maycocksean
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Tonight we'll find out whether "Crash" takes Best Picture. Personally, I doubt that it will. I was pleasantly surprised that it was nominated at all.
I'm finding that "Crash" is one of those movies that you either love or hate. I loved it, and in this post I will explain briefly why. I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'm hoping that I might give people who've seen the movie something to think about, and encourage those who haven't seen it to view it with an open mind.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of "Crash" is that it is full of cliches. Now I realize it's virtually fruitless to try to convince someone that something is not cliche when they think it is, but I'm going to try.
"Crash" may appear cliche because prejudice IS cliche. Racial discrimination is always the "same old pathetic thing." In fact, this film purposely tugs at our own prejudices, those assumptions we all have about racial groups other than our own, and then contrary to what I hear so many people say, turns that assumption, that cliche, on it's head. For much of the movie you find yourself thinking you know what's going on--"who the good guys are"--and constantly the movie pulls the rug out from under you. (spoiler alert):
For example, LA cop harasses black couple. Obvious. Cliche. Now if they'd just painted Matt Dillon's character as the "bad guy" I could see the criticism. . .that's so one dimensional. But the film reveals that his story isn't so simple, and in fact, neither is he. Granted, his heroic turn later might seem predictable, but come on did anyone REALLy see that coming? And even if you did see that one, surely you couldn't have predicted Ryan Philippe's turn to the dark side near the end of the film. After all he's the "good guy", right? There's more: The Asian guy who gets run over that the film primes you to feel sorry for, the classic "victim", until you discover that he has a dark side of his own and is engaging in human trafficing. There's the Latino guy (virtually the only character in the movie that doesn't seem to have a dark side), who when his beeper goes off after he puts his daughter to sleep, you're sure actually is a drug dealer or gang-banger. Despite the fact that this is a "liberal, message movie" and you know it, you still find yourself expecting the characters to fall into the cliched racial stereotypes. And they consistently don't.
The reason I like this film so much is becaues it demonstrates a truth about humanity that rarely gets represented in film or anywhere else for that matter. That, humans are both remarkably good, and remarkably evil. We all harbor within us the ability to show great heroism and great depravity. Sometimes in the same day, sometimes in the same breath. This is an uncomfortable truth, one that doesn't fit with our neatly polarized culture where "Conservatives are evil facists and liberals are enlightened heroes," OR "liberals are amoral tools of Satan, and conservatives are square-jawed, white-hatted defenders of the right." The reality that people are human, complicated creatures is portrayed in "Crash" and sadly, that idea is hardly cliche. It should be, but it isn't.
I also like the film because it was superbly acted, beautifully shot, well-written, and had a gorgeous, affecting score. It might also help to know that background to the writing of "Crash." The screenwriter was carjacked by two thugs in L.A. a few years ago, and the script was born out of his dealing with that incident. He began to wonder what kind of people did this to him. What was their story? It's not surprising to me that he made the two characters somewhat sympathetic. I think it helped him make sense of a senseless crime, helped him heal. So this film wasn't written so that the writer could put out a "can't we all get along" liberalist, feel-good fantasy. It was written out of his own very real trauma.
So that's why I like "Crash". I've not yet heard a convincing argument diminishing the film, and I'm open to hearing one. But I don't expect I will.
I'm finding that "Crash" is one of those movies that you either love or hate. I loved it, and in this post I will explain briefly why. I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'm hoping that I might give people who've seen the movie something to think about, and encourage those who haven't seen it to view it with an open mind.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of "Crash" is that it is full of cliches. Now I realize it's virtually fruitless to try to convince someone that something is not cliche when they think it is, but I'm going to try.
"Crash" may appear cliche because prejudice IS cliche. Racial discrimination is always the "same old pathetic thing." In fact, this film purposely tugs at our own prejudices, those assumptions we all have about racial groups other than our own, and then contrary to what I hear so many people say, turns that assumption, that cliche, on it's head. For much of the movie you find yourself thinking you know what's going on--"who the good guys are"--and constantly the movie pulls the rug out from under you. (spoiler alert):
For example, LA cop harasses black couple. Obvious. Cliche. Now if they'd just painted Matt Dillon's character as the "bad guy" I could see the criticism. . .that's so one dimensional. But the film reveals that his story isn't so simple, and in fact, neither is he. Granted, his heroic turn later might seem predictable, but come on did anyone REALLy see that coming? And even if you did see that one, surely you couldn't have predicted Ryan Philippe's turn to the dark side near the end of the film. After all he's the "good guy", right? There's more: The Asian guy who gets run over that the film primes you to feel sorry for, the classic "victim", until you discover that he has a dark side of his own and is engaging in human trafficing. There's the Latino guy (virtually the only character in the movie that doesn't seem to have a dark side), who when his beeper goes off after he puts his daughter to sleep, you're sure actually is a drug dealer or gang-banger. Despite the fact that this is a "liberal, message movie" and you know it, you still find yourself expecting the characters to fall into the cliched racial stereotypes. And they consistently don't.
The reason I like this film so much is becaues it demonstrates a truth about humanity that rarely gets represented in film or anywhere else for that matter. That, humans are both remarkably good, and remarkably evil. We all harbor within us the ability to show great heroism and great depravity. Sometimes in the same day, sometimes in the same breath. This is an uncomfortable truth, one that doesn't fit with our neatly polarized culture where "Conservatives are evil facists and liberals are enlightened heroes," OR "liberals are amoral tools of Satan, and conservatives are square-jawed, white-hatted defenders of the right." The reality that people are human, complicated creatures is portrayed in "Crash" and sadly, that idea is hardly cliche. It should be, but it isn't.
I also like the film because it was superbly acted, beautifully shot, well-written, and had a gorgeous, affecting score. It might also help to know that background to the writing of "Crash." The screenwriter was carjacked by two thugs in L.A. a few years ago, and the script was born out of his dealing with that incident. He began to wonder what kind of people did this to him. What was their story? It's not surprising to me that he made the two characters somewhat sympathetic. I think it helped him make sense of a senseless crime, helped him heal. So this film wasn't written so that the writer could put out a "can't we all get along" liberalist, feel-good fantasy. It was written out of his own very real trauma.
So that's why I like "Crash". I've not yet heard a convincing argument diminishing the film, and I'm open to hearing one. But I don't expect I will.
