Crash Response
Content
McKinnis 1
Christopher McKinnis
Professor Julie Hicks
Arts and Society: Film
17 November 2015
Crash Response
Now, I understand that last week that I claimed that American Beauty was my favorite
movie of the entire semester. However, I must admit and change my answer: Crash is, by a
landslide of a margin, not only my favorite movie that I have seen this semester but also one of
my favorite films of all time. Director Paul Haggis strategically and cleverly strings people from
all across the spectrum of life
powerful and the powerless
whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, the rich and the poor, the
with a “grim serendipity” that ultimately unites them all with the
realization of their sense of connectivity (Scott). With metaphorical influences, specifically in
the title, and the parallelism to our current societal issues and reforms, Crash is truly a
masterpiece that completely turns your entire life around.
Over the course of the film, Paul Haggis incorporates many thematic elements through
many aspects of Crash, using numerous symbols, such as cars, in order to signify crucial ideals
that are brought to the table. In addition to the symbolism, metaphors play an important role in
how the different stories are told and how they are eventually connected to each other.
Specifically, the title of this film, Crash, possesses not only a literal context, but contains a
hidden and symbolic significance that reflects in the stories of the numerous characters. The
most obvious meaning of the word “crash” in contemporary society is that of a collision between
two objects, specifically two or more automobiles of some sort (“Crash: A Disturbing Mirror on
Humanity”). This literal meaning plays an important role in this movie; the audience is
introduced to the movie with a crash, surfacing not only one of the main characters of the movie,
McKinnis 2
but also an important social injustice that proves to be crucial to how the rest of the film
progresses, which I will discuss later on. However, although the physical meaning of the word
“crash” is important, the metaphoric message that is tagged onto the word and the concept
heightens the stories that transpire over the course of the movie. The audience already is given
the hint that the word “crash” will take a more important role as the film progresses. Don
Cheadle’s character, Detective Graham, addresses his wife immediately as they get themselves
into a slight accident. He takes advantage of what has happened to compare the event as a
metaphor for the “disjunctive, isolated character of life in Los Angeles”, while his wife, Ria,
insists that it is merely a “literal, physical occurrence that requires a practical response” (Scott).
This leads into the discussion on how much of a role the word has on the characters and the film
on a broad scale. Crash is not just a movie about car collisions; it’s about the collisions between
ethnic groups, classes, ideologies, and even age groups. The word, in relation to this
metaphysical collision, results in the destruction of the relationships between such groups of
people, and we see how this affects not only the people on a personal level, but how it affects
everyone and the entire storyline.
This movie presents a society in which how society is corrupted in its relationships
between different ethnic, racial, and societal groups. One of the things that are challenged in this
movie is this battle between the ideas of social constructs and inborn characteristics. Race and
gender are not physical attributes. No, they are social imprints of images that a society as a
whole implant on people, based off of their ethnicities, sex, and sexual orientations. The movie
portrays the Los Angeles district attorney, struggling to salvage his public image among black
voters by finding an “African-American” whom he can reward publicly. However, when he
finds out that the person that is considering is actually Iraqi, he responds, “He’s Iraqi? Well, he
McKinnis 3
looks black.” Another example is when Detective Graham refers to his lover, Ria, as Mexican.
She responds, “My father’s from Puerto Rico, my mother’s from El Salvador. Neither one of
those is Mexico.” These scenes clearly illustrate that racial categories are created and employed
by other people, although many of this categories often say little of a person’s actual cultural and
ethnic background.
Crash also creatively illustrates how rigid gender roles can hinder connection between
people. The traditional “provider” and “protector” image of the male are especially analyzed. In
one scene, a black film director named Cameron is pulled over by a racist police officer named
John Ryan. Cameron’s wife, who is present at the time, begins antagonizing the officer and
refuses to comply, although Cameron requests to her silence herself. When checked for
weapons, Cameron responds without aggression as John frisks his wife in a sexually
inappropriate manner, and she later accuses him for failing to protect her. She also points out
that he humiliated her in order to protect himself from his audience realizing that he is black.
Cameron is torn between two equally demanding roles, and this role strain is precipitated by the
racial discrimination he encounters.
