Analytical Essay of the Film Crash

For this analytical essay, I chose to write about the film Crash. I could not think of any better movie that came out after 2000 than this one. Paul Haggis directed this film and it came out in 2004. The movie promotes racial awareness, but like any conversation about race, it demands close inspection. Crash shows realities, but in a not-so-realistic way. We do not learn very much about each character in Crash, but we know enough to figure out how Haggis wants us to understand them. We see a variety of African American men and women, several Hispanic characters, a Persian family, and several Asians. A scene will switch to another only because the initial characters story line is intersecting with that of the next. We meet the Cabot family because two young black men steal their car. Also, the Hispanic locksmith looking to make a living for his family is hired at the shop of the Persian man struggling with life as an immigrant. These are the lead characters, all intertwined in their daily lives. This technique of interconnected characters keeps viewers watching. The audience is not stuck with one story or scene for too long. An idea or event is presented from the perspective of one person or family, and then the same event is expanded on by another characters connection to it. The first white characters we meet are Jean and Rick Cabot, an L.A. District Attorney and his wife, played by Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock. They are confident, well-off characters whose social status is evident at first sight. Jean grabs her husbands arm upon seeing two young black men in the street and Anthony, played by Ludacris, notes she is a typical racist white woman for expressing her fear in such a safe place. Anthony goes on to steal her car. Haggis demonstrates Jeans racism by having her clutch her husband for security, but goes on to right her decision when the black men actualize her fears. We do not leave the scene feeling her actions were reprehensible. This is not the