The Movie Crash

The movie “Crash” by Paul Haggis, explores how we view the issue of race in contemporary American society. Racism and prejudice is shown to be an inherent trait that we all possess. Paul Haggis attempts to have viewers question their personal views on racism and how they interact with people from other races. It puts its characters into stereotypical situations to debunk them, but comes up short in its execution at times. “Whiteness” is an aspect of racism that is not explored in “Crash.” Like American society today, “Crash” ignores the role and impact “whiteness” has in the construction of racial stereotypes in the United States. It fails in its attempt to break the stereotypes that its characters portray. Instead, “Crash” focuses on the interactions between its minority characters to portray to the audience that it is class and not race that is the problem in the United States.

In the film, Crash by Paul Higgins there is the incorporation of numerous perspectives and theories of societal issues. The film brought up various issues we face in our world today such as racial discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice etc. One theory that is seen is the symbolic interaction theory. There is the usage of different symbols in the film. Each character in the film comes from a different culture; socioeconomic background etc. and they each have their own story.

           The movie Crash shows the hostility between characters of different backgrounds, primarily through their interactions and dialect, to prove that everyone experiences discrimination and racism in their lives no matter their race, religion, sexual-orientation, age, etc. Director Paul Haggis focuses on language, behavior, and stereotypes to convey the different kinds of communication used between the diverse races and ethnicity groups that are shown throughout the film. The textbook, Understanding Human Communication, defines human communication as the process of creating meaning through symbolic interactions, but this process is much more intricate than this definition makes it out to be (Adler, 5). Through my own analysis of the plot and various storylines, I will discuss the concepts and principles of communication used to portray the injustice of racial stereotyping and persecution in today’s society.

Humans have the tendency to make assumptions on what other motives are before they even get to know the person. People never know how their actions and words could affect other people. In the film, Crash, the characters each face different race issues, which leads them to all to different places in their lives. Throughout watching this movie, the different issues bring to light how much goes on with race. After watching this film, my perceptions have been altered, I did not know myself truly, it made me challenge some of my ideas, and made me take different ideas to apply to my everyday life.

When you’re walking down the street and see a group of tattooed men of color and your first instinct is to cross the street is this due to internalized racism or does past experiences validate your prejudice? Or when you sit with a group of people all speaking a common language other than your own, is your discomfort and insecurity rationalized? The film Crash explores the lives of different socio-economic groups and their experiences dealing with prejudice and stereotypes or being on the other end of it. The concept of various “American Identities” are explored within the film. We see the white woman who fears people of color. The African American male who’s so anti-white he becomes the stereotypes he’s supposedly against. The Latino male who based on appearance is profiled and many more characters. All these individuals created these identities for themselves to exist in America. In Bharati Mukherjee’s “Two Ways to Belong in America” we see this theme being shared when Mukherjee and her sister Mira arrive in America and must find their own way to exist in this new country.

Racism, and ethnocentrism can be a significant factor in determining if an individual can maintain a healthy interpersonal relationship. Both racism and ethnocentrism can be barriers that affect competent cross- cultural communication. Crash (Schulman & Haggis, 2004) is a film that has characters of very different natures. The characters may be involved in conflicts due to the differences in genders, cultures and races. As these strangers in the film crash into each other, you may notice that racism and ethnocentrism can really affect the way the characters are able to build a strong and healthy interpersonal relationship. In Crash (Schulman & Haggis, 2004) the character Officer Ryan is constantly in conflict with others due to racism and ethnocentrism. He has been an officer and with the force for 17 years. However, he seems to be extremely racist when he encounters African Americans. Officer Ryan is a typical looking American male, the movie portrayed him to be “tall, dark and handsome.” However, he is also out-spoken and seemingly arrogant. Ryan seems to have that “better than the rest” attitude, it is evident through the way he portrays himself in the movie. If he overcomes these barriers he would be able to establish some positive relationships. Officer Ryan also seems to have accumulated anger and false assumption about those around him. For example, when he pulled over Director Cam and his wife Christine, he was angry with their racial difference and made false

