Prejudice In The Movie Crash

Luka Lokmer
The film "Crash" directed by Paul Haggis challenges the audience through the theme of prejudice, isolation and through the use of characters how the audience views them. The film is set in Los Angeles, and shows the confrontation of people 'crashing' into each other, due to their views and beliefs. Haggis shows this through cinematography, music, irony and through the use of characters. Haggis portrays the lives of every-day people who collide with each other because of their racial, gender and cultural differences. As well as the collisions the characters have with one another, Haggis shows the collisions and confrontations that they have with their own values and beliefs.
One of the primary scenes of he film shows a Persian
As Anthony and Peter walk down a busy city street in LA, Anythony feels as if his race has caused him to be unfairly treated in society. A medium shot shows Jean with her husband Rick, walking up the same street as Anthony and Peter. "Wait wait, you see what that woman just did?" "What? She got cold?" "She got a lot colder when she saw us!" Anthony points this out as Jean grabs Rick's hand whilst walking up the street. Haggis shows how Anthony feels about isolation, mainly through the use of dialogue, "Look around. You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But when this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the side-walk and her blind reaction is fear! I mean look at us. Are we dressed like gangbangers? Huh? No. Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared around here it should be us. We're the only two black faces in a sea of over-caffinated white people, patrolled by the trigger-happy LAPD. So you tell me, why aren't we scared?" This is a bold statement from Anthony, before Haggis uses irony to challenge us by revealing them as the actual "gang bangers" The scene is filmed from a mid-shot, showing the two together in an idle position. This shot shows the duo physically isolated, whilst Anthony preaches his belief. Anthony believes that him, and his race are isolated in society. The use of costume is also shown as a technique
In some instances, Haggis makes the audience judge the character from a different perspective. In most films, you can clearly distinguish between the "good" and "bad" guys. Haggis interprets this but makes the viewer judge the characters personality before defining their intentions. For example, Officer Ryan has a prejudice against African-American people. He pulls over a black couple while on patrol, as they were returning from an awards show. The scene is done through mostly close-ups, intensifying the event due to it's up-close-and-personal nature. Ryan immediately has a negative attitude towards the couple. He begins a frisk search on unreasonable alligations, in order to find 'weapons'. In order to cause conflict, Officer Ryan is illustrated in close-up shots intimately harassing Christine. The shots are taken in the perspective of Cameron, who watched the incident hesitantly but remained collected due to his calm persona. The scene shows the hostility in Officer Ryan's personality, as Christine was obviously discomforted by his actions shown through dialogue, "Get your filthy fucking hands off me, you pig!" The close-ups of Christine's face challenge the audience as her discomfort is accepted so easily by both her husband and the police officer that was enforcing it. It is the audience's first proper interaction with Officer Ryan, and he presents himself as an