by Jim McGrath

Created on: January 02, 2010

 I have not been to a movie theatre in twelve years, so it is difficult to remember how powerful an image can be on a fifty-foot screen with dialogue in Surround-sound, or whatever audio system is considered to be the “cutting-edge” technology in Hollywood these days. Yet, after watching the many powerful visuals emerge from “Crash” on my laptop, all I could think of was how amplified my feelings would have been by watching the film in a theatre. The experience of viewing this film led to what was unquestionably the most uncomfortable 110 minutes I have spent in the past few months. And that was exactly the effect that writer and director Paul Haggis was hoping for.

Haggis is not a writer who feels he is in the business of entertaining first. Rather, he aims to make his audience think, particularly about issues that we would rather avoid for fear of breaking out of a comfort zone as a collective society. 

Before getting into the communication issues, it must be noted with more than a small measure of irony that one of the greatest movies dealing with race relations in America was written and directed by a Canadian.

The premise of “Crash,” as described by Det. Graham Waters, played by Don Cheadle, is that the world revolves around a series of people who “crash” into each other. Their meetings are chance encounters and the results are unpredictable. In the movie, an ensemble of different people from different professions and cultures clash with spectacular outcomes.

The communication among the characters is driven by stereotypes. The opening scene takes place at an automobile accident, involving a Korean woman. At one point, the Korean woman mentions the other woman’s brake, to which the Caucasian replies “blake?” ..what about my “blake?” in a mocking tone. In the next scene, Anthony, played by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, notices a white woman snuggling up to her husband as he and his friend approach. After noting the stereotypical white woman protecting herself in the sight of young black men, the two rob the white couple and carjack their Lincoln Navigator. As it turns out, the spouse, played by Brendan Fraser, is the Los Angeles district attorney. Figuring that he will lose votes in the next election for having been robbed by black men, he decides to create a scenario where he can promote a black man while setting up a press conference to film the event, thereby

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