Crash show that we should reanalyze the distinctions between “male” traits, such as
decisiveness and aggression, and “female” traits, like submissiveness, non-aggression, and
intuition. The story that the audience follows with the Persian American family is a perfect
example, for it illustrates that people must utilize their traits for the situational appropriateness,
negating the very idea of gender appropriateness. When the father purchases a gun as a means of
protection for his family, his daughter, Dorri, becomes immediately worried and purchases a box
of blanks rather than actual bullets. When the family’s shop is vandalized and destroyed, the
shop owner hunts down a locksmith whom he mistakenly holds responsible for the situation
McKinnis 4
(when in all actuality it’s the shop owner’s fault for not replacing the door). As he holds the
locksmith at gun-point, demanding money for compensation, the locksmith’s daughter leaps to
protect her father with the “impenetrable cloak” that her father gave her to “protect” her. The
gun goes off, but she is unharmed, for the gun has blanks inside. Tragedy was averted because
Dorri circumvented here father’s wishes by getting blanks for ammunition. Her actions represent
traits of action and decisiveness, rather than passivity or submission, while exhibiting traits of
intuition and non-aggression. This negation of gender is shown by the symbolic qualities which,
in this situation, prevent the worst from happening: non-penetration and impenetrability ("Crash
- A Sociological Analysis Of The Movie.").
By the far the most important critique that Crash examines over the course of the film is
the corrupted usage of racial stereotypes and racism as a whole. Even to this today, racism is
everything. No matter where you go, you are going to hear someone bring some racial
stereotype that may not concern or be relevant to your personal background. However, this
movie incorporated numerous instances in order to not only heighten the drama, but to also
address how much of an issue it is in the current American society. After being called a “n-----”
by Anthony, Cameron demands his due recognition as a human being by yelling, “Say it again!
Call me a n----- again!” The locksmith is accused of being a gang member for him being
Hispanic. Such disrespect and lack of consideration to people’s sensitivity to racial slurs and
stereotypes has plagued our world and has made people corrupted and unaware of the mental and
emotional damage that they are inflicting on innocent people. Ultimately, the resolution of racial
and ethnic conflict in the United States will not come from personal acts of tolerance, but
through boldly confronting and thoroughly restructuring all inequitable social and economic
institutions.
McKinnis 5
Again, as mentioned before, this is by far my favorite film of the semester and one of the
best films that I have watched so far in my lifetime. Crash is one of those movies that
completely alters your perspective on how the world works and makes you aware of what is
actually occurring in the real world. In addition, I love movies that grip at your heart strings;
when the Persian American shop owner “shot” the locksmith, I was dead inside, and then
realized that everything was okay. When the racist police officer saved Cameron’s wife from the
exploding car, I was so emotionally unstable. And I almost completely lost it when the nonracist police officer killed Peter Waters due to the lack of information that was provided. This
movie is one that everyone needs to see, because it doesn’t just concern racial stereotypes and
prejudice. It teaches you the essentials of being a good person all around, and the lessons that
are presented as the movie progresses are innumerable.
McKinnis 6
Works Cited
"Crash: A Disturbing Mirror on Humanity." Crash: A Disturbing Mirror on Humanity. N.p., n.d.
Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
"Crash - A Sociological Analysis Of The Movie." HubPages. HubPages, 25 Nov. 2011. Web. 15
Nov. 2015.
Scott, A.O. "Bigotry as the Outer Side of Inner Angst." New York Times. The New York Times
Company, 6 May 2005. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.
Christopher McKinnis
Professor Julie Hicks
Arts and Society: Film
17 November 2015
Crash Response
Now, I understand that last week that I claimed that American Beauty was my favorite
movie of the entire semester. However, I must admit and change my answer: Crash is, by a
landslide of a margin, not only my favorite movie that I have seen this semester but also one of
my favorite films of all time. Director Paul Haggis strategically and cleverly strings people from
all across the spectrum of life
powerful and the powerless
whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, the rich and the poor, the
with a “grim serendipity” that ultimately unites them all with the
realization of their sense of connectivity (Scott). With metaphorical influences, specifically in
the title, and the parallelism to our current societal issues and reforms, Crash is truly a
masterpiece that completely turns your entire life around.
Over the course of the film, Paul Haggis incorporates many thematic elements through
many aspects of Crash, using numerous symbols, such as cars, in order to signify crucial ideals
that are brought to the table. In addition to the symbolism, metaphors play an important role in
how the different stories are told and how they are eventually connected to each other.
Specifically, the title of this film, Crash, possesses not only a literal context, but contains a
hidden and symbolic significance that reflects in the stories of the numerous characters. The
most obvious meaning of the word “crash” in contemporary society is that of a collision between
two objects, specifically two or more automobiles of some sort (“Crash: A Disturbing Mirror on
Humanity”). This literal meaning plays an important role in this movie; the audience is
introduced to the movie with a crash, surfacing not only one of the main characters of the movie,
McKinnis 2
but also an important social injustice that proves to be crucial to how the rest of the film
progresses, which I will discuss later on. However, although the physical meaning of the word
“crash” is important, the metaphoric message that is tagged onto the word and the concept
heightens the stories that transpire over the course of the movie. The audience already is given
the hint that the word “crash” will take a more important role as the film progresses. Don
Cheadle’s character, Detective Graham, addresses his wife immediately as they get themselves
into a slight accident. He takes advantage of what has happened to compare the event as a
metaphor for the “disjunctive, isolated character of life in Los Angeles”, while his wife, Ria,
insists that it is merely a “literal, physical occurrence that requires a practical response” (Scott).
