Persuasive Essay On The Movie Crash
Jill Berdys-Billardello
Professor Ramos
INTL 2000
28 February 2015
Have you ever wondered if Hollywood could ever produce an Oscar winning movie that is extremely racially insensitive from not only implying the racial tensions, but also scripting the most racial slurs I’ve ever heard in one movie? Well, Hollywood did this when they created the 2004 movie, “Crash”. Actually, they could have made this movie without the actors ever speaking because the facial expressions were enough to tell the entire stories. There are several stories told over a two day period in Los Angeles involving many inter-related characters brought together by stereotypical situations. The storyline includes a black police detective that cares for his heroin addict …show more content…
Throughout the entire film he only did what was ethically, morally, and socially correct. Although he truly looked like a Hispanic or Latino hoodlum with the way he dressed, kept his hair, and the tattoos he displayed he was only trying to make a better life for himself and his family. Even when his first encounter with Farhad, the Persian man that owned the convenience store with the door issue of not closing or locking, and the man would not listen to him that the door was the problem and not the lock. He had every right at that point to lose his temper, but he didn’t, he just walked away. The only other person that was likeable was Farhad’s daughter, Dorri, whose good act was when her father was purchasing the gun. The gentleman that owned the gun shop was terrible to her father as well as to her, but she kept her composure with him just to get the transaction completed. She also was looking out for her father because she knew he would probably do something foolish with the gun and that’s why she chose the blanks over real bullets and in the end this was a hugely successful decision that she would have never thought could happen. She saved Daniel’s daughters’ life by choosing those blanks when her father went to go shoot Daniel and his daughter jumped in the …show more content…
The message that was being sent was good, but the movie itself didn’t approach the topics fully. For one thing, it was not portrayed at all that the way the “white” people thought and acted was incorrect; it appeared to attack all the other ethnicities instead. I had rented this film years ago primarily for all the “A” list actors that were on the billing and I think that’s where my dislike started. With this many of them in one film and it winning an Oscar for Best Picture, one would surely think it would have been a masterpiece. I think it would have been better if there was a more solid storyline to follow because the bits and pieces here and there made it difficult to stay focused. In the end, I did like it enough to not dread watching it a couple of times to ensure I didn’t miss anything.
Works Cited
“Crash.” http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WQB0Q8/ref=avod_yvl_watch_now, 06 May 2005. Web. 28 Feb 2015.
Goodwin, Nelia. "Cultural Crash Main Paper.” http://culturecrash.wikispot.org/cultural_crash_main_paper?action=Files&do=view&target=main%20paper.docx, 13 Nov 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2015.
Rasing, Maridette, “A Critical Analysis on Crash: Classism and Racism”, http://ws350ol.blogspot.com/, 11 Mar 2013. Web. 28 Feb
Professor Ramos
INTL 2000
28 February 2015
Have you ever wondered if Hollywood could ever produce an Oscar winning movie that is extremely racially insensitive from not only implying the racial tensions, but also scripting the most racial slurs I’ve ever heard in one movie? Well, Hollywood did this when they created the 2004 movie, “Crash”. Actually, they could have made this movie without the actors ever speaking because the facial expressions were enough to tell the entire stories. There are several stories told over a two day period in Los Angeles involving many inter-related characters brought together by stereotypical situations. The storyline includes a black police detective that cares for his heroin addict …show more content…
Throughout the entire film he only did what was ethically, morally, and socially correct. Although he truly looked like a Hispanic or Latino hoodlum with the way he dressed, kept his hair, and the tattoos he displayed he was only trying to make a better life for himself and his family. Even when his first encounter with Farhad, the Persian man that owned the convenience store with the door issue of not closing or locking, and the man would not listen to him that the door was the problem and not the lock. He had every right at that point to lose his temper, but he didn’t, he just walked away. The only other person that was likeable was Farhad’s daughter, Dorri, whose good act was when her father was purchasing the gun. The gentleman that owned the gun shop was terrible to her father as well as to her, but she kept her composure with him just to get the transaction completed. She also was looking out for her father because she knew he would probably do something foolish with the gun and that’s why she chose the blanks over real bullets and in the end this was a hugely successful decision that she would have never thought could happen. She saved Daniel’s daughters’ life by choosing those blanks when her father went to go shoot Daniel and his daughter jumped in the …show more content…
The message that was being sent was good, but the movie itself didn’t approach the topics fully. For one thing, it was not portrayed at all that the way the “white” people thought and acted was incorrect; it appeared to attack all the other ethnicities instead. I had rented this film years ago primarily for all the “A” list actors that were on the billing and I think that’s where my dislike started. With this many of them in one film and it winning an Oscar for Best Picture, one would surely think it would have been a masterpiece. I think it would have been better if there was a more solid storyline to follow because the bits and pieces here and there made it difficult to stay focused. In the end, I did like it enough to not dread watching it a couple of times to ensure I didn’t miss anything.
Works Cited
“Crash.” http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WQB0Q8/ref=avod_yvl_watch_now, 06 May 2005. Web. 28 Feb 2015.
Goodwin, Nelia. "Cultural Crash Main Paper.” http://culturecrash.wikispot.org/cultural_crash_main_paper?action=Files&do=view&target=main%20paper.docx, 13 Nov 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2015.
Rasing, Maridette, “A Critical Analysis on Crash: Classism and Racism”, http://ws350ol.blogspot.com/, 11 Mar 2013. Web. 28 Feb