Crash

The movie was interesting but not one of my favorites.  I felt the little plot involved of the movie was over dramatized.  I do agree there are racial stereotyping and many people have suffered from it but I had a very hard time staying engaged throughout the movie. 

The movie started off with a vehicle crash, which then started with the racial stereotyping.  It dealt with Whites, Blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops and criminals.  The movie is about race, discrimination, and stereotypes. Just about every character is flawed in belief ,with at least one stereotype of other races. A white woman thinks a Hispanic man with tattoos is a gang banger. The white cops don't trust black men. All Asian characters are referred to as Chinese. And the list goes on.

Most of the characters where victims of racism and were also guilty of it!  I do think assumptions tend to prevent what is in front of you!  The movie shows an extreme story of racism with each ethnic background and how they all intertwined.  The movie presumes that most people feel prejudice and resentment against members of other groups and observe consequences of those feelings.  It was rough cut and under cut throughout the movie, which made me feel not part of the movie. I also felt the editing of the movie did not make sense, it felt more like a soap opera.

The cast included some big names:  Sandra Bullock , Don Cheadle , Jennifer Esposito , Matt Dillon Terrence Howard , Thandie Newton , Ryan Phillippe , Chris Ludacris, Brendan Fraser , Larenz Tate , and Michael Pena.  The only actor that I thought did an amazing job was Matt Dillon, otherwise the rest were OK.

There were parts of the movie that I did like; one that stood out the most to me was of the police.  The cop that took advantage of a woman during a search and her husband had to stand by and do nothing!  Then when she had the car accident he was the one to rescue her, it is a terrible thought but usually that is what it takes (something that extreme) to open ones eyes to the truth!

The movie did have a good delivery of the message it is portraying.  Although Crash did not have a conclusion, it does showcase the problems with racism.  The movie does bring up good discussions about race, and making it real life.  I did think it was very thought provoking and was an interesting way of telling the story.  It also did a good job of showing and feeling the hate of the characters and yet sympathizing with them too.

Paul Haggis was the writer and director of this movie and Crash won best picture in 2005.  This movie is one that many talked about but unfortunately, I don't think it would change ones racist practices or reform their outlook.