Watching Crash (2004, Paul Haggis)
Anthony: That waitress sized us up in two seconds. We're black and black people don't tip. So she wasn't gonna waste her time. Now somebody like that? Nothing you can do to change their mind.
Peter: So, uh... how much did you leave?
Anthony: You expect me to pay for that kind of service?
Anthony: Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gangbangers? Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared, it's us: the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the triggerhappy LAPD. So, why aren't we scared?
Peter: Because we have guns?
Anthony: You could be right.
This is how Crash begins. Right from the start on you know that this isn't one of the ordinary films. It isn't one of the neat and polished films, the big-budget, pop-corn, fun-for-all-family, either. It doesn't want to shock, it wants to question. You think you know who you are? You have no idea.
One way of knowing that this is a really good film is to see actors, who in their life haven't done a good role, beginning to sparkle in this one. Sandra Bullock, you have left me speechless. After all the Miss Congeniality and Speed craps you've done, I thought you stopped for good. But what a change, what a shock to see the aforementioned actress give not only a very plausible performance, but a performance that could very well rank for an award.
The film shows that America still hasn't found its balance and that while the people there all feel American ("Oh, my God. What the hell is wrong with you people? Uh-uh! Don't talk to me unless you speak American!" ), they have not yet learnt to co-exist peacefully and unjudgementally. On every corner, at every time of the day, there's a possible catch. You don't want to be racist, but you're prejudiced. Isn't that the same as racist? ("I am angry all the time... and I don't know why.")
Decades after the African American community started to be treated as equals, there are still the Latino ("You want a lesson? I'll give you a lesson. How 'bout a geography lesson? My father's from Puerto Rico. My mother's from El Salvador. Neither one of those is Mexico."), the Asian, the Middle-Easterners ("They think we're Arab. When did Persian become Arab?") and America has not yet faced the fact that equality's just a phrase in the constitution, it's not yet their reality.
A thought-provoking film, wonderful cinematography, a script, written in heaven and competent actors. Not too bad for an independent film. Worthy of the Oscar it received, although I am shocked (a little pleased, too) at the thought that they awarded a film which states that America is less than perfect. That, in fact, it has a big problem.
17 Comments:
At first I've written this movie off as a movie that isn't about anything in particular. But the Oscar, the quotes in your review and the review itself might get me to watch it after all.
At first, when I heard the film was nominated, I was puzzled as to why they would nominate a film about an airplane accident.
It's about different kind of crashes, though. :)
And here I was thinking this was (another) film based on Ballard's Crash - obviously I have to start reading more than just titles :)
... triggerhappy LAPD.
Watching new films does wonder to my English.
This is the film that won an oscar for the best one. I have mixed feelings about it.
While I can't deny that it is appealing in various aspects, as acting and screenplay goes, I also can't get rid of the feeling that is wants to tell too much. I think the film is overfilled with contents, so my impression after half a year since I saw it at LIFE is quite blurred. I am confused about it. To me it can be no more than a forced film, covering meaningful subject, yet never pulling it quite off, also because it has too much to cover.
As I see it, the thesis of the film is in how the population of America is built from all those different kinds of people of different races, backgrounds, wealth, desires. Now you isolate them, set them loose, and see what will happen to them. They move around, most of them scared, only very few happy, they collide, everybody gets hurt to some extend.
It's a very impressive film, but it doesn't give any clue on how to make things better for more. To stop moving around? One can't do that, somebody sooner or later crashes in his back, or sideways. He gets hurt less when moving around (and hurting others). In this respect, it's a shocking film indeed.
It left me with some impression, but mixed feelings.
It has some great dynamic shots, the explosive car accidents and rescuing for example, or that scene in front of the Spanish key locker's house, where his daughter is saved from a bullet by her magic vest. That was a thrilling moment!
ch'i - try watching trailers. That usually helps. And it's not even time consuming.
Bo - the stories are intertwined. That's a complexity I like. While the majority of films show only a couple of people seemingly isolated from others, this one shows how one day you can be a bullying/racist cop and how the other day you can save the life of the same woman. This is life - intertwinning, complex stories. Simplification is for people below the age of 18. (just joking :)
Never pulling the subject off? Are we talking about the same film? Maybe you should see it again and then comment, a second viewing sometimes does miracles for understanding. While I'm aware of the fact that we can disagree on many issues I think you didn't quite understand the film. It is not an isolated situation, it is complex; this is only a small piece of the big puzzle or a cross-word and now you multiply this piece so you have pieces enough to cover all of America and you start putting them together. This is where the film feels really majestic. It happens in LA, but it could happen anywhere else, not necessarily only in US.
