CRASH (R) ****

 

Directed by Paul Haggis. 110 minutes.

Starring Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Larenz Tate, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito, Michael Pena, Terrence Howard, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillipe, Thandie Newton, William Fichtner, Loretta Devine, Shaun Toub and Keith David. Released by Lions’ Gate Films.

 

Paul Haggis’ directorial debut is filled with scenes of startling intensity. The film is a panorama of racial tension in Los Angeles, which is really the only city where the stories could have taken place. New York City likely has an equal amount of different minorities, races and ethnic backgrounds, but, as one of the film’s characters says, Los Angeles is a city filled with cars- steel and glass for people to hide behind. In New York, people walk everywhere and bump into each other on the street. In Los Angeles, they have to crash into each other to feel something, using a car crash metaphor for disconnectedness and racial divide as cleverly as David Cronenberg likened a crash to a sexual awakening.

 

There are some truly astounding moments in this film, emotionally-charged and intense, but they only work because of the delicate setup that we get for them earlier in the film. For instance, in one scene, a racist cop (Matt Dillon) sexually harasses a black woman (Thandie Newton) that he pulls over in a rich neighborhood. Later, they share a moment so intense that it completely erases the ugliness of the cop’s earlier act. In another, a snobby woman (Sandra Bullock) loudly announces her mistrust of a Hispanic locksmith (Michael Pena) working on her house. In a later scene, she realizes the most loyal and trustworthy person she has is the Mexican maid who cleans her house. In another scene, the locksmith from Sandra Bullock’s house explains to his daughter that he owns a bulletproof vest that saved him when he grew up in a rough neighborhood. Later that jacket is put to use in one of the film’s most harrowing moments.

 

The scene to best sum up the film is a much simpler one. A Middle Eastern man (Shaun Toub), constantly mistaken for an Iraqi, uses his license to buy a gun to keep in his store. The store is later broken into and wrecked. His daughter, who was against the purchase of the gun, looks in the cash drawer and is relieved to see it still there. Why? Because if the gun were used in a robbery or a homicide, who would the police believe- a Middle Eastern man? Maybe, maybe not. Crash is filled with people making choices based on how they think others will react. For example, a black filmmaker (an impressive Terrence Howard) allows the racist cop to fondle his wife. She calls him a coward, but he probably made a wise decision. He thought the cops would have shot both he and his wife and he may have been right. In another later scene, two cops nearly shoot a man because he is verbally threatening them.

 

Paul Haggis is the screenwriter of last year’s Oscar triumph, Million Dollar Baby, and here he shows a maturity rare for a first-time feature director. The film combines elements of a number of films, most notably Magnolia, Short Cuts, City of Hope and Grand Canyon. Crash is on par with those films and manages to make every character a living and breathing person rather than a caricature, which is what a number of other directors might have done with this material. This must have been a difficult film. The film attempts to get into the mindset of a handful of ethnic backgrounds- white, black, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Chinese- and not only these people of different backgrounds view each other, but also how they view how they view each other.

 

Haggis uses a number of scenes to deliberately provoke reactions- anger, frustration, emotion, sorrow and humor- and manages to succeed. The material feels true when it could just as easily have been contrived and every one of the actors is successful in their performances. Though the film may paint a picture of Los Angeles as hell on earth, this is really a film about education through rough circumstances. Will the prejudiced white woman played by Sandra Bullock really make a change for the better? Will the car thief (Ludacris) who stumbles upon a group of immigrant stowaways turn over a new leaf? Will Matt Dillon’s racist be a different person after saving a black woman from a car crash? We'll see - people often see things differently when they are forced to.

 

Crash reminds me of a Flannery O’Connor short story called “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” In the story, a stubborn, ornery grandmother and her family are taken hostage by hardened criminals and are eventually all killed off. The grandmother finally comes to some realizations about herself when she is about to be shot and the head criminal remarks something to the effect that the grandmother could have been a good woman if she had someone to shoot her everyday of her life. The same can be said about the characters in Crash- they can be made to see good in themselves, others and the world when you put a gun to their head. All hope is not lost for them.