Crash: Racism and Haggis
"Crash"
Crash, a touching film created by the Canadian director and writer Paul Haggis, incorporates the many struggles, faced by today 's racial stereotypes, into a collage of various interconnected, cultural dilemmas encountered by the film 's multi-ethnical cast ("Paul"). Haggis uses the dialogue and physical actions of his characters to illustrate the various racial stereotypes that are pre-assigned to each race by every individual. This film is a mesmerizing drama that touches the emotions of its audiences ' hearts and souls. Many of the elements delivered by Haggis in this film are portrayed in extreme pairs. This pattern of absolute opposites is conveyed as his protagonistic and antagonistic characters, the movie 's either night or day setting, and also in the snow and fire scene. In this film, Haggis reveals to the world the diverse roles played by the many races of modern America. Through the blatantly racial problems faced by his characters, Haggis creates a deliberately disturbing film that forces his audiences to question even their own moral values.
Haggis creates over fifteen different characters in this film, but they are all connected in some way. Similar to the way Christopher Nolan presented his film Memento, Haggis shows the last scene of this movie first. With this style, Haggis 's audiences focus on the more important development of the story instead of the ending of it (Memento).
Most of Haggis 's characters are delivered as both the victims and the creators of the racism surrounding them. A love-hate relationship created by this between his characters and his audience is what delivers the film 's sad and ominous tone. The strongest example of this relationship is that of Officer Ryan, played by Matt Dillon, as the racist cop. Officer Ryan makes an unnecessary traffic stop when he thinks he sees a black TV director, played by Terrence Howard, and his light-skinned, African American wife, played by Thandie Newton, doing something
Crash, a touching film created by the Canadian director and writer Paul Haggis, incorporates the many struggles, faced by today 's racial stereotypes, into a collage of various interconnected, cultural dilemmas encountered by the film 's multi-ethnical cast ("Paul"). Haggis uses the dialogue and physical actions of his characters to illustrate the various racial stereotypes that are pre-assigned to each race by every individual. This film is a mesmerizing drama that touches the emotions of its audiences ' hearts and souls. Many of the elements delivered by Haggis in this film are portrayed in extreme pairs. This pattern of absolute opposites is conveyed as his protagonistic and antagonistic characters, the movie 's either night or day setting, and also in the snow and fire scene. In this film, Haggis reveals to the world the diverse roles played by the many races of modern America. Through the blatantly racial problems faced by his characters, Haggis creates a deliberately disturbing film that forces his audiences to question even their own moral values.
Haggis creates over fifteen different characters in this film, but they are all connected in some way. Similar to the way Christopher Nolan presented his film Memento, Haggis shows the last scene of this movie first. With this style, Haggis 's audiences focus on the more important development of the story instead of the ending of it (Memento).
Most of Haggis 's characters are delivered as both the victims and the creators of the racism surrounding them. A love-hate relationship created by this between his characters and his audience is what delivers the film 's sad and ominous tone. The strongest example of this relationship is that of Officer Ryan, played by Matt Dillon, as the racist cop. Officer Ryan makes an unnecessary traffic stop when he thinks he sees a black TV director, played by Terrence Howard, and his light-skinned, African American wife, played by Thandie Newton, doing something
Bibliography: "Paul Haggis". 2006. Internet Movie Database Inc. April 2, 2006 < http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0353673/> Memento. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. Summit Entertainment, 2000. Crash. Dir. Paul Haggis. Perf. Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Terrence Howard, and Chris Ludacris Bridges. Bull 's Eye Entertainment, 2004.