CRASH
Sonya Martinez
University of Phoenix
HUM/150 - Introduction to Film Studies
Michelle Sanson
July 5, 2011
CRASH
The movie “Crash” is a powerful and complex movie that involves the lives of six families in today’s modern day dilemmas of racism, discrimination, drug abuse, and criminal actions and how they deal with it. The plot of this movie (for myself) is unclear. This movie has many scenes with different interactions with the characters and one must pay extra close attention to every scene to understand and follow along. This movie is all over the place, and it is not until close to the end that we can see how the characters have affected one other for better or worst. In this movie we have several different mise-en-scene. Most take place in the moment or as a flashback. In the opening scene we are outdoors at night in a car with what appears to be snow or rain coming down. The inside of the window is foggy; outside the car an accident has just taken place with flashing lights, police, and people all around. We also have bright daylight scenes, like when the police begin a car chase with what they believe to be a car-jacking suspect. We have several scenes in a police station, a mom and pop store, in a drug addict’s home and in Detective Waters bedroom. The entire movie involves dead, terrified, angry people who do not know what or how to feel. In the movie there is plenty of genuine emotions in the scenes, and this give the movie cause however; because of the intertwined storylines, it is not a continuous flow it makes the movie difficult to follow. The editing in this movie was well done however; we do not see how well it is until we see the ending results. In the beginning of the movie, we have an accident and after a brief delay into this accident it flashbacks 24 hours earlier. Here we start to see how the characters lives interact and how the multiple interactions affect each of their lives. Because of the intertwining of the different story lines the editing may seem like it is ineffective and not completing the story. It leaves the audience wanting more of that character or wanting nothing to do with them. It does make it hard to follow because of many story lines and where one begins and other ends. The sounds of the movie have a depressing sense of gloom and detached feeling. Like these problems will continue to be a normal acceptance in society. In some cultures and in some areas this may be true, but they are also peaceful resolution. In this eye-opening movie the impression is that these unspoken cultural issues that we see will never change. These cultural issues will, in fact, continue to grow into a never-changing society. In some aspect this may be true however; we as a society must correct this in ourselves first so that we do not portray our negative beliefs onto others in the way we think, act, and choose to react in stressful situations. With songs (as stated in IMDb soundtrack page) such as “In the Deep”, “City of Angel”, “Maybe Tomorrow”, “Redemption”, and “Swinging Doors”, to name a few, as background sounds and music playing throughout the movie that gives one the perception of dread with no redemption and no solutions to the everyday bias of today society and its ignorance in the world. The sounds effects were excellent in giving the reaction of a swirling downfall of how a society will continue to destroy itself unless we change our ways of thinking. In this twisted drama with every day, real life issues, it makes me sick and angry to think that in today’s world this is still going on and yet it does. I must live a sheltered life in my small city because I do not see a large amount of this where I live. Can it be that I turn my head and chose not to see it as so many others have and continue to do so? As a Hispanic female that has had to work hard to achieve success, I know the struggles and challenges that one must face. However, one must be willing to work hard and deal with the challenges head-on and not be willing to cover up, work around, lie, cheat, or steal to achieve that success. Any attempt to do otherwise and one would encounter the same issues and sometimes it maybe bigger than the first. Society should work on building relationships with one other and not judging people based on their skin color, backgrounds, age, race, or even where one lives, before one has a chance to know them personally. The cinematography in this film I believe was very good. Like at the end of the movie when we see the last crash of the movie, and it is in a spotlight with a small crowd of people arguing who was at fault and everything else around the crash is dark with little to no light. In addition we have the storeowner coming back to the store in the morning after the locksmith had made the repair only to find that the store was broken into. We see the bright light coming from outside behind him as he walks into the dark and shadowy gloom from inside the store where everything is destroy with broken glass and everywhere. It fades into somewhat of a blurry image of what looks to be headlights of oncoming traffic in the rain and what can only be determined as the red of a traffic signal, but we cannot admittedly make it out as it fades in and out. The lens from both close-up and far angles shots were in perfect positions. The stoned-out look on (Det. Graham Waters) mother’s face, only adds to Det. Waters’ disappointment, and we can see the anguish on his face, when he finds her high on some type of drugs once again. The cinematography fits well, and captures the full affect of what was happening at the time. Like the anger on Ria (the detective‘s partners) face when her and Det. Waters are in bed together, and he tells his mother he is sleeping with a white girl when, in fact, she is a Latina woman. The cinematography was excellent and made the movie easy to watch. After watching this movie I must say, I did not like the movie for several reasons. First were the different stories lines and trying to keep them straight. This made it hard to follow unless one was sitting in front of the movie at all times. If I were not sitting right there the whole time I would miss something and I would lose track of what the story line was trying to convey. Second was the bold and scary truth of several of the story lines. I am not that naïve or ignorant to believe that this is not an everyday ongoing problem however, I also believe that The Golden Rule of “Treat others as you want to be treated” (Gensler, p. 6) should always be in the front of our minds. If one wants to be respected one must respect, if one want to be understood one must understand, and if one want to success in life, one must be able to look past the physical and work together to make a better diverse society. This class has opened my eye to movies in a whole new light considering I was not a movie watcher beforehand. It has opened my eye to how films are produce, why they have certain shots, lights, angles, and themes. I understand why some editing is done to some movie and why not enough or too much editing is done in others. In each movie I watch I listen for music and sounds that I did not hear before. I also see how some movie can receive bad reviews when they are good movies and how good movies sometimes receive bad reviews. Movies are about what one likes and how the director can keep ones attention and draws one in. In rating this movie “Crash” I would have to give it a 2.5 to a 3.5 because I did not totally hate it but I did not totally like it, either. It brought out many current issues that we as individuals must be willing to work and understand on a daily basic and others who choose not to see it at all. As G.Y. Tileman states in his book of proverbs and sayings “There is none so blind as those who will not see”.

CRASH
Haggis, P () (May 2005, Haggis P). Crash [Audio podcast]. Video home movie. Retrieved
Haggis, P () (May 2005, Haggis P). Crash [Audio podcast]. THE INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE. Retrieved from
Gensler, H. J. (1998). The Golden Rule. Harry J. Gensler S. J. Retrieved from http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm.
Titelman, G.Y. (). (November 2003). Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings [Audio podcast]. The Phrase Finder. Retrieved from