...Crash: A Disturbing Mirror on Humanity Does everyone hate or dislike a certain type of person? Do people continuously make snap judgments of others based upon their appearance? Do people really believe in stereotypes they hear about other ethnicities? Are individuals naturally afraid of unfamiliar cultures? These questions are explored by Director Paul Haggis in the provocative 2005 film Crash. Set in contemporary Los Angeles, Crash is an explosive exploration of prejudice. The plot of Crash consists of a series of inter-related vignettes about people of assorted ethnicities and socio-economic groups who come into contact with one another—often violently--over a 36-hour period. In the film the interaction of the characters causes viewers to question stereotypes while at the same time acknowledging the grain of truth they contain. Because the vignettes are all related, with characters in one reappearing in another, viewer are able to see various sides of a character: a character shown committing a racist act in one scene is depicted in an act of kindness in another. This structure stresses the interrelationship of human-beings and underscores the complexities of prejudice and racism. The title of the movie Crash is a metaphor for the content. The most obvious meaning of the word crash in contemporary society is an auto collision, and the movie begins and ends with car accidents. But the idea of collision, as it pertains to the film, has a much broader application. This...
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...Emily English 1301, Assignment #3 October 25th, 2015 Crash Essay E.B. White once said, “Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.” This nation has become a melting pot of people from different cultures, races, religions, backgrounds, classes, and beliefs. Prejudice is born from personal experience and from generalizations and beliefs about a particular group of people. In the movie Crash, the director does an incredible job illustrating prejudice in today’s world by showing examples in our everyday society, how our personal lives can often influence how we interact, and how sometimes our preconceived ideas can be shattered by chance encounters. Society is full of prejudice, people are judged on the basis of their race, class, sex, or religion. The movie Crash depicts the various aspects of prejudice by showing the causes and effects it has on different people and how they interact with each other. For example, in the beginning of the movie a wealthy white couple, Rick and Jean, is walking down the street and Jean moves closer to her husband when she sees two black men, Anthony and Peter, walking towards them. They notice the woman’s reaction, then they rob the couple at gunpoint and steal their car. Then, after Rick and Jean get home they have their locks changed, Jean gets really upset when she sees the locksmith is Hispanic and wants to have the locks changed again because she thought the Hispanic man was going to sell...
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...Final Film Critique: Crash (2004) Jay Dennis ENG 225 Introduction to Film Instructor: Cicely Young April 13, 2014 Final Film Critique Draft: Crash (2004) There are many different critical elements and artistic aspects to examine when analyzing and critiquing any film. In 2004 Paul Haggis wrote and directed the award winning drama Crash about various intertwining experiences involving racial relations and the socioeconomic status levels of the diverse cast of characters. This film addresses how humans being deal with real life circumstances and addresses how racial stereotypes and prejudices impact our society by causing a separation of customs, ignoring human and civil rights, and demonstrating how racism can cause moral, cultural and economical suffering. This detailed essay will address the cinematic elements employed throughout the movie, and provide a critical analysis on the various components and techniques used to create this compelling and powerful film. Crash is a movie that involves several different stories and plots that all manage to somehow connect the characters to each other in a series of events that take place during two days in California. America’s ever-growing melting pot is distinctly represented in the film as the audience is introduced to a black LAPD detective, two black mischievous car thieves, a white district attorney and his prejudice wife, a white racist beat cop and his neophyte partner, a black Hollywood director and his wife, an...
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...Crash Movie Analysis Anjelica McCartney HUM/150 January 18, 2016 Victor Armenta Crash Movie Analysis Discrimination, racism, classism, prejudice and more plague today’s society. These horrible issues do not affect one race, sexes, class, ethnicity, or age group; these issues affect all races, both genders, all ethnicities, and all age groups. For this film analysis, I have chosen to discuss the racism portrayed throughout a three-time Oscar award winning movie called Crash. Summary Paul Haggis wrote, directed and produced the film Crash in 2004. The movie Crash interweaves several individuals in Los Angeles over a two-day period. The film shows how a variety of different ethnic characters crosses paths during this period, and it displays their personal experiences involving racism. The movie shows how some are victims of racism as well as how some are guilty of racism against others as well as themselves. ‘Some movies, though, are told very much from the protagonist’s point of view, and the audience needs to go inside of the character’s head, to see the world of the story as the character sees it and feel what they feel’ (Diamond, 2012). Crash will take you there. Characters The movie Crash does not have simply one or two main characters but several. The casting directors, Sarah Finn, and Randi Hiller, carefully selected a magnificent cast to portray the characters in this film. The main characters in this movie include; an African American detective named Graham...
