院系专业：化学化工与材料科学学院化学系年级：09 学号：200901010101 姓名：金晨Set in modern day Los Angeles, the Oscar-winning movie Crash attempts to unabashedly expose racial prejudice in this country through the depiction of numerous characters of different cultural backgrounds whose lives intertwine in multiple crisis situations. The large, impressive cast includes the following characters: two young, black male criminals, a Latino locksmith and his young daughter, an Iranian convenience store owner and his grown doctor-daughter, two white, male police officers, a black health insurance employee, a black detective and a Hispanic detective, a successful, black Hollywood director and his black wife, a middle-aged Korean couple, and a white district attorney and his white wife. Simply by reading this list it is clear to see that Crash takes on the problematic job of representing so many ethnic groups for a mere 1 hour and 47 minutes, which makes me wonder if the movie actually perpetuates stereotypes or if it challenges them. What Crash does successfully do is rouse viewers’ emotions, to the point that they feel the need to squirm uncomfortably in their seats. That in itself makes me give Crash an overall positive rating. Racial issues are complex and emotional, and bringing these issues to the forefront is (almost) always positive. While some parts of Crash seem far-fetched and are less realized, other plotlines, which left me breathless and near tears, are more successful and could probably stand alone as their own stories. Knowing that there is no possible way to acknowledge all the complexities of this movie, this review will attempt to address the most powerful, effective scenes and the messages they provide.The movie’s opening scene depicts the aftermath of a bad car accident, and this becomes a metaphor for the basic message flowing through the film. Crash suggests that we actually need each other: like car accidents, we “crash into each other just to touch each other,” states Don Cheadle’s character, a detective. But like the word “crash” suggests, the interfaces between the characters in Crash are far from loving, and infected with fear. In fact, the characters of the movie seem mostly isolated and unable to connect even with those who have the most in common with them. No one is guiltless; we are all victims and offenders of cultural bias. Yet we desire the contact of others. The movie suggests that we don’t know how to reach out to others in a healthy way.Not only do we fail to understand those around us, but another major theme of Crash is how much we lack individual self-awareness. Matt Dillon’s police officer character makes this bleak statement to a rookie cop: “Think you know who you are? You don’t have a clue.” His character is certainly one of the most intriguing in the film. He begins the story as one of the most despicable movie characters I have seen in a while; he abuses his power as a policeman and pulls over a married, black couple. He proceeds to grope the wife against the car, while seemingly taunting her husband. It is excruciating to watch, but it is this same awful man, who, later in a heart-wrenching scene, puts his own life in danger and rescues this same woman from a burning car. Perhaps it is a temporary change from bigot to savior, and he is likely surprised by what he is capable of doing for another human being. Still, for a moment of his life he is a hero. The only constant in the characters’ personalities in Crash is that they areinconsistent, and no character seems to know who he or she will be in times of tension and emotional distress. Perhaps one of the most interesting messages in the movie is the thought that in order to know ourselves, we must try to connect with those around us. We must see that we are basically the same. Otherwise, we remain lonely and ignorant as a society.The Iranian character in Crash also plays an important role in the film, one that raises many questions. Ultimately, at the end of the movie, he may be the easiest to dislike. He does evoke empathy as he faces discrimination by a gun store owner, who compares him to terrorists and calls him a “rag head,” even though he points out that he is Persian, not Arab. His frustration over not being able to adequately communicate in English also exposes the difficulties of his life in America. Of all the characters in Crash, it is most obvious that he immigrated to America and cannot successfully acculturate, and he appears completely emasculated. He reacts to tense situations (i.e. his convenience store is robbed) with so much palpable agitation and fear that a viewer can easily predict he will do something erratic and terrible. Indeed he does, by taking an “eye-for-an-eye” approach to punish t he kind and misunderstood Mexican American locksmith who he blames unfairly for the store’s robbery.The Iranian character goes so far as to dig up the locksmith’s information out of the trash, go to his house, and attempt to shoot him in his front yard, which requires forethought and planning. In the midst of this