...Crash is an American drama film based in the city of Los Angeles that takes the viewer through a series of smaller stories. However, Crash is much more than that. The movie was set as a national wake up call after 9/11 and while the movie is fictional it has a striking similarity to occurrences in everyday life. Furthermore, the movie shines a light on racism, gender discrimination, and police brutality within the everyday life of Americans. The movie was originally criticized for reinforcing stereotypes instead of smashing them. I personally believe that this initial assumption made by many viewers was unjust. The movie highlighted stereotypes that affect people of all backgrounds and showed up how we may contribute to them as well. While...
Words: 672 - Pages: 3
...The movie, Crash took place in Los Angeles, shortly after 9/11 occurred. It contained stories about race, class, family, and gender during this time period. Each of the characters were racist and discriminated others to some extent, but there were two that stuck out the most. One was named Officer John Ryan and the other was Officer Tom Hanson. Officer John Ryan seemed to have a stereotype towards a certain race that being African Americans. A stereotype is defined as “a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people,”(pg. 780). Officer John Ryan often felt that if African American people were out at night they were causing a problem. For example, when he pulled over the couple that night for no reason, even though they were following the law. He made them both step out of the car. Officer Tom Hanson acted upon an African American male in his car due to what seemed to be stereotypes. For example, when Officer Tom Hanson picked up a hitchhiker, who was named Peter, they had a conversation involving racial talk. When Peter begins to reach in his pocket,...
Words: 888 - Pages: 4
...The idea of the movie Crash is that all of the character’s stories are intertwined. While some characters only have one run in with each other, for others it seems fate keeps bringing them together. This is very true for Farhad, a Persian shop owner, and Daniel Ruiz, a Hispanic locksmith. Both of these characters faced racial stereotyping and almost landed themselves in a fatal situation. Early in the film, Farhad went to buy a revolver from a gun store. Because he did this after 9/11, spoke a foreign language, and looked “middle eastern”, Farhad was called “Osama” by the caucasian gun store ownerThis was a case of cultural profiling and warped perception. Because Farhad spoke a different language and “looked middle eastern” he must have been a terrorist trying to get weapons for his next attack. In the end, Farhad’s daughter had to step in to help her father get the bullets needed. Although she didn’t have a thick accent and spoke proper English, she too had difficulty. For Daniel, it was his tattoos. After Jean Cabot, the wife of the district attorney, was robbed at gunpoint she was looking for any reason to lash out. When she saw the Hispanic man’s tattoos she...
Words: 666 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 2178 - Pages: 9
...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...
Words: 1068 - Pages: 5
...2014 Racial Profiling and Stereotypes Issues In a city such as Los Angeles, racial profiling takes places constantly throughout the day. In this film, “Crash”, Paul Haggis follows the lives of over 10 people from different backgrounds, and how they are faced with racial profiling or stereotypes. This movie is not only thought provoking, it shows the reality of such a complex world. The director, Haggis, shows how each character is faced with racial profiling/stereotypes and how it creates a snowball effect in each of their lives, as well as affecting the lives of others. The film “Crash” assumes that profiling is a bad but that people do it anyways. Self-serving attributions, revenge, victimizing, scapegoat, etc., can motivate stereotypes. Haggis wants us to feel guilty by watching all the different stereotypes that exist in today’s world; he wants us to realize not to judge a person by their physical appearance and/or race. Even Haggis illustrates anger and sympathy towards people that use stereotypes on other people. Most will say that because we are human it allows us to be imperfect but it being human doesn’t allow us to discriminatory towards other imperfect human beings. Racial profiling is when a person is judged by their race or ethnicity. The movie allows it’s viewers to see how racial profiling is a moral issues. It is projected be people of all races and classes. We can still see in today’s world people are still being judged; meaning stereotypes still exist. In the film...
Words: 1138 - Pages: 5
...Crash: Of Racial Discrimination and Stereotypes November 3rd, 2011 Crash: Of Racial Discrimination and Stereotypes Directed by Paul Haggis and produced in 2004, Crash was the Oscar Awards winner of Best Picture in 2006. Aside from Best Picture, the movie won only one other award: Best Original Screenplay for Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco. Despite its little recognition, Crash is an important movie to watch. Plot The plot of Crash is not about a typical, narrative story in the usual sense. Instead, it focuses on a theme or message and weaves several linked stories to highlight the theme. The movie is essentially about racial discrimination and the consequences of stereotyping people. Set in LA, the story covers a 24-hour period. The movie depicts the stories of several people whose lives are intertwined by accidental and casual encounters, usually on the streets. The characters in the story are people of varying ethnic groups: a bad and a good cop, a group of police investigators, a couple of teenage robbers, a DA and his wife, an Arab family, a Hispanic locksmith and his family, and an affluent African American movie director and his wife. The story revolves around how all of these people have deeply ingrained prejudices and how they themselves could suffer from discrimination. Theme and depiction Discrimination and stereotyping of people sometimes happen as a result of reinforcement of the behavior of the people being discriminatory...