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...Article #1 By: Shaquille Carswell “It’s Movie Night” You have the right to remain silent during the film! On February 10, 2014 a 7:00 p.m. film was premiered on Middle Georgia State College Macon campus in the Math Auditorium for the remembrance of Black History Month. A film with underlying positive connotations and significant elements of race, loss, and redemption. A 2004 drama featured film titled “Crash” starring many aspiring actors and actress such as Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, and many more. The movie picked up three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. Tara Mitchell, Middle Georgia State student, believed that the movie was a great pick for the movie night because it was educational, informative, and entertaining drama. A film that covers a 36-hour period Los Angeles during which the lives a diverse handful of disparate citizens crash into one another as they deal with racial and social tensions. According to the Coordinator of this event, Amy Carter said, “It’s for black history month because one of our main focus this year for black history month was about diversity and acceptance. We chose this movie because it shows the ends and outs of how the racism and prejudice continually perpetuated on both sides from all different types. It goes into five different people from all different walks of life whose pass ultimately crashes into one another”. The movie night had an outstanding turnout and the people...
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...Racism in "Crash" Physical Characteristics and racial differences are distinguishing traits that keep people in our world apart from each other. Crash is a movie that showcases prejudice and racial stereotypes. The movie is set in Los Angeles which is a city with the cultural mix of almost every ethnicity. Crash is a perfect analogy of how the different people intersect with others in society. The movie crash shows differences between the lives of different people. It displays the interactions of several multiethnic groups such as African American, Caucasians, Asians, Latinos, and Arabs. All of the groups are striving to overcome their fears as they weave in and out of each other’s lives. They are all tied by an invisible chain of events, so the movie shows how we all have an effect on one another whether we realize it or not. The basic premise is that we can not live our lives without crashing into others. Others may look different and come from all walks of life but ultimately we are all the same. We are ultimately connected and the sooner we realize this, the better society as a whole will be. The opening scene begins with a crash and the statement is made that we don’t touch each other enough, so we have to crash just to interact. We need each other to survive, so connections have to be made. The ultimate goal should be to touch each other’s lives in a positive and lovely way and not to violently “crash” into one another. This makes one question their own personal prejudices...
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...Social Constructs Found In the Movie “Crash” The aptly named movie, “Crash”, is a depiction of how humans crash into each other, collisions in personality, attitudes, and understanding. In the opening scene we are introduced to the premise of the movie as the man says “We crash into each other, just so we can feel something.” This is the thesis statement for the movie, setting up the idea that our interactions with each can be as traumatic and life changing as a vehicle collision. Each character in the movie played a role in showing the viewer the different influences and behaviors the numerous cultures have towards their very own culture and that of others’. Ethnocentrism, prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination are the core themes presented in the movie “Crash.” At the very beginning of the movie, two African American men are seen leaving a coffee shop, Anthony, the obviously more dominant of the two, and Peter. Anthony is complaining about the poor service they received, blaming the poor service on being African American. Peter is quick to point out that the waitress was also black. Anthony expresses to Peter that black women can also think in stereotypes believing that they, as black men, would not her leave a tip thus not putting forth the effort to provide them with good service. This is an example of stereotyping within a culture. This ties in to the social-conflict theory in that the woman did not see them as worthy of her effort because they would not enhance her...
