Crash (2004 film)
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Promotional poster of Crash |
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Directed by | Paul Haggis |
Produced by | Don Cheadle Paul Haggis Robert Moresco Cathy Schulman Bob Yari |
Written by | Paul Haggis Bobby Moresco |
Starring | Matt Dillon Ryan Phillippe Sandra Bullock Don Cheadle Jennifer Esposito William Fichtner Brendan Fraser Terrence Howard Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges Thandie Newton Larenz Tate Michael Peña Shaun Toub Bahar Soomekh |
Music by | Mark Isham |
Cinematography | J. Michael Muro |
Editing by | Hughes Winborne |
Distributed by | Lions Gate Films |
Release date(s) | September 10, 2004 (premiere at TIFF) May 6, 2005 12 May 2005 12 August 2005 June 22, 2006 |
Running time | 122 Min Theatrical 115 Min Director's Cut DVD |
Country | USA / Germany |
Language | English |
Budget | $6.5 million |
Official website | |
All Movie Guide profile | |
IMDb profile |
Crash is an Academy Award-winning drama film directed by Paul Haggis. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2004, and was released internationally in 2005. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles. A self-described "passion piece" for director Paul Haggis, was inspired by a real life incident where his Porsche was carjacked (mentioned on the DVD commentary track) outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard in 1991. It won three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing of 2005 at the 78th Academy Awards.
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Plot summary
The film depicts several characters living in Los Angeles during a 36-hour period and brings them together through car accidents, shootings, and carjackings. Most of the characters depicted in the film are racially prejudiced in some way and become involved in conflicts which force them to examine their own prejudices. Through these characters' interactions, the film attempts to depict and examine not only racial tension but the distance between strangers in America.
Character histories
Crash features an ensemble cast:
Rick Cabot
Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser) is the white District Attorney of LA. He and his wife Jean are carjacked by Anthony and Peter, both of whom are black. Subsequently the resident tries to save his political career by reassuring voters he is racially sensitive as he is a Democrat and African Americans and Hispanics are his key constituents. His character is never depicted as a bigot, making his racial stance ambiguous.
Jean Cabot
Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is Rick's wife, whose racial prejudices escalate after the carjacking. At the end of the film, following an accident in her home, she realizes that the person who is the nicest and most helpful to her is Maria, her Hispanic maid, while her snobby friends are too busy with shallow pursuits (such as getting a massage) to help her out.
Anthony
Anthony (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) is an African-American inner-city car thief who steals vehicles for a bigoted chop shop owner. He believes that society is unfairly biased against blacks, and at one point in the film he justifies his actions by saying he would never hurt another black person. Yet, after he and Peter try to carjack a car driven by a black man, Cameron, and when Cameron attacks Anthony during the carjacking, Anthony's response is to call on Peter to shoot Cameron. After the carjacking produces a tense standoff that is barely resolved, a disgusted Cameron kicks Anthony out of his car and says "You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself." Anthony steals a van full of illegal immigrants from South East Asia towards the end of the movie. Anthony frequently refers to these immigrants as Chinamen and upon learning that the owner of the chop shop that buys the stolen vehicles intends to sell them off as slaves, he releases all of them out onto the streets of LA in the closing scenes of the movie. Anthony then gives them all of the money that was in his pocket, $40.
Peter Waters
Peter Waters (Larenz Tate) is Anthony's friend and partner in crime. Like Anthony, he is black, but he humorously scoffs at Anthony's paranoia over racism. He also likes the Los Angeles Kings hockey team. The only character killed throughout all of the film's near-tragedies, Peter is shot to death by Officer Hansen, who picks him up in the valley hours after their failed carjacking of Cameron's SUV and mistakenly shoots him after assuming he is drawing a gun, when in reality he is reaching into his pocket to show the cop a figure of Saint Christopher. The irony of the situation is that Peter and Officer Hansen are portrayed as those characters least suspected of racism and stereotypes up to that point.
Graham Waters
Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) is an African American detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. He is disconnected from his poor family which consists of his drug addicted mother and criminal younger brother. He promises his mother that he will find his younger brother, but is preoccupied with a case concerning a suspected racist white cop who shot a possibly corrupt black cop. Flanagan, an assistant district attorney, offers Graham the chance to further his career in exchange for withholding evidence that could possibly have helped the white cop's case. Flanagan also attempts to convince Graham that the black community needs to see the black cop as a hero, and not as a drug dealer, which Graham suspects that he may be. Graham is offended and opposed, and is ready to storm out, when Flanagan mentions that there is a warrant out for Graham's brother's arrest, and that this is his third felony, which carries a life sentence in the state of California. Graham makes a very difficult personal decision to withhold evidence and possibly corrupt a case in order to have the District Attorney forget about his brother. Ironically, that brother is eventually revealed to be Peter, the carjacker who is killed by Officer Hansen.
