A Reflection on The Film "Crash"

A 2004 film directed by Paul Haggis is based on the interlocking stories of several individuals with different races in America. Crash includes some major actors such as Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, and Shaun Toub. Crash is based on racism and prejudices between different groups of people, showing that no matter what the color of your skin is, we are all affected by this.

This film portrays a storyline of Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock), who is a white rich woman dealing with ‘first world problems’. She is the wife of District Attorney Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser); a Persian Father (Shaun Toub), who is dealing with the struggle to protect his business, resulting in some anger issues; a Latino Locksmith (Michael Pena) who is heavily stereotyped by his peers, as well as many other interrelated stories.

Haggis main focus for this film is based on how fear can take over many of our thoughts and is the base of all our own prejudice and stereotypes. This shows, that every individual is flawed in their own way. We can see this in the film shown through the character of a young police officer, played by Ryan Phillippe. We first realize that he is one of the only police officers in the film that is positive and sickened by the racist beliefs of his older partners. We soon realize that he himself is also flawed, when picking up an African-American hitchhiker they began what seems to be a friendly conversation but soon the tables turn and we are shocked that the police officer pulls out his gun to shoot the hitchhiker, when he thought that he had a gun in his pocket as well. This is a representation of the message being conveyed, that no matter what, everyone has a little prejudice in them.

Crash incorporated effective film techniques to add on to the main focus and impact the audience in an emotional way. A scene that I was really impressed by was the “invisible cloak” scene. This is where Farhad, the persian father went up to Daniel, the locksmith to threaten him with a fire weapon. There was a smooth piano like music in the background, which emphasized the emotions as an audience and how sorry we felt for Daniel. The characters in this scene showed impeccable acting that could bring you to tears. A zoom/close up shot of Daniels face was used in order to highlight the sadness he felt when his daughter came out running to help him.

Watching this film, I was surprised by how much I admired it. Through the use of a sharp script, symbolism and effective cinematography, Director, Paul Haggis, encourages us to empathize with characters in Crash, such as Daniel, the Latino locksmith. This was a very powerful and thought-provoking film, the main focus was on racism yet did also touch on prejudice. Crash does a great job of waking you up on this fact and showing you how everyone around us can be affected by this. Crash is a movie where possibly anything and everything can happen.

Haggis also forces us to take a deep look at ourselves and see their own hidden prejudice and racism that we’ve seen throughout our lives. This is a great example of how the only thing stopping us from eliminating this is ourselves. This is not just another movie based on racism, it’s all the factors that go into it as well as how it’s not always about the color of your skin, everyone can and is affected by this. 

Works Cited

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2. Clooney, G., Haggis, P., Moresco, B., Yari, B., Bullock, S., Dillon, M., Toub, S., ... Lions Gate Home Entertainment. (2006). Crash. Santa Monica, CA: Lions Gate Home Entertainment.
3. Ebert, R. (2005, May 6). Crash. RogerEbert.com. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/crash-2005
4. Fischer, P. (2005). Crash: Exploring the complexities of race, ethnicity, and identity. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 33(1), 44-53.
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9. Pena, M. (2005). Crash: The anatomy of prejudice. Cineaste, 30(4), 48-51.
10. Tasker, Y. (2009). Crash. In Fifty Contemporary Film Directors (3rd ed., pp. 213-217). Routledge.