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...Cultural Prejudice I stop to think and wonder why we are cultural prejudice. I like to say I am not yet every time I stop for coffee at 7-eleven I expect to see someone from the Middle East behind the counter. Or, how at work, when I treat a Persian or Armenian patient I immediately expect them to request royalty treatment as if they all had a sense of entitlement. These are merely thoughts I would never act upon, yet there they are in back on my mind like an old blood stain on my scrub top that I will never be able to get rid of. These are thoughts based on biases and misperception that sometimes I tend to forget about, and sometimes, it takes a good someone else for me to be reminded. The film Crash that came out on 2004 cannot depict any better how many of us, if not most of us, see the other cultures. The location where the story takes place also cannot be any better. It takes place in Los Angeles where the lives of these Angelinos crossed paths causing a collision of race and cultural prejudice. The director, Paul Haggis, did a nice job reminding all of us, especially me, as how we treat each other among cultures letting our judgment be mislead the could be acts of racism. Although the movie may push reality beyond its limits, it is something that to some extend happens every day and cannot be overlooked. Sometimes while reflecting on the film and its message, I found myself drifting away remembering the times that I was judged based on my personal appearance...
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...Crash begins, with a Muslim man going into a store to buy a gun from a white store owner. The white store owner views the man negatively because of his Muslim background. The white store owner’s preconceived attitudes towards the man are largely based on the September 11th terror attacks on the United States by a group of Muslim terrorists. This particular scene provides an example of stereotyping. According to the book Multicultural Law Enforcement, stereotyping is when people classify someone based on a particular pattern, but do not recognize their individuality. The white store owner believes that the Muslim man in his store is going to commit some type of criminal act, because of what little knowledge he has of Muslims. This lack of knowledge about Muslims, and the terrorist attacks completed by Muslims on US soil lead him to exhibit some form of stereotyping against all Muslims. The reality of stereotyping is that it has existed in humanity for centuries and still plays a major role in the lives of so many people around the world. I think that the only way to reduce stereotyping is by increasing education about what makes us different and embracing our uniqueness. Matt Dillon’s character John Ryan is vividly engrained into my imagination. John Ryan and his partner receive a call of a car- jacking involving a black Navigator. Ryan and his partner see a black Navigator in passing, run the plates and his partner advises him that, it is not the vehicle they are looking...
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...Rowland CRASH: SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES “Sociology is the study of human behavior in society” (Kimmel and Aronson 2012). Sociologists study humans in their environments and the social interactions that occur in those environments in order to develop theories of how human behavior is shaped by groups of people and or how life is affected by those individuals. Paul Haggis’ movie Crash (Haggis 2005) contains both social and multicultural differences that we as humans experience in our society and in our world everyday. In the movie, he takes us on a journey through a sociological process made up of racism, social class, and gender which all play roles in stereotypes and assumptions we make about others. Crash is set in the city of Los Angeles, California as it continues to grow as a multicultural society, exploring how racial intolerance and prejudice are problems for all of the United States. The movie Crash (Haggis 2005), explains many of the sociological concepts that explain how one’s behavior or actions can have a direct effect on another persons life, shaping it profoundly and changing the outcome forever. The first few lines of the movie basically set the sociological tone for the film. Graham, played by Don Cheadle says, “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...
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...Intercultural Communication, stereotyping, perception, and verbal communication play a huge role in the characteristics of the movie “Crash.” When Paul Haggis directed this film he did a fantastic job of showing how individuals from different cultures, and countries, sometimes interact with each other in society. It goes into great depth to link the problems and situations in the characters’ lives in the setting of the movie making sure they are involved with each other in some way. Intercultural Communication is defined as “an act that involves interaction between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event.” The text explains that the importance of Intercultural Communications have grown in the United States over the years. In the U.S it is made up of many people and demographic shifts. The increasing number of Asians, Latinos, and Eastern Europeans immigrate here to make their homes. When this takes place these individuals bring their cultural values, and styles of communicating. (Wood, pg. 79) When “Crash” starts the first scene is a car accident that takes place at an active crime scene where an Asian woman hits Detective Graham and Ria from behind at a stop light. Language barriers are almost immediately known as they begin to argue over who was at fault. While they both speak English the Asian lady simply uses what she feels is direct communication in stating that “She break to fast” and “Mexicans don’t...