Ria
Ria (Jennifer Esposito) is a Latina detective, as well as Graham's partner and girlfriend. When a phone call from Graham's mother interrupts his sexual romp with Ria, Ria becomes upset that Graham 1) stopped having sex to answer the phone, 2) was disrespectful to his mother on the phone, and 3) called Ria "white" and later "Mexican." According to Ria, she is not Mexican, as her mother (who in actuality is Maria, the Cabot's maid) is from El Salvador and her father is from Puerto Rico. Graham then insults her heritage further by generalizing all Latinos as being the same as someone taught "all those remarkably different cultures to park their cars on their lawns."
Officer John Ryan
Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) is a bigoted white police officer who physically molests Christine, a half black woman, during a traffic stop. This causes his partner, Officer Hansen, to believe his partner has racist tendencies. Meanwhile, Ryan is trying to get help for his father, who may have prostate cancer but seems to have been misdiagnosed with a bladder infection. Ryan's racist remarks to a black insurance representative makes her assure him she will not help his father get the treatment he needs. His racial prejudices seem to stem in part from the negative impact that local affirmative action-style policies that favored minority-owned businesses had on his father's business, family, and life (Ryan explains that his father started a business with all African American employees that went under when the city decided to show preference for minority owned businesses). Ryan later works with a newly-assigned, Hispanic-American whom he seems to get along with but mockingly asks "ready to roll, homie". Ryan later puts his own life on the line to save Christine from certain death in a fiery car wreck, which is unexpected because he is considered among the film's most prejudiced characters.
Officer Tom Hansen
Officer Tom Hansen (Ryan Phillippe) is Officer Ryan's partner who is disgusted by his partner's racism and the city's inaction. He asks to be reassigned, and when he fails to get another partner, Hansen accepts a solo patrol vehicle. Remembering Cameron as the husband of Christine, Hansen saves Cameron during his confrontation with the police. However, he later picks up a hitchhiker who turns out to be Peter. They engage in a racially tense conversation, and when Peter reaches for what Hansen suspects is a weapon, Hansen draws his gun and shoots Peter. Hansen dumps the body and burns his car in an attempt to hide evidence. This is one of the most surprising developments in the film, as Officer Hansen begins as one of the least bigoted, most righteous characters.
Lieutenant Dixon
Lieutenant Dixon (Keith David) is Officer Ryan and Hansen's shift Lieutenant who is African American. When Hansen requests to change partners, Dixon states that doing so for reasons of Officer Ryan's racism will reflect poorly upon their unit, and Dixon in particular for commanding him. Furthermore, Dixon explains that all the work he did to get a ranking position in an environment as racist as the LAPD will backfire on him personally if Hansen files such a reason for changing partners. He suggests Hansen ride in a solo car for reasons of "uncontrollable flatulence" as a means of getting away from Officer Ryan and not making Dixon look bad for supervising Ryan.
Cameron Thayer
Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) is a black television director who becomes distraught after witnessing Officer Ryan molesting his wife and realizing that the very show he produces is propagating racist stereotypes about black people. In an emotional moment, he fights off Anthony and Peter when they try to steal his car, takes away Anthony's gun, and gets himself into a harsh argument with armed white police officers. Just when it is very likely that he will be shot to death, Officer Hansen intervenes on his behalf and prevents any outbreak of violence.
Christine Thayer
Christine Thayer (Thandie Newton) is Cameron's wife. She is molested by Officer Ryan after she and Cameron are pulled over. She becomes furious with her husband because he does not act to defend her. The two insult each other over their upbringings as both Cameron and Christine have grown up in a more privileged environment than other African Americans (Cameron insults her for being on her high school's exclusively white and privileged equestrian team). The next day she is trapped in an overturned car due to a highway accident and, by an exquisite twist of fate, Officer Ryan is the man who willingly endangers himself to save her life.
Daniel
Daniel (Michael Peña) is a Mexican-American locksmith who faces discrimination from Jean and others because he looks like a gangbanger to them, when he is actually a devoted family man. After Jean and Rick's car is stolen by Anthony and Peter, Daniel comes and changes the locks on their home. Daniel is seeking a safe environment for his young daughter, Lara, who had a bullet go through her window in their previous home. That is why he moved to a safe neighborhood and enrolled her in a private school. Near the beginning he gives Lara an invisible "cloak" that he tells her will protect her should someone try to shoot at her. He and his daughter are shot at by Farhad but are not harmed, and Lara, and maybe even Daniel, believes this is due to the protective powers of the "cloak", in reality the gun was loaded with 'Blanks' from the red box from the gun shop.
