Crash?

I didn't watch the Academy Awards last night, except to turn it on for about 3 seconds just as the best picture award was given. I have to admit I don't get the Crash appeal.  I watched the film several months ago, at the recommendation of one of my interns, expecting to see a film grappling with the subtleties of contemporary racist idolatries.

With its often laughably unsubtle dialogue about race, the movie, though, struck me as a better-financed version of the preachy "After School Specials" I watched as a child. Those of you who are thirtysomethings know exactly what I am talking about: "As you know, Jason, we're going to secretly smoke this marijuana even though our parents would never approve, and statistics show it can lead to brain damage. But soon, we'll have the power...to rule...the world. HA HA HA HA." Sorry, I may be confusing part of this with a Legion of Doom scene from "Superfriends." But you get the point.

There's a film to be made about how the triumph of the civil rights movement has driven racist attitudes underground, made bigotries more veiled and more deceptive. Crash, in my view, actually covers up racist attitudes because it pictures them in such unrealistically obvious settings. How many educated white males in southern California tell an African-American woman on the telephone, "I might have guessed your name is Shaniqua," as Matt Dillon did in the film? Real racial animosity, like every other kind of sin, is more cunning than that...and less easy to film.

I think a movie uncovering twenty-first century racisms might be worthwhile. But, then again, I also thought Cinderella Man or Walk the Line should have won best picture...

Comments

[T. Chan]

at least Brokeback Mountain didn't win... I can imagine what the speech would have been like--Ang Lee's speech for Best Director was as expected

[Jim Kushiner]

Russell, I agree with your two choices, Walk the Line, and Cinderella Man--they at least should have been at nominated. ABC News TV ran a story on Saturday evening, I believe, about a poll they ran--34% polled didn't have any opinion or had no idea which picture would win best picture. Many of the people they showed on camera in this segment admitted they neither knew which five films had been noimnated nor had they even see one of them. Actually, I haven't seen any of them as well. I will watch a couple of them on DVD when available. But part of the ABC News story script, as I remember it, made some mention of Hollywood perhaps being a bit out of touch with most Americans, at least when it comes to the Academy Awards.

On a related film note, one of my colleagues at the office today said that the highest rated film of the year--even by the critics, that is--was Werner Herzog's documentary Grizzly Man. (check out rottentomatoes.com website for a collation of film reviews) It was not even nominated for best documentary. I have no idea why--too politically incorrect? Maybe someone else knows why it was ignored; perhaps it didn't qualify for some reason. I saw it and thought it excellent.

[Denny Burk]

You are right on. This film was goofy.

Here's my take:
http://dennyburk.blogspot.com/2006/03/not-fan-of-crash.html

[fdr]

I disagree. I enjoyed the film, and thought it made you think about racial issues WITHOUT being preachy. I am policeman by trade, and I feel Matt Dillon was entirely believable as a cop grappling with racist issues.

All the characters had depth, and to use Dillon's character again, they firts showed him in a situation where you despised the man, and turned around and made him a sympathetic figure...I thought it was well done.

Additionally I was in stitches when the two Black Males had their dialogue about their service in the restaraunt, and racial sterotypes, only to betray their own stereotypes (in one of their cases anyway...)

[David Deavel]

Russell, I agree with you on the ridiculousness of the movie. With the rather explicit Don Cheadle sex scene, I hope it's not an "after school special," but my wife and I labeled it a "made for tv movie."