would-be murder scene, the viewer is led to believe that the locksmith’s innocent daughter will take the bullet instead. Fortunately this does not happen, as, unbeknownst to the Persian man, the gun is loaded with blanks. This is thanks to his grown daughter, who predicted that he had the capability of doing something dreadful with the gun.Out of all the irrational behavior depicted in Crash, the damage this character creates seems the worst. Although he calls the locksmith’s little girl an “angel” who saved him from doing something terrible, there appears to be few repercussions or lessons learned from his behavior. In my view, nothing spiritual occurred to keep him from killing the locksmith or the locksmith’s little girl; instead, the Iranian man’s daughter had had the wherewithal to fill the gun with blanks. It seems like he takes no personal responsibility for his actions, and is still overwhelmed with uncertainty. In the post 9-11 world, all of this is certainly intriguing to me. Is it possible that there is a more blatant bias from the creators of Crash when it comes to portraying someone of Middle Eastern heritage? I suppose one might argue that the Persian man’s grown, rational doctor-daughter is a character that allows for some balance in the portrayal of those of Middle Eastern descent; additionally, she also illustrates the potential divergence from one older generation to the next, but unfortunately her appealing character is not emphasized in the movie.Like the Persian man, Sandra Bullock’s character in Crash also turns her fear and feelings of powerlessness into anger – emotions that are so closely linked – and she finds herself utterly isolated. Her character is the wealthy wife of a district attorney, and she seems to have everything she could want. However, she acknowledges that every morning she wakes up full of rage, and does not know why. Early in the movie she is walking with her husband to their car at night and she sees two young black men and feels nervous. Her anxiety turns out to bewell-founded as the black men put a gun to her head and car jack the couple’s SUV. The scene turns the idiom that “you can’t judge a book by its cover” upside down, because the two men fit a negative stereotype, thus reinforcing the prejudices of Bullock’s character. (Interestingly, she most likely fits the two black thieves’ negative stereotype of who she is.) In the end, Bullock’s character comes to the realization that her “best friend” is actually her Hispanic maid. She has been rude to this maid, and realistically is paying the maid to take care of her, so clearly this is not a true, balanced friendship. Yet the only one to comfort Bullock’s character when she is bedridden with a broken a nkle is this unlikely maid. Bullock’s humbled character grasps the confused maid in an embrace, forcing herself to push aside her superior attitude. We need each other, Crash suggests once again.But is there hope for us as a society? No one is innocent of cultural prejudice. This a belief reiterated numerous times throughout Crash, sometimes dramatically and sometimes humorously, and almost always laced with irony. The question is: how do we work through our biases and simply get along? If the travel saint in Crash is a metaphor for the journey in life that we all take toward self-understanding, then some of us are certainly at different places along this path, but with effort are moving forward. Sadly, some of us may remain stuck, figuratively ramming our heads against walls as we are forced to interact with others who are different than we are.I believe that Crash may offer a bleak view of racial relations in our country; however, some of the last scenes show snow falling in Los Angeles, which is certainly an unusual sight. Perhaps this is intended to show some sort of cleansing, or hope, yet there is also the image of fire as a car is engulfed in flames. In our society something will always continue to burn. The illegal Thai immigrants dropped off in the middle of Chinatown at the end of Crash represent how the cycle will start once again; they will have the challenging job of acculturating into our society and others will take out their fear and anger on them. Yet this country has so many valuable things to offer to each one of us, even when it is so difficult to look beyond our differences.Crash successfully forces viewers to address their own cultural backgrounds and their experiences with those of other races. Doing this is imperative if we are to reach a peaceful existence with each other in our melting pot of a country, yet it is too easy to succumb to fear and avoid analyzing how we subsist within our world and how we relate to others. After all, when it comes to racial equality, ignorance is not bliss; it hurts all of us. Especially within a city like Los Angeles, we never know when the truth will crash into us and we will be forced to face who we are through the eyes of others, at least superficially, no matter how difficult it is to take a raw look inside and outside of ourselves.。
