CRASH
Directed byPaul Haggis

This is a gotta see movie. I did not blink while watching it.

The movie intertwines different stories, all filled with anger, stereotypes and hope; that kind of hope people never looses no matter how bad things are. The set up for the movie was excellent and the stories were smartly combined with each other. I will use the three words to describe the scenes that I have chosen from the movie:

1. Anger: three characters personified the anger often seen: The guy that was talking all the time about how white people was undermining black people. He went on and on talking about all the racism there is and how white people is such and such (all these caffeinated white people…). Then, to illustrate the two-way racism, the white cop calls the hospital and Shanikwa answers the phone. The conversation ended on how he discovered why she was dumb: the reason is that her name was a black name, thus she was a dumb black girl. She hangs up the phone. Both the first and second guyes were angry, both were upset. And the rage did not come directly thru fear from distinct people. The rage came from personal frustration and personal anger. And it is personal frustrations driving most racism.

2. Stereotypes: And this is my favorite in the movie. They show all kinds... We are all guilty of stereotyping. We all do it at some point in our lives. “China-man”, Chocolate cookie”, etc. One of my favorite scenes is when the black cop is in bed with a Hispanic girl. He’s on the phone and he tells his mom that he is with a white women. Once he hangs up she gives him a mean look and he says: “I know that byt saying that I will piss my mom off more than if I say your Mexican.” She answers: My dad is Puerto Rican, my mom from el Salvador… where did Mexico come from? Then another stereotype comes back again and the cop ask her how is that that all Latin people ended up with the idea of parking the car in the yard. All the stereotypes portrayed in the movie are very real.

3. Hope. I loved the part when the “Arab” guy (who is a Persian) goes and tries to kill the Hispanic guy (whom I almost called Mexican without even being sure). Before this happens, the Hispanic guy gave his daughter an invisible cloak, which is bullet proof (they live in a bad neighborhood). The Arab guy shoots at the Hispanic guy and the daughter runs to him and covers him from being shot. Watch the movie to see what happens next… it is a magic moment.

Go see the trailer http://www.crashfilm.com/

5 stars *****