Crash
I saw Crash over a month ago, and I've been thinking about it more and more, as recent allegations have surfaced -- suggesting that the late response to helping New Orleans, is a result of race discrimination. Crash is a movie for America -- it is a movie for the world -- it is required viewing for all of us today. It is a movie for a world where cultures are colliding as the world shrinks. The fears, biases, prejudices, and sometimes, dark hatred, are polluting our thinking, our neighbourhoods, our relationships. Crash examines this all. The movie doesn't try to paint a grim picture -- it tries to paint reality, and the results are grim. Our prejudices are so human, and while we keep them in check most of the time, they break the surface when we're stressed. That is what's happening in New Orleans, and America, right now.
Crash is set in LA, and spans 36 hours in the lives of some very diverse characters. The city district attorney and his wife; a Persian convenience store owner, his wife and his daughter; a black police detective, and his lover, a Latino police detective; a black successful television director and his wife; a Mexican locksmith and his young family; two black car-jackers with a chip on their shoulders; two white cops on the beat -- one a rookie, the other experienced and bad; a middle-aged Korean couple. Their lives over the next 36 hours will intersect -- crash. You get to see their lives, from their perspective, understanding what motivates and guides them. You see that despite their differences, they all share the same humanity, with our potential for our best, and our worst. The movie starts disconnected, with the characters being explored independently, then the crash starts. As characters collide, their responses are at times jarring -- a definite wake-up for those weened on the good guys versus the bad guys. I left the movie theatre wishing we would all have the patience to see things from another's perspective. Maybe then the world would have a little less hate, a little less intolerance. It is easy to hate when you can marginalized those you hate by their difference to you -- it's an entirely different matter when you realize that they are not so different after all.
The movie will be available on DVD on September 6th. If you missed it in the theatre, get the DVD. If there's one movie you should you watch, this is it.
Crash is set in LA, and spans 36 hours in the lives of some very diverse characters. The city district attorney and his wife; a Persian convenience store owner, his wife and his daughter; a black police detective, and his lover, a Latino police detective; a black successful television director and his wife; a Mexican locksmith and his young family; two black car-jackers with a chip on their shoulders; two white cops on the beat -- one a rookie, the other experienced and bad; a middle-aged Korean couple. Their lives over the next 36 hours will intersect -- crash. You get to see their lives, from their perspective, understanding what motivates and guides them. You see that despite their differences, they all share the same humanity, with our potential for our best, and our worst. The movie starts disconnected, with the characters being explored independently, then the crash starts. As characters collide, their responses are at times jarring -- a definite wake-up for those weened on the good guys versus the bad guys. I left the movie theatre wishing we would all have the patience to see things from another's perspective. Maybe then the world would have a little less hate, a little less intolerance. It is easy to hate when you can marginalized those you hate by their difference to you -- it's an entirely different matter when you realize that they are not so different after all.
The movie will be available on DVD on September 6th. If you missed it in the theatre, get the DVD. If there's one movie you should you watch, this is it.
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