. In the film the Latino male only endured discrimination after the District Attorney’s wife told her husband that she wanted the locks changed in the morning because the locksmith, the Latino male, was going to sale them to his friends. She said he would because of his ethnic background and the fact that he had tattoos which she called them “prison tattoos. ” The Persian family only got called Arabs in the movie.
With the movie debuting in 2004 the phobia of the Islamic faith and the people who follow it was still at a high because on the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center towers. The movie transition very well and it did not drag in the scenes at all, so everything moved along and the story builds without any nonsense information being thrown at me. I did wish that the movie would have brought the Middle Eastern and the Latino portion of discrimination so that they could show what the individuals go through.
I think the overemphasis of the movie, with its black versus white dynamic; it’s self-took away from their stories being featured. I also did not like that we did not get any kind of closure from Ryan Philippe’s character after he killed the black man that was riding in his car. His looked at his attire and based a quick judgment after he had already picked him up from the side of the road and also witness his former partner being discriminatory against the black couple. He just killed the guy, threw his body into the plains, burned his car, and walked off.
The film was sort of refreshing in the sense that the 90’s were almost over saturated with movies about the inner city and black people. The whole white teacher who comes to save the inner city group of students was done over and over again. So much that they even had a parody film about the saturation of inner black teen movies. The film tried to show the tales of many individuals from various backgrounds and how different events set off a chain reaction that affects people lives.
I did wish the film touched more in gender and class discrimination. Though it was lightly touched with the black couple from wealthier backgrounds were arguing about the other one not being what is considered black but I think including those could have different outcomes for the individuals in the movie but that would be cramming so much into the film or the film would be five hours long. But I just thought that those things could be talked about as well.
When talking about racism, discrimination and others it sometimes feels like it’s a competition, usually more with minorities or different genders of ethnic groups, to see who the most oppressed individual is. When speaking about these things we must talk, ask or answer any question that each side may have, not getting upset at the questions being asked or answers, state the problem, and finally come up with a solution. The listening and question parts are still what we struggle on.
Each side wants the other to see it their way and then when the questions start flying the other side of the debate gets very upset at some of the ignorance because the other side sees it one way but the other side may have never thought it to see a problem from a different angle before. The final part is also very important because without a solution all the talking will not change a thing. A solution and steps to get the solution is what needed in this debate.
