Crash (Paul Haggis, 2005)

Crash (2005)

It was a surprise to everyone in the Acadamy Awards audience and the home audiences as well, when Crash won the 2005 for Oscar for Best Motion Picture of the Year. The audience went wild when this film was announced as the 2005 winner.

I am usually not at a loss for words, but this movie has so much going on I just could not get a handle on it. It was definitely not what I expected. The basic premise is that we often make decisions based on ethnicity or skin color before looking beyond that, and when we do look past the obvious, we still have problems with our perceptions. The race relations (or non-relations) you see here are raw and ugly. Bigotry, intolerance, anger, distrust, fear, nationalism at its worse, you name it, it's shown in Crash. I think that some of the characters were over-the-top stereotypical, but that seems to be the point of this movie.

This is not a feel-good movie. However, there is something about it that won't let you walk away--there is the scene where LAPD police officer (Matt Dillon) who had earlier searched a woman (Thandie Newton) in an inappropriate manner, comes to her rescue when she is in an auto accident. The interaction between the two during this second encounter is very moving.

The movie is excellent, but it is also disturbing and unsettling. I came away feeling quite uneasy. Still, this is one of those movies that I will definitely buy for my collection when it becomes available on DVD. It is a "must see" movie that you and your friends will be discussing for days.

The large cast includes: Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Esposito, Larenz Tate, Loretta Devine, William Fichtner, Ludacris, Michael Pena and others. Tony Danza appears briefly. I would not be surprised if director Paul Haggis, who is responsible for the story and the screenplay, receives an Academy Award nomination later. Don Cheadle does a grand job as actor and co-producer of this fine movie. CRASH is rated 'R' in the U.S
Add Crash to your movie collection, but be sure to get it in the widescreen version because you don't want to miss one second of any of the action in this film.

Vannie Ryanes, <br />
Classic Film Maven

Crash (Paul Haggis, 2005)

THE SCOOP
Director: Paul Haggis
Plot: Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters concerning the theme of racism.

Genre: Crime/Drama
Awards: Won 3 Oscars - best picture, editing, screenplay. Nom. for 3 Oscars - best director, sup. actor, original song.
Runtime: 113min
Rating: M18 for language, sexual content and some violence.

IN RETROSPECT
Crash is an overrated film which questionably won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It's clearly not the best film of the year; Spielberg's Munich is the more deserving picture. While it showcases an ensemble of multi-racial cast, the flaw lies in the structure of the film. It weaves many stories of people from different ethnic groups, and tries to collide these stories in Babel-esque style. The effect is at the very least, fluid enough to have some flow. But the ending is very much restricted when it could have been more skillfully exploited.

Acting is good but not great enough to cause overwhelming dramatic emotions in viewers. There's no star performance that's worthy of an Oscar. The racism occurs in a manner that may be offensive yet rather accurate it its portrayal. Crash is one of the better performers of the year, but lacks the quality to leave a deep impression on the viewers. There are a couple of powerful moments that allow the film to retain some respect though.

SCORE: 8/10
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Recommendations: Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962), The Visitor

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Last updated: 2010-03-17 04:05:04 by eternality_tan