It's been a while since I last enjoyed a good movie, so one afternoon when I found myself glued to the television screen totally engrossed in probably one of the best films to date, I was quite pleased 
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What happens when you put together people of different cultures with all their quirks and prejudice, somehow manage to weave their stories together with the right amount of drama and comedy, and throw in poignant music on que? No, not quite the world - but the movie "Crash." I have seen its trailer a number of times before, and thought to myself that it seemed like an interesting movie. The fact that it was an independent film and the actors in it played each of their characters did a really good job makes the movie worthy of all its praise.
I always found movies such as "Crash" quite fascinating. The type where you think you know each character you're watching on screen, and then BAM - it turns out they aren't the way you had thought after all. Crash is about culture and prejudice; its message is that nobody is safe from prejudice, not even the one with the prejudice. It makes you look at yourself and makes you think and then realize that you hold certain prejudice as well. It bluntly talks about race. You think you know yourself, and then when the time comes for the credits to roll, you start to reallize that the thoughts you have of those people whose race is different than ours may very well be detrimental to their well-being. There are numerous scenes where one will be uncertain if he or she should be laughing at the scene because that tiny chuckle might very well be masking a prejudiced thought hidden within the recesses of one's brain. And there are scenes where one may have heard that statement before, either being said directly to them or personal thoughts against another.
It is in these statements that our own prejudice is brought to light. Things like not being able to recognize a black man without his "black talk," names that are automatically linked to each race, or assuming that black people do not own Lincoln Navigators thus provoking black carjackers who refuse to steal from their own folk assume it belongs to a White man and sticks a gun in their face. Or perhaps assuming that people with big tattoos are convicts who turn out to be the true family man, and maybe black people are always in trouble and when he speaks of liking country music and being a goalie in ice hockey, we snort at them. I liked the scene where Ludacris's character explains to his friend that the reason why windows on the bus were as big as they are was to humiliate the people of color riding it. I used to ride the bus a lot when I lived in California, though not every passenger was a person of color, the majority of the people on the bus were. And I always wondered why people stared at me while I was minding my own business waiting at the bus stop. I always found it annoying how those people who drove by in their customized Honda Civics and Lexus and BMWs would look at me like it was so sad to ride public transportation.
People in the movie portray their character like everyday people - people you pass by on the street or people you may even know. We tend to generalize people and clump them into groups. Perhaps to make it easier for us to assume how to act and what to say around them. Asians are assumed to all look alike and are called "China men/women." We also tend to clump every one from the Middle East and call them Arabs. Hispanics are all Mexicans when in fact, like those previously mentioned, they come from very diverse backgrounds and cultures. And of course there is our assumption that every African American causes trouble and listens to Hip-Hop ("the music of the oppressor" explained Ludacris's character), and would very well be victims of hate crimes to be seen as a hero.
Every scene is meaningful; every scene brings forth a new realization of our way of thinking. Since I cannot totally relate with the Asian people in the film (despite being Asian), I was easily drawn to the Hispanic girl who had dark hair and reminded me of when I was younger. The two scenes that she was in were quite tear-jerking. The one where her father gives her an invisible cloak to keep her safe from the bullet that once entered her bedroom window because he didn't need it anymore would prove to be important in the scene that follows a little later. When we see her again she had just returned from school and was ecstatic to see her father pulling up in the driveway. As the Persian store owner approaches him at gunpoint demanding he pay for the store that was robbed, the little girl calls out to her mother that "he doesn't have it" and then bolts out into the street to protect her father. Then we hear a gun fire. I felt my heart stop and the tears begin to fall as I realize after a few seconds that the little girl was ok. All we hear is music in the background as her father searches for the gunshot wound and then she says "It's ok, Daddy, I'll protect you." You could even see the shock in the Persian's face as he is in disbelief that he had fired the gun. As the father whisked his family back into the house, we hear his daughter tell him "It's a very good cloak," oblivious that she had escaped death a second time.
Another scene that was equally tear-jerking also involved music instead of an actual script. A traffic collision brings Matt Dillon's character to help the woman in the overturned car. He was in shock when he realized it was the same woman he had assaulted the night before. She screams at the top of her lungs that she would rather have someone else help her, then he promises that he wouldn't hurt her and that he would get her out of there. And true to his word, despite the flames that started to engulf the car and after his partner had pulled him out, he went back to get herand manage to pull her to safety. He was a good man after all, underneath all that hostility he had towards black people. He had a certain compassion for people in dire need of help. And this is what most people are like - they hide behind an exterior and we do not know what their real personality is until they are faced with a dilemma.
I also found it extremely frustrating to watch the Persian store owner struggle to understand english. First he couldn't buy a gun because the gun store owner started insulting himand calling him "Osama." Then when the locksmith was explaining to him that he needed to get his door fixed even though the locks had already been replaced. He even started accusing the locksmith of cheating him. I seriously cannot understand why people come to America without knowing the language. How can you possibly expect to survive in a country whose dominant langauage you can barely understand? Granted, many actually do survive withot knowing a single english word. I guess that's my own prejudice right there.
Each character in the movie has his or her own dilemma. Each one faces his or her own challenge. One may not realize this challenge until a mistake has been committed. Such is the case with Ryan Philippe's character. All the while, we all thought that he was the good guy and he was going to be our hero and pull us through the movie. And then in a split second and the sound of gunshot, we find ourseleves mistaken. Now didn't his partner warn him "You think you know who you are - you have no idea." We understand what he meant now. And we also feel this way as the film draws to a close. We thought we knew ourselves very well, until we realize what our own prejudices are as we followed each character in the film.
"Crash" is one of the most honest films I have seen. It's bee a while since the first time I saw it, but it remains a favorite and tops my list. I have since met more people of various cultural backgrounds. And through this film, I have learned how to better relate with people and accept them for their cultural eccentricities. The film may be purely fiction, but it speaks facts. Little do we know, these little made-up stories may very well be happening in our own backyard. And it is amazing how these fictional strangers all affected one another. It is exactly like life - every one we encounter, directly or indirectly, will affect us. With all of these people affecting us comes the uncertainty that people may actually be who they seem. The one who we thought was going to be our hero turns out like the rest of those he used to despise, and the ones who we thought were the "scum of the earth" eventually turned around and proved us wrong. This movie has brought that uncertainty to the big screen. It also brought us realization. This movie has touched me in more ways than one. And as the movie ends, it has started to snow in Los Angeles, reminding us that nothing is impossible, and that there is still hope for us 
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