In the film ‘Crash’ directed by Paul Haggis in 2004, several lives cross paths because of an adage, ‘it’s a small world’. The characters come from different backgrounds and social class, consequence, the underlying tone of race is presented in a facet which is a cause for concern. In today’s current tension infested race topic, stereotypes tend to push the notion that one’s perception of race, gender and class must be reality. The question becomes, where does an individual develop these notion and perception and does the blame belong to media and film. Looking at the movie ‘Crash’, it was nominated for over 100 awards and won 3 Oscars; impeccably depicted the intertwining of gender, race and social class that one would assume that the movie’s a depiction of reality. One may conclude that movies are responsible for the perpetual class and virtue given to the middle and upper classes only. Although Parenti’s belief that Hollywood films always attach virtue to the well-off middle and upper classes this is not always the class. Hollywood media and films are guilty of assigning privilege to some and strife to others, however the characters in the movie Crash, Brenden Fraser, Chris Bridges and Thandie Newton all form different economical classes display different types of class and virtue.

Crash is a movie about race and stereotypes and its effects on the various people living in the Los Angeles area. The movie boost racial awareness and it requires close observation from the viewer. We see a variety of races including African American men and women, several Hispanics, a Middle Eastern family, and a few Asians. We see the ups and downs of each character and it helps us see where they are coming from, and potentially why they are racist against different people. It seems that we almost begin to feel sorry for the different characters regardless of what they are doing or how they are acting because of each of their circumstances.

Physical Characteristics and racial differences are distinguishing traits that keep people in our world apart from each other. Crash is a movie that showcases prejudice and racial stereotypes. The movie is set in Los Angeles which is a city with the cultural mix of almost every ethnicity. Crash is a perfect analogy of how the different people intersect with others in society. The movie crash shows differences between the lives of different people. It displays the interactions of several multiethnic groups such as African American, Caucasians, Asians, Latinos, and Arabs. All of the groups are striving to overcome their fears as they weave in and out of each other’s lives. They are all tied by an invisible chain of events, so the movie

While the film “Crash” has several complex characters with storylines that all become interconnected in various ways, the movie is predominantly about how prejudice plays into people’s everyday lives and how such prejudice usually has negative implications. The characters in the film all had their own prejudices, or attitudes judging others in negative ways, which set the stage for discrimination, stereotypes, racism, and scapegoats. Thus, one can see how prejudice plays such a pivotal role in people’s relations with each other. As a result, it is best to analyze this film from a symbolic interactionism point of view by analyzing how the labels the characters encounter in this film affect their perception and in turn create prejudice

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 is a movie that had several detailed events of sociological concepts. The movie Crash showed that everyone created has good intentions and good hearts but unfortunately they may grow up and learn the prejudices of the world. "Crash" is a movie that brings out racial stereotypes; as the movie is set in Los Angeles, a city with a diverse race of every nationality. The movie starts off with several people being involved in a car accident. We are then taken back to the day before the crash, where we are shown the lives of many of the characters, and the difficulties they may encounter during that day. An LAPD cop is trying to get medical help for his father, but he is having problems with an African American receptionist who won't give

The 2004 film Crash was groundbreaking as well as jaw dropping in regards to how it tackled social issues that plague contemporary American constituents. The movie follows several intertwined stories, with characters converging in similar points. Crash delves into stereotyping between cultures like no motion picture has before. Stereotypes are proved, as well as disproved demonstrating the problematic duality of judging people based upon their culture. “It's the sense of touch.

One must never judge or discriminate a person based on their physical attributes. Prejudice and discrimination directed against someone of a different race is known as racism. It is evident in the movie “Crash” directed by Paul Haggis, that people misconceive others due to judgement on their physical traits. Throughout the movie, the characters living in Los Angeles face the challenges of fitting in a town populated by people of different colours. The offenders are the “white” people whereas the victims are everyone else. The presence of racism is the main cause of every conflict that occurs in the movie.

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.