Farhad
Farhad (Shaun Toub) is a Persian store owner who is afraid for his safety. He is depicted frustrated by the racial harassment he experiences in the United States (despite being an American citizen), as well as deterred by difficulties with speaking English. To protect his store — the only thing his family has — he goes to a gun shop and attempts to buy a gun. The gun store owner quickly becomes frustrated with Farhad's conversation with his daughter in Farsi, leading to racist remarks (since the owner believes that Persians are Arabs and therefore, "terrorists"). He even told Farhad, "Yo, Osama, plan the jihad on your own time". The owner refuses to sell Farhad a gun, but finally sells the gun to Farhad's daughter after being cryptic and lecherous about which bullets she needs. Farhad's suspicion of others is compounded by his difficulty understanding English; he does not heed Daniel's warning that his shop door needs replacing, believing Daniel intends to "cheat" him, and as a result suffers a break-in. Blaming Daniel for the invasion and racially-motivated destruction of his store, and angered by the insurance company rejecting his claim on the grounds of negligence, he confronts Daniel at his house. Farhad fires at Daniel but accidentally shoots his daughter Lara, to the horror of both Daniel and Farhad. Unknown to Farhad and Daniel, however, the bullets in his gun were blanks, whether or not they intentionally chosen by Dorri at the gun shop is unknown. The fact that the girl is not hurt is a great relief to Farhad, who believes she was an angel, sent to help him, and he leaves without further incident.
Dorri
Dorri (Bahar Soomekh) is Farhad's daughter, and is more acclimated than her father to American culture. She is constantly trying to calm her father down during his emotional temper outbursts. She is also a doctor at the morgue; she escorts Graham and his mother to Peter's body after it is discovered in a field.
Jake Flanagan
Jake Flanagan (William Fichtner) is an aide to Rick who tries to talk Graham into accepting a corrupt deal. He is a politically well-meaning character who despite his good intentions makes bigoted remarks in a conversation with Detective Waters. He argues that the black community needs to see a deceased black cop as a hero, even if he was corrupt. It appears that Flanagan is interested in the political aspects of the case as the DA's office will look better in the eyes of the black community for convicting an officer who has a troubled racial history of a crime that he is partially guilty of. When Graham refuses to play, even if offered a promotion in exchange, Flanagan subtly mentions that Graham's brother has had a warrant issued for his arrest, and that perhaps this was a mistake. Flanagan implies that if Graham will do what the District Attorney wants, the case against his brother could be buried. Graham appears to accept the deal.
Box Office
Crash opened in wide release on 6 May 2005, and was a box-office success in the late spring of 2005. The film had a budget of $6.5 million (plus $1 million in financing). Because of the financial constraints, director Haggis filmed in his own house, borrowed a set from the TV show Monk, used his car in parts of the film, and even used cars from other staff members. It grossed $53.4 million domestically, making back more than three times its budget. Despite its success in relation to its cost, Crash was the least grossing film, at the domestic box office, to win Best Picture since The Last Emperor in 1987.
Critical reception
The film received generally positive reviews with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 135 out of the 180 reviews they tallied were positive for a score of 75% and a certification of "fresh".[1] Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and described it as, "a movie of intense fascination"[2] listing it as the best film of 2005. As of September, 2007, it is ranked number 141 in Imdb.com's Top 250 films as voted by its thousands of users, however, when it was first released in theatres, it ranked as number 27.
