Crashing Into Reality. The Way Individuals Act Within Society

Stam and Spence’s theory states that certain cliché dimensions of minorities in film support filmic colonialism when addressing racism. Social portrayal, plot, and characters all suggest that “Crash” express a more modern yet similar take on stereotypical roles that depict that nature of “urban” African Americans in real life. Instead of the common roles listed in Donald Bogle’s title

The much applauded and critically acclaimed film, “Crash” (2004) directed by Paul Haggis is a film which appears to want the viewers to observe themselves and their world inversely. This film presents a truthful representation of race relations, racial discrimination, and social and cultural tensions in modern American society. It shows the stereotypes and racial myths that still occur today and continue to create racism. The film presents the intricacy of the relationships between diverse social groups and about the effects of discrimination on the everyday life experiences of a number of people. More specifically, the movie touches on three different types of discrimination. First and foremost, it deals with racism. Next, it depicts

The movie “Crash”, by Director and Writer Paul Haggis, follows 8 ethnically diverse families/ individuals facing the struggle of modern day racism and stereotypes created and faced in modern Los Angeles, California. These individuals take the roles of individuals living their daily lives within Los Angeles, California while facing stereotypes. The cast portrays: 2 caucasian white male police officers, an African American director and his wife, a white district attorney and his wife, a Persian immigrant family, and a Hispanic father whose occupation is a locksmith. The scene chosen from this film involves the police officers (Officer Ryan and Officer Hanson) pulling over the African American Director (Cameron Thayer) and his wife (Christine Thayer) at a traffic stop. This scene establishes two different types of theoretic sociological concepts of Thomas Theorem and cognitive dissonance.

Discrimination, racism, classism, prejudice and more plague today’s society. These horrible issues do not affect one race, sexes, class, ethnicity, or age group; these issues affect all races, both genders, all ethnicities, and all age groups. For this film analysis, I have chosen to discuss the racism portrayed throughout a three-time Oscar award winning movie called Crash.

Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, is a movie that illustrates the connectedness of a variety of different members of social class, gender, and race who are living in Los Angeles. Among the main characters are a Caucasian district attorney and his wife, two Caucasian male police officers, a successful Black movie director and his wife, a Black detective and

“Crash” has many kinds of social and multicultural differences. The movie shows us how they affect our society. The two major behaviors observed are Prejudice and Stereotyping. These are identified as the causes of the events in the movie. The three main topics of this essay are, what do they say about the people who subscribe to them?, what are stereotypes?, and how have stereotypes affected your life (either by placing them on others or having them placed on you)? These all play a major role in the movie.

In the film Crash (2004), the director’s use of internal conflict reveals that the main idea of the film, which is that some people stereotype others based on their skin color or countries of origin without knowing them, which is dangerous because it can lead to violence and unrest. Haggis, the director, uses the film to suggest that people should not judge anyone just because of their skin color or countries because it may cause people to hate each other.

In 2004, Paul Haggis’s film Crash hit theatres all over America. The film was created to depict the intersection of race, ethnicity and social class in the streets of Los Angelos, California. The title of the film CRASH is an acronym for Creating Respect and Shaping Humanity. The conflicts between the characters develop because the character’s assumptions of each other, prevents them from seeing the actual person standing in front of them. However throughout the film, the reader can see different scenes in which the characters develop respect for one another, eventually changing the perspective they have on life and in turn, begins to reshape humanity.

Unfortunately, people living in the contemporary society still suffer from various kinds of discrimination. For some reason, people still tend to label others because of their color of skin, gender, social status, etc. The director of the movie “Crash” Paul Haggis aims to tell the audience that the divisions are only in the human heads. Besides, he is trying to prove that people are not good or bad; they just act according to the situation. Thus, all of the characters described in the movie have both good and bad features. The only example of moral virtues is a little girl, who wanted to sacrifice her life for the sake of her father. Believing in a magic power of an invisible bullet proof cloak, she became the miracle herself. Thus,

Crash is a 2004 ensemble drama film co-written, directed, and produced by Paul Haggis. The film focuses on stereotypical, racial and social tensions in Los Angeles, California. It connects stories based on coincidence, fortuitousness, and luck, as the lives of the characters crash against one another. The movie revolves around the feelings of prejudice and antipathy most people have against members of other groups, and observes the consequences of those feelings.

The appropriately named movie, “Crash”, is a representation of how human beings collide into each other; a conflict in character, approach, and perception. The opening scene establishes the hypothesis of “We crash into each other, just so we can feel something.” This was the premise for the movie, as well as an example of Georg Simmel views on society. He believed that “society cannot exist without a number of individuals interacting with one another.” The film represented that our interactions with each other can be as shocking and life changing as an automobile accident. All the characters engaged in roles that displayed a diversity of power and behaviors that cultures have towards others as well as their own. The many sociological perspectives that I find fitting for the movie acknowledges the theorists Karl Marx, George Herbert Mead, W.E.B DuBois, Emile Durkhiem, Max Weber, Georg Simmel, and Talcott Parson.

Labeling theory (social reaction theories) arose in the late 1930s. The development of the theory is attributed to Frank Tannenbaum in 1938 because of the apparent conflict between the young individuals and adults within communities (Vold, 2016). By the 1960’s, the United States was undergoing significant cultural and political conflict; and the labeling theory became an important theory in defining crime. Of particular concern during this period is that it was a period of black emancipation. However, due to lack of jobs and high poverty, majority of African Americans engaged in crime and other forms of antisocial behavior. It was during this period that labeling was at its highest.

The society in which we live is made up of variations of everything. From different shades of skin color to the amount of capital someone owns. This can play a crucial role on an individual, for instance the way they perceive others and also the way they perceive themselves. Paul Haggis’s movie “Crash” conceptualize on this idea and interpret it in an in entirely different way; so that we can see that there are reasons and motives to why our society is separated this type of way. The movie is full of many sociological issues, such as gender, race, and social class. The movie is centralize around racism, and wants to give its own interpretation on racism, the reasons why it happens, and how it can be solved. The setting is Los Angelis, a city just like New York, meaning it is very diverse with many nationalities and social class. And as one knows, in big cities such as LA, individuals do not intermingle amongst each other. This is what the movie does; it manipulatively connected every single character with each other to create a chain of conflicts.

The film Crash directed by Paul Haggis brings multiple points of views from people of different races together that really gives viewers a sense of what they have to go through everyday in society. The film was released on May 6, 2005 and still to this day similar acts of racism and prejudice occur in society that was also seen in the film. Watching the film sheds a new light on how it mentally feels to be racially discriminated and how authorities do not really do anything about it. All the characters in this film had their struggles with racial discrimination but it did not mean that some of them had to rob or kill to get what they wanted or feel safe. This film is perfect for examining social issues in society

The social labeling theory infers that descriptive classifications may at times define an individual's behavior or self-identity. The theory closely relates to stereotyping or self-fulfilling prophecies. The theory of social labeling explains why defiant individuals engage in activities that go against cultural or societal norms (Crossman, 2014). Though popular in the early 1970s, theorists have redefined the theory trying to avail assertions that conform to the present social formations. The labeling theory relies on unwanted descriptors including defiance, mental disorder diagnosis, or disability while trying to explain non-conformance to prevalent stipulations or societal requirements. Stigma is an example of a social label that redefines an individual's identity and concept in society.