Thirty seconds into this film I knew I was going to love it. I did.
The film's lesson is that we are all racist, to some degree we do not see all races as equal, but are capable of compassion for all people despite ourselves. I appreciated the lessons being taught to me, and my interest was piqued by the idea of crashing into each other because we are yearning for a connection.
Don Cheadle did a fantastic job as a detective who tried to stay honest but who was forced to decide whether to do something honest in which case his brother would suffer the consequences or corrupt to "protect" his brother. In the end he chooses to protect his brother but realizes that either choice would not have ended well.
Matt Dillon gives advice to Ryan Philippe about becoming jaded over years of work on the police force. Ryan is tested twice. He passes once, then fails to the ultimate degree in his second test.
Michael Peña's character seemed to be the only one that stayed loyal to his beliefs, unwavering in his equal treatment of everyone he encountered despite their treatment of him.
The only annoying part was Anthony (played by Ludacris) continuously monologuing about how the world is so against black men. I'm sorry, but he was lecturing the world about thinking that every black man has a gun and a motive to rob you, then he pulls out his gun and carjacks the district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Jean (Sandra Bullock). After that he annoyed me each time I saw him, until the final "incident" and his act of retribution. I can appreciate being annoyed by a character, so in the end this criticism does not permit me to think less of the movie. Whether or not Anthony had a gun and intended to commit a crime, his point was that Jean feared for her life when she saw two black men on the street. Her visceral reaciton was to hold on tight to her husband for protection. Her defense was that she had a gut feeling that they were about to enter a bad situation, and she happened to be right, but it is clear from other actions of this character that she does not think other races are equal to her own.
There are many other stars and story lines in this movie, which can sometimes detract from a movie, but in this case only enhances it.
This movie was so powerful that I had to pause it, take a break, and cross my fingers in order to keep watching it. One scene with Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton made me hide my eyes. (No, not the first scene, that scene just royally pissed me off and made me feel violated for having watched it.)
I'm giving this a 5 out of 5, a 10 out of 10, a 100 out of 100. This is my current favorite movie. I would consider this movie one to own.
9 comments:
I am not reading the post because I have Crash still sitting in the NetFlix sleeve waiting to be watched. I've had it for a week, but when I get home from work at 11 p.m., I never feel like getting into it so late since it is so intense. The cast is on Oprah today, which I will watch even though I am sure there will be spoilers. I am tres, tres excited to see it SOON.
It was sooooo good. So, so good. So surprising, so thought provoking. I hope the secrets are not revealed on Oprah. It will ruin the tension if they reveal bits of the movie!
Oh, and I've had Crash at home for over a week, didn't remember what it was about so it took me a long time to get around to watching it. I love it when I think a film is going to suck or just be mediocre and it turns out to be incredible. The copy I had is on its way back to Netflix today, and I miss it already.
This was an awesome movie. Actually, the entire cast from the movie is on Oprah right now (10/6, 4pm).
I didn't love it as much as you did. And maybe part of that was the people around me going on and on about how wonderful and fabulous it was. I felt it to be just a little too preachy. I didn't really feel stunned by anyone's revelations. I did like it. I'm glad I saw it, but it is not one that I would add to the collection. I felt like Ryan's failure on the 2nd test was a little rushed or pushed... It didn't feel organic to me. But, I did like the whole story around Michael Pena. You're right about him, he did seem to be the one to stay loyal to his core values.
Thanks for this post, Poppy. Since I saw the movie (http://nutsarenuts.blogspot.com/2005/09/mixed-emotion.html) I've been looking forward to reviews from bloggers who I read regularly, to see what their opinions were. So far, more people than not have good & constructive things to say about it.
Grrr. I wrote this whole long reply and then my Internet connection went dead. Grrr.
Trying again . . .
***Possible Spoiler. Sorry.***
I liked this movie, but didn't love it. And I think it was the bonus features on the DVD that made me not love it. The director and cast kept going on about how this was a movie about race but it never mentioned race directly. Except it did. All of the characters spoke about race and ethnicity very directly. So the interviews came off as kind of pretentious, which then colored my view of the film.
I liked how Ludacris's character kept railing about the stereotypes of young black men and then lived up to those stereotypes. It reminded me of what Bill Cosby has been talking about---and getting a lot of heat from the black community about: that the best way to fight the stereotypes is to stop living up to them.
I thought the Sandra Bullock character could have been more subtle. At first, I strongly identified with her character---and not in good ways. But then, when she started yelling at her husband about not hiring gang members, it gave me the out of saying, "Well, I'm not that bad." Sort of diluted the point.
Something that struck me: The movie was set in L.A., but it didn't address the tension between the Korean and black communities. Unless I missed something.
Lisa, I think that's precisely why I choose not to watch interviews from cast members. Sometimes I truly believe the actors are doing that, just acting, and that they don't actually understand the true complexity of the character they are playing, and neither does the writer necessarily, but somehow it comes out so that we see more into the story line than was intended.
I cannot believe that anyone said this film did not speak about race. Perhaps the characters that never said the word "race" were the ones interviewed? I doubt all of those actors read the entire final script or saw the entire film. It was probably just another project for most of them.
I am sticking with Michael Peña's character as my absolute favorite, sticking to his principles, and
SPOILER ALERT?
saying nothing but everything in his glance to Sandra Bullock.
Poppy, in reference to the question you left in the comment section of my post about this movie (I'm answering here so you don't have to dig through my archives to find my reply), the two characters who stuck with me were Matt Dillon's (1st scene - what a huge jerk) and Ryan Phillipe (last scene - what a huge waste). I also had a hard time forgetting the Persian store owner because he frustrated the heck out of me. I agree with you about Michael Pena's character... I kept waiting for him to sink to the same level of some of the other characters and the fact that he didn't nearly made me cry.
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