Criticism
The film has been criticized by some commentators who feel the movie is not an accurate reflection of race relations in contemporary Los Angeles, particularly with regards to the film's portrayal of police and racial tension.[3]
Some critics also thought institutionalized, anti-minority racism wasn't evaluated enough in the film, and that by focusing more on individual prejudices it is "self-indulgent" for white Americans who "want to feel victimized".[4]
In addition, some critics assert that Asians are portrayed in an overwhelmingly negative light with little, if any, redeeming qualities. The film has been criticized for reinforcing Asian stereotypes and lacking any manner of significant character development of its Asian characters.[5]
From an alternative perspective, the film has been critiqued for "laying bare the racialised fantasy of the American dream and Hollywood narrative aesthetics". [6]
Best Picture Oscar
There has been much criticism over Crash winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, as an underdog over front-runner Brokeback Mountain. [citation needed] The day after the awards, some journalists wrote articles expressing their dislike over what, in their opinion, was one of the biggest shockers in Oscar history. [citation needed] Brokeback Mountain led the pre-Oscar award season by winning most of the key precursor awards, particularly the Golden Globes as well as earning the most Academy Award nominations (8), and its place on 314 critics top ten lists - more than any other film in 2005. [citation needed] Crash, although critically acclaimed, was less so, with Roger Ebert and several other critics calling it "The Best Movie of 2005". [citation needed] In fact, Ebert himself predicted that Crash would win the Oscar for Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain on the grounds that it was "a better film." [citation needed]. The influential comedian Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report, and Film Threat creator and Attack of the Show! movie correspondent, Chris Gore, also accurately predicted Crash would win the Best Picture Oscar. Brokeback author E. Annie Proulx blamed right-wing influences for the film's failure to win Best Picture.
While the film was highly regarded by critics upon its release in the first half of 2005, there was relatively little awards buzz surrounding Crash leading into the "Awards Season" in the fall of that year. In fact, Crash was overlooked for many of the pre-Oscar bellwether awards such as the Golden Globes and the Directors Guild Awards. Crash, therefore, was the first Best Picture Academy Award-winner since Chariots of Fire to not have been nominated for Best Picture at the Golden Globes or the Directors Guild.
Awards
Crash was nominated for six awards in the 78th Academy Awards (2005), and won three of them, including a win for Best Picture. It was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards: one for Best Supporting Actor (Matt Dillon) and the other for Best Screenplay (Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco).
Other awards include Best Ensemble Cast at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards; Best Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild of America Awards 2005; Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Thandie Newton) at the BAFTA Awards; Best Writer at the Critics' Choice Awards; Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role (Terrence Howard) at the Black Movie Awards; Best First Feature and Best Supporting Male (Matt Dillon) at the Independent Spirit Awards; Best Acting Ensemble and Best Writer at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards; and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Terrence Howard) and at the NAACP Image Awards.
DVD
Crash was released on DVD on September 6, 2005 as Widescreen and Fullscreen one-Disc versions, with a handful of bonus features that includes a music video by KansasCali for the song "If I..." off of the "". The Director's Cut of the film was released in a 2 Disc Special Edition DVD on April 4, 2006, with more bonus content than the one-disc set which includes the music video for Bird York and her Academy nominated song "In The Deep". The Director's Cut is 2 minutes longer than the theatrical version. The differences are the scene where Daniel is talking with his daughter under her bed is extended, and there is a new scene added with Officer Hanson in the police station locker room.
Trivia
- Director Paul Haggis has mentioned work on a sequel to the film, involving the continued story of Anthony — Chris "Ludacris" Bridges' character.[7]
- Director and Writer Paul Haggis claimed he found the book "One Time: The Story of a South Central Los Angeles Police Officer" by Brian S. Bentley "hugely inspirational." [8] Bentley is a former LAPD officer who writes about pulling over motorists for being African American, his partner who got off on frisking women, and his own feeling of living above the law. [9]
See also
- Hyperlink cinema - the film style of using multiple inter-connected story lines.
References
- ^ rottentomatoes.com, Crash entry, accessed January 8, 2007
- ^ rogerebert.com, Crash review, accessed January 8, 2007
- ^ http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49286
- ^ http://www.blackcommentator.com/176/176_think_crash_jensen_wosnitzer.html
- ^ http://www.mixedmediawatch.com/2005/05/11/crash-upholds-stereotypes-about-asian-americans/
- ^ http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/2007/05/07/crash-and-the-city/
- ^ Haggis planning plot points and character archetypes such as, a lazy black man focusing on his long pursuit to be a 'po' rapper, a Caucasian politician involved in pedophilia, a persecuted Muslim who is actually a terrorist, an Asian woman struggling to adapt to the Americans way of driving, and lastly the struggles of a Latin American janitor.http://www.ljtop.com/sequel_to_crash/162657946.html
- ^ Amazon Book Reviews
- ^ Amazon Book Description
External links
Awards | ||
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Preceded by Million Dollar Baby |
Academy Award for Best Picture 2005 |
Succeeded by The Departed |
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2001: A Beautiful Mind · 2002: Chicago · 2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King · 2004: Million Dollar Baby · 2005: Crash · 2006: The Departed Complete List · Winners (1927–1940) · Winners (1941–1960) · Winners (1961–1980) · Winners (1981–2000) |