Well, last time I checked no one got through life unscathed, unless the person never actually lived.
True, the film doesn't offer a solution to racism, but it serves as a big question - is there still racism or not? Why is it still there? Why is racism so complex? And the best part of it is that you have to find an answer, you have to THINK about it after you've seen the film.
Have I seen the same film? Let me think ...
... yes, I did. I still have problems with it. Perhaps I have problems with it, because it is so F... GOOD?
And yes again, double yes really, Nadezhda:
- it's a very impressive film, it gave me much to ponder over,
- trailers are much worth seeing indeed, so one can for example see what all is coming to the big screen, and see bad from god beforehand. I recommend Latest Movie Trailers at Apple, which come also in: feeds flavor. Their movie-files MOV's lately went High Definition, which are a good thing to experience on their own.
>> This is life - intertwining, complex stories. Simplification is for people below the age of 18.
Are you making fun of me and my math?
I still believe the film to be a bit isolated, in a sense of not being particularly ... realistic. (Don't shoot me now. It's not a solution.) It overstretches.
It gives a lot to THINK. That's its big plus, two pluses really.
Sooo what are you waiting for, go see it!
I have seen the film. I am glad I can trust you. -Sandi
Thanks, Sandi! You making me blush, actually... :)
Bo - Let me first and foremost say that I was NOT making fun of math or you. (Why did you think I was? Do you think I judge people solely on what they find interesting or what they studied?) The thing about simplification was written because yesterday I was listening to a group of high-school students on the bus. They were third and fourth year students but were making such irresponsible, childish, attention-seeking and overreactive statements, that I found it difficult to listen to them. If they were in grammar school, I would not have minded, but by the age of 17 or 18 a person should grasp that being the centre of all attention isn't the point of life, and it's not being happy, beautiful, young and perfect all the time, either. Their estimation of life was, that basically it's really simple; you just have to smile and be friends to everybody. (Which, naturally, is impossible.)
Anyway, we agree to disagree about Crash. I shall not try to persuade you to think like I do about it. You're your own person and you just happen not to like the film as much as I did. I was just surprized, because this really (IMHO) was an excellent film and I thought people could hardly disagree. But you do and that's fine. We're diffrent and that's good.
I like commenting here, and do I also like being different? But of course.
I would like to see this film one more time. It's good.
But I think you should think about it being negative in some aspects too, not just positive. If you will, read some differently inclined reviews, by Simon Popek for example. (Now who am I to tell you what to do, right.)
PS. Let me know, when you make fun of my math.
... you just have to smile and be friends to everybody. (Which, naturally, is impossible.)
It's not possible even in our TV Dream girl / Sanjska ženska, for some guys just have to be dumped. See, in that respect, it's an educational show.
Why do you think I would make fun of (your) math? Why are you so convinced I would do that?
Certainly, mathematical approach to life is not my way, but if it is yours why should that change because of what other people think?
Yeah, what do I care what other people think!?
Still, I do a bit. I can't help it.
Why do I blog. Have I felt nothing, I would be long gone.
It's impossible for me to not care about certain people's opinion.
That was not fair.
This one is for the lucky number.
Goodbye, nice Fri-day.
I know and understand that others' opinion counts. But if people said maths was stupid, would you quit? I doubt it. Would you stop reading books if people said it's stupid? I doubt it.
Some things just mean too much to us to be able to let them go for the sake of others' beliefs and opinions.
Nadezhda, this is turning very - profound.
You think right. Perhaps nobody's opinion would turn me away from math and books. There are other things too that I do solely because I think noble of them, and not because people agree or don't agree with me. These things are called passions. Everybody knows them, and is enslaved by them, wether in a good or bad way. Drinking too much alcohol is a passion too.
I may have always been a bit easily convinced by other people opinion that sound good (what's the adjective that desribes that?), but you must believe me that even though Simon Popek is my favorite of Slovene film critics (and Roger Ebert of the English), I'd formed my mind on the Crash film before he published his thoughts. I hate the film and I love it. Can one film get better?
If you give it a chance, it might.
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