The Movie Crash Essay

This eye opening and staggering film directed by Paul Haggis (Crash 2004) portrays the collisions between the people of different ethnicities, races and cultures. Haggis bases the film in a city where most people have cars where most people have cars, Los Angeles, and where people rarely brush against or interact with one another unless there’s a situation that forces them to do so. It gathers the lives of those with completely different backgrounds that intersect with each other in the span of 36 hours.

Paul Haggis is to be applauded for taking audiences on a rollercoaster of emotions from the start of the film to the very end. The characters in the film are hidden behind metal and glass where no one in LA even touches or brushes past you.

In the film, Officer Ryan molests Christine Thayer and later one in the film gambles on his life to save Christine during a tragic burning car accident. The irony in this scene provides a sense of awkwardness (fate changes/turning tables). What had really shocked me was when he had the perfect opportunity to leave Christine in the upside down burning car and die. However, instead he does the exact opposite of what we’d think, he risks his own life and saves her. Another character that took me by surprise was the Iranian man (Shaun Toub) who is an immigrant trying to fit in. He is constantly being looked down at for issue of the 9/11 terror attack. Here we witness an immigrant and his family trying to start a new life in a new country but are being neglected from becoming a part of the society because of these stereotypes.

When these characters collide with one another, it’s very unpredictable how they will react. We understand whether they choose to believe in the stereotypes that are based on that certain group or completely erase that from their memory and focus on their actions. Crash teaches us about whether we should be judging one another based on their actions or choose to conform in these racial