January 25, 2006
Repost on Crash
We showed the movie Crash in Gospel Mission class today. It is not an easy film to watch. It intentionally uses stereo-types to later redeem them or deconstruct them. In the end, the characters become more "human." What follows is a re-posting of my thoughts on the film.
Paul Haggis, who wrote the screen play for Million Dollar Baby, wrote and directed this Magnolia-style film.
The movie's primary content is racism. Haggis spins individual character vignettes and then methodically weaves them together. The characters' intersecting plots do not all resolve well, but there is still a strong theme of redemption for most though not all of the characters. I personally do not like themes of redemption when it comes to racism, unless the story is told from the point of view of people of color. Even then Hollywood tends to cater to the suburban sense that everything will eventually work out OK.
While I like happy endings, easy resolution on a painful and polarizing topic like racism doesn't sit with me well. Crash falls short of schmaltz, but the movie, in my opinion, doesn't move past the individuals to expose the social depth of this problem. Movies can make you feel good and hopeful at the end, however, they can also motivate you to action rather than passivity. In the end, Crash DOES make you want to be kinder to people of all colors and races. Racism, however, is not eradicated with well-intentioned, friendlier people. Being kind can only get you so far. Ending racism requires a social revolution in small and large sectors of our society. It is much more a structural problem than something that can be fixed with nicer people.
Posted by Frank Yamada at January 25, 2006 05:21 PM