“Crash” – Movie Analysis

“Crash” is a 2004 film, which has been created by the director, Paul Haggis. This movie contains a range of stories of different people who all belong to different social classes however, somehow they all connect through each other and all relate in some way. The plot of this film is a strong story, and quiet a controversial as it is based on conflicting prejudices and stereotypes. Additionally, the film is known to be one that is large in both concept as well as the cast and so, straight away attracts a bigger audience due to the famous names.

The theme of multiculturalism and racism is shown all the way throughout the movie and has made its influence on the major characters of the movie:

·       A white American district attorney and his wife

·       Two African American thieves who steal a car

·       A racist police officer who offends an African American TV producer and harasses his wife

·       A non-racist police officer

·       A Latino lock maker

·       A Persian family

·       An African American detective in the search of his brother. 

Throughout the film, we learn about each and every character. We are able to see who they really are and if they are able to make sacrifices such as risking their lives and going against society in order to achieve what they want or what they believe is right, Even though, there are many ‘main’ characters in the film, we are not able to clearly identify who is the good or bad character as all of them have their own life and do things that somehow make them both good as well as, bad.

An obvious example of discrimination and racism and how all of this might change in just one moment is shown in the two scenes, which shows the conflict between the racist police officer and the African American wife. The first scene in which the two characters are shown is one in which the woman gets humiliated and sexually touched in front of her husband by the police officer. Her reaction to this incident is then shown through the next scenes as she is frustrated and blames her husband for it, causing their relationship to start breaking apart. The next scene where the two characters meet occurs the day when the wife gets frustrated by her husband and so as a result she gets involved in a car accident and gets stuck in her car. On the scenes she sees the same police officer trying to get her out of the car and reacts very aggressively to this. However, after a while she gives up when she realizes that the car is about to explode and as the flames grow his friends pull the officer away. In this exact moment of the scene, the audience can clearly see how both of the characters change the way they see each other as the officer runs back to save the women even though before, he built a negative attitude towards her due to the different skin colour.

Moreover, the film’s title ‘Crash’ is used and can be interpreted in a number of ways. One, the most obvious meaning behind the title is the idea of the car crash that occurs at the beginning and the end of the film. However, when we look at the title more in depth, we are clearly able to make a link between the title and the relationships between the characters and events of the movie as they break, crash and collide throughout the plot.

The film also makes a great use of a number of non-diegetic sounds such as the same slow, high-pitched music that is used in different parts of the film in order to emphasise the upsetting and emotional scenes, also helping to create tension and a bigger sense of anticipation within the audience.

This is an example of one of the scenes where background music has been used to emphasise the mood and emotions