Crash!

Crash.

Crash is a drama directed and written by Paul Haggis. The film is about people of different religions and races living in Los-Angeles and how their life collides with one another. The film explores discrimination within their society in order to create awareness about these problems. The film also shows general stereotypes and how some people do live up to them.

One scene that I think is important is around 9 minutes into the film where two black men walk down the street and they see a white couple further down the street. In that scene one of the men (Anthony) says “if anyone should be scared around her is us”. This is important as he is saying that because they are in a predominantly white area, that they should be scared of what white people would do to them. This shows to the audience that black people are stereotyped to be intimidating and dangerous by white people but in this case the character is saying that they are the ones who should be scared of what they might do. A bit further on in this scene the men say “why aren't we scared? Because we got guns”. The men proceed to take guns out of their pockets and take the car from the white couple. This is important as it shows to the audience that some people do live up to the stereotypes that other people have of them. Although the two men have just expressed their feelings about racism and discrimination they still decide to rob the car which backs up people’s ideas towards black males.

In the film it shows both the negative and positive representations of the people within the film. One example being when Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is getting her locks changed she is frightened of the locksmith as he is Hispanic and is covered in tattoos which she thinks are prison tattoos. She demands that they change the locks again as she thinks she is going to get robbed again by the locksmith’s friends. This is a negative representation towards white people as it shows that white people judge people on their appearance. She has seen a Hispanic man with tattoos so she automatically thinks he is dangerous due to general stereotypes. This shows to the audience that people judge others on their appearance rather than what they are actually like. Later on in the film we see Jean (Sandra Bullock) hug her also Hispanic maid. This tells the audience that her character has come to realise that not all people of the same race or religion are the same. Jean has redeemed herself for her actions earlier by now being nice to her maid. This is a positive representation towards white people as it suggests that white people don’t judge people based on the actions of others.

A positive representation in the film is when the character Anthony (Ludacris) finds a van full of Chinese immigrants. He is presented with the opportunity to sell the Chinese people but he turns down the offer and sets them free. This goes against the general stereotype that black people are intimidating and violent as he decided to do the right thing and help other people. This shows to the audience that they underestimated Anthony due to his actions at the begging of the film. It shows that although he did some bad things he made up for them by doing the right thing at the end.

Overall, I really like this film as it showed both sides of people. It shows how people make mistakes but also try and do the same thing. It had a good balance of positive and negative representations throughout the whole film. I also liked that it showed how the individual’s lives and choices impacted the other people within the film. It shows to the audience how people decisions don’t only affect them but other people as well.