Movie Review -- Crash
For a movie that was meant to set itself apart from all the typical action, romantic, and silly comedy junk filling the movie theaters, you would think a movie like Crash would pull out the stops and make a statement on racism. Two hours later if there is anything that can be concluded outside of everyone having a racial prejudice inside them, even if they don't concsiously admit it, you were not watching this movie. Don't be fooled, this movie is nothing near didactic like the fans are saying, and Crash fails at being as profound as people want it to be, and is nowhere profound enough to win Best Picture. Then again, we know how T5R receives the Oscars.
In all fairness, racism is a problem that cannot be solved just like that, in fact probably can't be solved period. Sure, it would be great no such thing existed, but there are always going to be people who illogically place hatred on a certain ethnicity because of a personal experience, much like when we see Sandra Bullock and Ludacris do their scenes. So Crash at least makes something realistic in this movie by showing how racism can develop. At the same time, just like the problem with the issue of racism existing, this is nothing that nobody with a brain cannot know. More than that, a lot of these characters are so ignorant and unconvincing (again, Sandra Bullock) that it makes the movie feel forced to push the "controversial" limit on what people feel comfortable watching. There are a couple of scenes in this nearly two hour expedition into racism that may actually churn someone's stomach and make them feel a little bit guilty, and that's about it. Stories such as Matt Dillon's John Ryan accomplish nothing but show how racism may derive out of sympathy for a relative's personal tragedy. John Ryan's story with racism and especially his ephiphany later on might be the most unconvincing and unbelievable part of the movie, where everything is solved just like that and all of a sudden we have a hero.
Another problem with the movie is the structure, and I use that word loosely. Generally I don't like movies that are filled with episodes of different people and then somehow in the end everything ties together, but what makes structure in a movie like that succeed or fail is, naturally, the ending when everything is supposed to tie together. Outside of the obvious conclusion that everyone is racist, nothing ties in here. Crash is just story after story, which would be okay for a movie that was meant to be just a series of mini episodes and nothing more than that. If that's all Crash wanted to do, then that would have been fine. It would not have necessarily made it a lot better, but it would have been acceptable. With how over the top the performances and pulsating background music delivers to the audience, there's no way this movie was just a fun little collaboration of stories. It wants to provoke discussion, which it can do, but provides no solution nor message on how to treat people better.
Anybody could come up to someone and say "racism exists" and walk off, and have relatively the same impact as this movie makes. The only thing extra in Crash are some dramatic scenes involving people nearly getting killed for the suspense value. The least this movie could do would be to hammer in the point that racism is bad, which it doesn't even approach, and tell people they should at least try to change, which it probably does the opposite of. If anything, I can only see this movie serving as a backbone for people hating certain ethnicities even more. Case in point: the performances by Ludacris and Larenz Tate. At least Tate's Peter will try talking sense into Anthony, but does he really ever do anything? No. Does ANYBODY in this movie really do anything? No. So ... what's the point? Well, there is one moving scene in the movie (although it's used simply to pull everyone's heart strings and not really accomplish a lot) and perhaps some funny punchlines, if you're in a cynical mood. Thank you for telling the world what it already knows, now please give back America the millions of dollars it cost to make this movie. We could use it.
C