Movie Analysis : Paul Haggis ' Academy Award Winning 2004 Film Crash Essay

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.

“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 that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.” This quote, spoken by Don Cheadle, is the opening line of the movie Crash. Not only does this powerful line tell the viewers where the movie is taking place, but it also gives them a brief overview of what to expect from the movie. As citizens of this country, we are aware of the melting-pot that the United States has come to be. In large cities, such as New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, etc., and after major events occur, the various races and classes seem to intermingle the most. This movie takes place over the course of a 36-hour-period post-September 11th, and it recounts interconnected stories. In Crash, Paul Haggis demonstrates the great deal of racism and sexism that are present in modern-day United States by exploring various personal experiences of those who are both affecting and being effected by racial discrimination and degradation.

The motion picture, Crash, highlights different issues about race, gender and class through a series of interwoven stories in a Los Angeles setting. For instance, the appearance of cars, highways, intersections and cul-de-sacs function as a trope within the movie. The many different street functions not only serve as a trope, but are a sign of the times. The cars, highways, intersections and cul-de-sacs also work to characterize the interactions among diverse figures within the film. Amongst these varying analysis of street functions and metaphors in the movie, there is also imagery in the film that conveys an impression of social relations in the twenty-first century. From the chosen title of the movie, Crash, I can gather that there is a

In this essay, I will be discussing what I feel after watching this movie and how it relates to our book and the topics that we have covered. Early in the semester, we have discussed diversity, racism, discrimination, and stereotypes. The movie Crash starts with a scene where the discrimination and racism take place. In this scene, Ria the detective argued with the Asian woman who was saying to her that Mexicans don’t know how to drive.

The movie Crash is in the streets of Los Angeles. If you notice all of the characters seem to play the role as a target and accuser in different racial situations. There is a story behind each character over a two day period. There is the detective who is prejudice against his own race whose younger brother is a criminal. There is Jean, who is prejudice against black people after getting robbed. John is the cop who is racist against all black people and sexually assaults Christine in front of her husband. This movies show’s so many of the social, psychological principles through the story of each individual.

The most moving scene in my opinion is when the policeman who was seen fighting against racism shot the man he picked up in his car based on his assumption that the man, who was African-American was attempting to pull a gun out of his pocket. This scene helped to show that we are not truly as different as we may seem, but that something like race can effect someone’s preconceptions about a person or group. Overall, I felt that this movie displayed some of the common attitudes about race in America and how prevalent they are after years of trying to fight them. It is important to consider the cultural theories present throughout the film. One cultural theory that is clearly present throughout the film Crash is the act of stereotyping others.

Many movies try to tackle huge issues that face society in hopes that the ideas presented will encourage society to change. In Crash directed by Paul Haggis, he tackles the idea of racism through cause and effect between multiple groups of people in the different races. The world has been racist and intolerant of people different from themselves. Millions of people have suffered due to the prejudice of people that couldn’t understand the change of differences among one another. Long time ago, in the United States people who were not straight white, that didn’t have blue eyes or blonde hair but had darker skin were classified as inferior to anyone else. Racism has been a problem since the very first day two men of different races met. Even now, racism is still considered a big issue in our society. The movie Crash shows good examples of how racism against oneself is caused by fear, misunderstanding, deals with the issue of stereotypes and the idea of innocence and has an element of kill or be killed with the imperfections of life.

Crash exposes that racial stereotypes are still a big issue in the 21st century, which I agree with. People often do follow stereotypes, even though they try not to. Also, people do not want to be judged according to stereotypes but, they still participate in acts that feed them. An example of this from Crash is Anthony’s character. He complains about being stereotyped but then steals Jean’s car, feeding a “typical” African-American stereotype. In the movie, Anthony encounters Cameron when attempting to steal his car and fails because Cameron is not scared of him, just ashamed. Cameron says to Anthony, “Look at me. You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.”, which I can relate to my own personal experiences. There are times when people represent my races poorly and embarrass many others, including me. I

The movie “Crash” - from director and producer Paul Haggis - pictures one day in the lives of various characters in Los Angeles, all of them from different social and racial backgrounds but nevertheless connected and intertwined throughout the story. The movie’s story is being told in a mostly chronological way, except that it puts one scene to the very beginning of the film and then cuts back to the day prior, indicated by the visual text “yesterday”. In this first sequence, detectives Graham Waters and his partner Ria have been rearended when they arrive at a crime scene, leading to a fight between Hispanic Ria and the accident responsible, furious Chinese Kim Lee, involving race-related insults towards each other. Breaking through the

”-Anthony. Like most of my classmates, I thought that the movie Crash was going to be a fun and comedic film, but in reality Crash was a serious movie that was filled with plenty of life lessons. In the 22 years that I have been alive, I sure am glad to have never faced racism as bad as portrayed in this film. The purpose of this paper is to you about the movie Crash. I will include details on what some of the main messages in the film are and how they are parallel to what we have been discussing in this course.

Watching Crash for the second time, help me open my eyes to many prejudices comments and stereotypes we have in the world. I gained a lot of knowledge from watching this movie. Being that this was my second time watching this movie I was trying to dig deep into the characters. I was exposed to the true meaning in certain ethnic groups that the world isn’t really aware of. Many ethnicities are very prejudice and bias when it comes to other cultures and race. We are introduced to two African American males known as the “thugs”, a Caucasian couple, an African American couple, a Hispanic man and his family, a Middle Eastern man, an Asian man and three police officers that play a vital role in the movie. None of the people in the movie know each

The film Crash, written and directed by Paul Haggis, examines racial exchanges in several different ethnic groups living in Los Angeles. As the film move forward, we are able to view how each characters’ own racist experiences change their attitudes towards other races. Paul Haggis illustrates those change through the mood tone, setting, and even the music. By the end of the movie, the audience is left with a feeling of hope and an ambition to examine its own thought and actions towards others. Even though critics argue that the film Crash is stereotypically racist, the film encourages America to see past the misbelief we have of each other because empathy and self-examination is the starting place for change and the destruction of society is based on one’s choices.

The 2004 film, Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, is designed to shed light on the horrible but very true aspects of American society. Although this film takes place 12 years ago in Los Angeles, the story line is true to our society currently and can be related to present day crime. One of the most prevalent and heart-wrenching scenes is that of police brutality, racial discrimination, and sexual assault. This is the scene where Officer John Ryan, a blatant racist and 17 year veteran of the Los Angeles Police department, takes advantage of Cameron and Christine Thayer, a black couple, when pulling them over for no reason.

The movie we saw was Crash. Ms H I have to tell you this I could’ve wrote a huge essay on how I enjoyed that movie. From that time the movie has taught and it hit me to when watching. We always need to watch our backs because the society we live in. It showed about racism. I have a real story for you Ms.H what just happened 2 months ago. My parents just went to Ohio; they went to my cousin’s house. My Dad is an open soul happy guy who likes to talk to everyone. He went out to say Hi to the neighbors and my cousin’s neighbors told him “No I wont say hi to you” and walked in his home and shut his door. Just because my dad had a turban. They never had seen a turban guy before down their, plus its all what the media shows especially in rural