Crash [2004]

Paul Haggis, USA, 2004, 113 minutes

“It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.”

On an ordinary day in Los Angeles many things happen to many different people. District Attorney Rick and his wife are carjacked by two black thieves - the angry Anthony, convinced that society has it in for all Black people, and Peter. Meanwhile Officer Ryan, a deeply racist police officer, has sexually assaulted a black woman – he meanwhile is trying to get help for his sick father and is frustrated by what he sees as the unfair affirmative action policies which contributed to the decline of his father’s business and subsequent ill health. Farhad is an Iranian shop owner who faces racism in his daily life and take out his frustrations on Daniel – a Hispanic immigrant locksmith, little realising that Daniel’s ethnicity creates problems for him too. All of their stories intersect over the course of 48 hours as the characters are forced to confront the many evils that lie in outside society – and within themselves.

The main theme of the film is racism and how it permeates society – even supposedly non racist characters such as Officer Hanson are seen in the final analysis as being tainted with racial stereotyping. Rick is willing to make political capital out of an unpleasant incident and Graham, a black police officer, is willing to go along with this for personal gain. The biggest evil however is, as the top quote shows, that racism prevents people from seeing each other as individuals. There are virtually no interactions between people of different colours which are not charged with an awareness of ethnicity and the colour of skin prevents human interaction, Anthony declares he would never rob a Black person but has no compunction about doing so to a white couple, while officer Ryan cannot see that affirmative action might have been essential. Categorisation and dehumanisation are shown as the inevitable consequences as the politics of race.

The surprise winner of the best picture award of this years Oscars is well worth a look and if you missed it the first time round now’s your chance to see it.

Review by Louise Oliver
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2006