Words: 784 - Pages: 4
...Crash Misty Ward University of Phoenix August 15, 2009 The movie Crash interweaves several stories during a 36 hour period in Los Angeles involving a variety of characters, an up and coming police detective with a two time felon for a brother and a drugged addicted mother, two car thieves that constantly discuss race and society, the white district attorney and his typical stay at home wife, a white veteran cop who does not hide his racist feelings from his young non racist partner. Also in the movie is a successful Hollywood director who coming home from a party with his wife crass paths with the white racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his store, a hardworking Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter trying to escape a dangerous neighborhood. Through what could be considered daily coincidental interactions, the movie seeks to describe and examine not only racial tensions, but the stereotyping that each ethnic group faces on a daily basis. Crash address the various types of diversity in America by illustrating basic stereotypes of each character’s cultural background for which they represent. The movie also address how society handle racism on a daily basis through interaction with each other, and how the view various races. For example the white district attorney and his wife were walking down the street. At the same time two African American men were walking towards them When the D.A’s wife sees them walking towards them, her immediate...
Words: 696 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 1809 - Pages: 8
...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...
Words: 1099 - Pages: 5
...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...
Words: 976 - Pages: 4
...distractions. This setting is an ideal situation to 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...
Words: 1162 - Pages: 5
...Diversity in society - “Crash” Diversity and discrimination have forever been an indispensable component of human nature. Whether we move back to the hard times of the Great Depression or come to the modern day’s society, we find a strong reflection of racialism everywhere. These aspects have been well reflected in the movie ‘Crash’. The movie ‘Crash’, released in 2005 was directed by Paul Haggis and written by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco and won three Academy awards. The movie revolves mainly around the overlapping or interlocking events in the life of whites and blacks, rich and poor, cops and criminals, Iranians, Koreans and Latinos - everything defined ultimately by racism. The idea is that “moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other”. It is based on everyday racial reactions in the human society. How we react to situations adds hue to our perceptions of living life itself. All the people involved are guilty of the discrimination but sometimes through indifference, they rise above these. Assuming something about the person before us is rather a dominant feature in Crash. Crash describes a number of people with almost equal importance and shows the psychological inhibitions each of them has based on these narrowness of discrimination. The movie contains coldness, cruelty and pain, but finally unfolds to generate sympathy from general audience and an expectation that people would learn to share similar hopes and fears. As far as Crash is concerned, the...
Words: 1232 - Pages: 5
... Typically people in society are somewhat discreet about their racism and it is not something they openly admit to. The movie Crash, daringly tackles the issues of intercultural communication, and race in an unconventional way. It takes racism and makes it an open conversation amongst the characters to ensure the viewers can clearly identify each characters racial bias. As the characters in this movie communicate, there is frequent use of racial slurs, profanity, as well as racially driven insults and stereotypes, to further exaggerate the bigotry present in the film. Crash provides a series of examples that show just how powerful effective and ineffective communication can be when it comes to social relations. This film touches on various communication theories and concepts, in which many of the scenarios presented in Crash can be explained. These theories and concepts include: symbolic interaction theory (self concept), assumptions of communication accommodation theory (indirect stereotyping), assumptions of expectancy violations theory (violation valence), and cultural communication. Synopsis Director Paul Haggis’s, 2005 explosive film, Crash, tells a very provocative story of how absolute strangers can impact each others lives in both negative and positive ways. In a seemingly coincidental chain of events the multicultural characters of this movie are in one way or another connected. Within a thirty – six hour period in Los Angeles California, about eight main characters...
Words: 2169 - Pages: 9
...Bryant Smith February 7, 2012 Cultural Diversity Crash Movie Paper The movie Crash is a drama film that shows you several life experiences of different people living in Los Angeles. All the characters in the film are somehow inter-related to one another. A police detective who mother is strung out on drugs and has a brother who likes to kill, two car thieves, a white district attorney, a racist cop, a black Hollywood director, a full Persian descent father, and a Hispanic locksmith are all the characters in the film. This film has some sociological problems that occur everyday in the United States. One of the problems in our society is institutional discrimination. Institutional discrimination refers to the unfair, indirect treatment of an individual embedded in the operating procedures, policies, laws, or objectives of large organizations. This situation can be recognized as widespread because certain jobs are all over America and therefore they might perform the same type of discrimination to somebody. One example of this would be when the racist police and his younger co-worker pulled the successful Hollywood director and his wife over after just retrieving that somebody was car jacked. The Hollywood director was driving the same type of car that was reported stolen. However, the police operator gave the racist cop the stolen car license plate number so to pull these people over was no connection in their earlier call. It was the same exact car but had a different...
Words: 1258 - Pages: 6
