201. Crash

Crash (2004)

Director: Paul Haggis

Starring: Don Cheadle

Ryan Phillipe

Matt Dillion

Terrance Howard

Thadie Newton

Sandra Bullock

IMDb Rating: 8

My Rating: 9

"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 touch so much that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

Crash is the story of several groups of intertwined characters dealing with racism and prejudices in present-day Los Angeles. Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) is an African-American detective torn between the job that he is addicted to, and the family which is constantly left on the back burner. Graham's troublesome brother Peter (Larenz Tate) has taken up a life of stealing expensive cars for money with the guidance of Anthony (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges). One evening, Anthony and Peter carjack an SUV belonging to Los Angeles' District Attorney Rick Cabot (Brenden Fraiser) and his wife Jean (Sandra Bullock). Once home, the Cabot's have all of their locks changed, but Jean is alarmed when the young man changing the locks appears to have gang related tattoos.

We follow Daniel Ruiz, the lock repairman home, and find that he has a wife and a daughter and is every bit your typical family man. He shares a tender story with his daughter before being called out to fix the lock of Persian general store owner Farhad (Shaun Toub). While Daniel is fixing the lock, he notices that the door is the real problem and attempts to tell Farhad the bad news. Farhad believes that Daniel is cheating him and sends him away. That night, Farhad's store is broken into and he instantly goes to find Daniel, with vengeance being the only thing on his mind.

Meanwhile, Tom Hansen (Ryan Phillipe), a cop new to the Los Angeles Police Force, is riding along with his new partner John Ryan (Matt Dillion). They pull over an SUV matching the description of a recently stolen vehicle, although the license plates do not match. Ryan begins to question the driver of the vehicle Cameron Thayer (Terrance Howard) about his night's activities. Cameron's wife Christine (Thadie Newton) soon starts to speak out of line and Ryan loses his patience. He performs a body search on Christine after she exits the vehicle and verbally assaults him. His search proves to be much more than inappropriate, prompting Tom to request a new partner and leaving Cameron to question his abilities as a husband and a man. Soon all of the stories start to blend together to break down many racial barriers, but at times raising new walls as well.

From my synopsis of the film, you would think that Crash would be extremely hard to follow. Luckily, screenwriter Paul Haggis is a much more talented writer than I am. Bringing to mind a previous ensemble film like Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, Haggis takes several different stories and connects them not only with it's characters meeting, but with the common theme of racial equality. What I loved about the story is that not every character ends up "richer" in the end. Some characters that begin "colorblind", soon start to see the world in black and white. Crash gives us one of the best structured screenplays, with often unpredictable results.

Speaking about the racial subject matter, this film's focus lies much deeper than the differences between black and white. Crash was made in a post 9-11 America, so the common misconceptions about people from the Middle East are present. This marked the first main exposure on film of what had been an almost epidemic in the years following the terrorist activities of 2001. Also, the film is set in Los Angeles, so many of the racial Latin issues are addressed. The blending of all the cultures drives the film's characters and story to give an almost universal appeal. It's message is definitely one of tolerance and changing past generations perceptions of the world.

Crash is one of those films that I think everyone should see at some point. The combination of Haggis' excellent screenplay and solid on screen performances makes this a very well made film. At it's climax though, it goes beyond the point of great film, and becomes culturally significant. I don't think we will ever live in a world free of prejudice or racism. Although, with films like this, our world is bound to be much more colorblind.