Crash

This movie works brilliantly. Within the first ten minutes I was both very uncomfortable and completely incredulous at what I was seeing.

This may not be the reaction of every moviegoer who sees Crash, but I think the wide array of characters and situations will give each viewer at least some experience to which he/she can relate. The story follows a large group of vastly different people, of different races, economic backgrounds, and social status. We are first presented with the characters as they are, reacting to situations involving race as they normally would. The audience is confronted headfirst with common prejudices that are perhaps not quite as blatantly expressed in everyday life, but elicit the intended emotional response from the viewer.

A racist white cop (Matt Dillon) needlessly and excessively harasses an upper-class black tv director (Terrence Dashon Howard), when he mistakenly assumes that his wife (Thandie Newton) is white instead of light-skinned. He fondles the wife during a pat-down, humiliating her and emasculating her husband, as they are both powerless to resist. The cop’s partner (Ryan Phillippe), is a well-intentioned white rookie cop, who is disgusted with his partner’s blatant racism. My favorite scene in the movie came during the racist cop’s second coincidental encounter with the light-skinned wife later in the movie, as he is forced to face the consequences of his earlier harassment. It was truly a moving scene. I also enjoyed the scenes between Anthony (Ludacris) and his partner-in-crime, Peter (Larenz Tate). Anthony complains about the prejudices that he encounters as a young black man, and then promptly proceeds to reinforce all of those preconceptions by acting the way people expected him to in the first place.

What I really liked about this movie was that, as in real-life, no one is all-good or all-bad. Even the racist white cop is shown to have redeemable qualities, while the well-intentioned white cop realizes in one horrible instant that he doesn’t know himself quite as well as he thought. What separates this movie from others preaching the same message is that it really makes the viewer uncomfortable and is not afraid to confront the feelings behind racism head-on. It presents scenes which are perhaps exaggerated yet still recognizable. Each character can be both the victim and the perpetrator of prejudice, so all sides of the issue are portrayed and examined, seeming to ask the viewer, “and what exactly did you do in situations like this?”

At one point, the upper-class black tv director tells Anthony that, “You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.” I immediately wanted to say the same thing to white people like the racist cop, shamelessly perpetuating the same prejudice that, as the movie tries to establish, everyone is guilty of doing even with the best of intentions. I highly recommend you see this movie. No matter what your background, it will definitely cause you to question yourself.