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...The movie “Crash” and its intercultural sub-context Intercultural communication occurs when people or groups from different cultures communicate. The actual process of listening and responding to people with various cultural backgrounds can be difficult. The movie Crash demonstrates a number of diversity problems and intercultural barriers. It tells a story of multiple different individuals and families and how they are all intertwined, even if they want to think they are not. Most obviously, the characters come from different races, but race set aside they are each a part of different subcultures of the Los Angeles area. Crash used excellent interpretations that showed how pre-judging and stereotyping have the power to influence other people and their own behavioral patterns. Three scenes in particular stood out to me as examples in which intercultural barriers were present. The Hispanic man that was a locksmith with his child, the Caucasian police officer (played by Matt Dillon) and his judgment of an African American female (played by Thandie Newton), and finally the scene of a notable instance occurs between a Caucasian gun storeowner and a Persian man and his daughter. Other people that were portrayed in the movie had a different opinion, but the Mexican locksmith was a man who was very family-oriented, docile, and good-hearted. Throughout the movie though, he was viewed as a bum, gang-member, and menace to society. The people in the movie formed their pre-determined...
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...sway an audience. Movies are at their most potent when seen at the theater (Harper, 2003). Movies can desensitize people to issues and shift public attitudes through influence. While there are many real scenarios portrayed in fictional film, to say that movies similar to Crash are completely accurate portrayals of reality is an oversight. With this influential medium, the film Crash is an attempt to accurately portray the various racial, ethnic, and racial stereotypes within the cast of characters in Los Angeles, California. I am from Los Angeles, and while I understand what the film-makers were trying to do, I thought it was rather shallow and merely a portrayal of what people THINK L.A. is. The film is supposed to be snapshot of America; as a melting pot of cultures. The movie is complete with a racial mix of every nationality. Prejudices are the strong backbone to the concept of racism. They are the labels and images that we designate to a group of people on the basis of what we imagine to be the characteristics of all members of that group. More often than not, they are incorrect and incomplete. The film Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, addresses the strong existence of racial and racial prejudices against many groups from various perspectives in today's society. Racial perception and racial sensitivity Edward Hall theorizes that every human being is exposed to so many perceptual stimuli - sights, sounds, tastes, and bodily sensations - that it is impossible...
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...GE 101 4-30-2012 Film Review- Crash In Los Angeles, a multi-ethic city, people cannot interact with other people belonging to different ethnic groups. They are paranoid of being victims of racial discrimination or being abused, stereotyping is in everybody’s lifestyle. The movie has pretty much every racial stereotype you can think of - Hispanic housekeeper, thuggish black people, racist white people, Chinese people and illegal immigrants. CRASH is well-acted and well-directed, but also betrayed by its scripts. Haggis has built the plot on the series of often implausible coincidences that look more suitable to misanthropic black comedies than dramas that aspire to tell important truths about real life. In just over 24 hours, Crash brings together people from all walks of life. Two philosophizing black men steal the expensive SUV belonging to the white, L.A. District Attorney and his wife. A similar vehicle belonging to a wealthy black television director and his wife is later pulled over by a racist cop and his partner. Soon many of these people get mixed up with a Latino locksmith a Persian storekeeper and two ethnically diverse, dating police detectives. The multiple plot lines intersect in all sorts of interesting ways. Everyone is linked together, not by a single linear chain but by an intricate web. In the process, we get to see more of who these people really are underneath our assumptions based on their color. Some of these characters redeem themselves while...
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...In the 2005 block buster movie titled “Crash” one of the three sociological perspectives can be observed in this movie regarding to equality and life in America. Set in Los Angeles, this movie probed social and cultural stereotypes, race and social biases, and the conflict perspective that often ensues as a result. The blatant manner in which these sociological issues are revealed is often startling for the viewer, but the shocking nature is intentional in order to promote self-examination and reflection. The conflict perspective is presented in this movie dons on tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources, including housing, money, access to services and political representation. This movie uses tension to advance the story line of each character forcing them into positions of conflict as well as dependence, and emphasizes the status of equality in America. In order to progress to a more equal society it is essential that Americans examine the biases presented in the movie Crash, especially those most often seen in modern society such as stereotyping, hate crimes, color blind racism and ethnocentrism. Stereotypes are defined as unreliable generalizations about all members of a group that do not recognize individual differences within the group. From the opening scene the movie depicts a car crash involving two police detectives and an Asian woman. The stereotyping begins immediately when the Asian woman tells the police officer writing the traffic report...
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