This leads into the discussion on how much of a role the word has on the characters and the film
on a broad scale. Crash is not just a movie about car collisions; it’s about the collisions between
ethnic groups, classes, ideologies, and even age groups. The word, in relation to this
metaphysical collision, results in the destruction of the relationships between such groups of
people, and we see how this affects not only the people on a personal level, but how it affects
everyone and the entire storyline.
This movie presents a society in which how society is corrupted in its relationships
between different ethnic, racial, and societal groups. One of the things that are challenged in this
movie is this battle between the ideas of social constructs and inborn characteristics. Race and
gender are not physical attributes. No, they are social imprints of images that a society as a
whole implant on people, based off of their ethnicities, sex, and sexual orientations. The movie
portrays the Los Angeles district attorney, struggling to salvage his public image among black
voters by finding an “African-American” whom he can reward publicly. However, when he
finds out that the person that is considering is actually Iraqi, he responds, “He’s Iraqi? Well, he
McKinnis 3
looks black.” Another example is when Detective Graham refers to his lover, Ria, as Mexican.
She responds, “My father’s from Puerto Rico, my mother’s from El Salvador. Neither one of
those is Mexico.” These scenes clearly illustrate that racial categories are created and employed
by other people, although many of this categories often say little of a person’s actual cultural and
ethnic background.
Crash also creatively illustrates how rigid gender roles can hinder connection between
people. The traditional “provider” and “protector” image of the male are especially analyzed. In
one scene, a black film director named Cameron is pulled over by a racist police officer named
John Ryan. Cameron’s wife, who is present at the time, begins antagonizing the officer and
refuses to comply, although Cameron requests to her silence herself. When checked for
weapons, Cameron responds without aggression as John frisks his wife in a sexually
inappropriate manner, and she later accuses him for failing to protect her. She also points out
that he humiliated her in order to protect himself from his audience realizing that he is black.
Cameron is torn between two equally demanding roles, and this role strain is precipitated by the
racial discrimination he encounters.
Crash show that we should reanalyze the distinctions between “male” traits, such as
decisiveness and aggression, and “female” traits, like submissiveness, non-aggression, and
intuition. The story that the audience follows with the Persian American family is a perfect
example, for it illustrates that people must utilize their traits for the situational appropriateness,
negating the very idea of gender appropriateness. When the father purchases a gun as a means of
protection for his family, his daughter, Dorri, becomes immediately worried and purchases a box
of blanks rather than actual bullets. When the family’s shop is vandalized and destroyed, the
shop owner hunts down a locksmith whom he mistakenly holds responsible for the situation
McKinnis 4
(when in all actuality it’s the shop owner’s fault for not replacing the door). As he holds the
locksmith at gun-point, demanding money for compensation, the locksmith’s daughter leaps to
protect her father with the “impenetrable cloak” that her father gave her to “protect” her. The
gun goes off, but she is unharmed, for the gun has blanks inside. Tragedy was averted because
Dorri circumvented here father’s wishes by getting blanks for ammunition. Her actions represent
traits of action and decisiveness, rather than passivity or submission, while exhibiting traits of
intuition and non-aggression. This negation of gender is shown by the symbolic qualities which,
in this situation, prevent the worst from happening: non-penetration and impenetrability ("Crash
- A Sociological Analysis Of The Movie.").
By the far the most important critique that Crash examines over the course of the film is
the corrupted usage of racial stereotypes and racism as a whole. Even to this today, racism is
everything. No matter where you go, you are going to hear someone bring some racial
stereotype that may not concern or be relevant to your personal background. However, this
movie incorporated numerous instances in order to not only heighten the drama, but to also
address how much of an issue it is in the current American society. After being called a “n-----”
by Anthony, Cameron demands his due recognition as a human being by yelling, “Say it again!
Call me a n----- again!” The locksmith is accused of being a gang member for him being
Hispanic. Such disrespect and lack of consideration to people’s sensitivity to racial slurs and
stereotypes has plagued our world and has made people corrupted and unaware of the mental and
emotional damage that they are inflicting on innocent people. Ultimately, the resolution of racial
and ethnic conflict in the United States will not come from personal acts of tolerance, but
through boldly confronting and thoroughly restructuring all inequitable social and economic
institutions.
McKinnis 5
Again, as mentioned before, this is by far my favorite film of the semester and one of the
best films that I have watched so far in my lifetime. Crash is one of those movies that
completely alters your perspective on how the world works and makes you aware of what is
actually occurring in the real world. In addition, I love movies that grip at your heart strings;
when the Persian American shop owner “shot” the locksmith, I was dead inside, and then
realized that everything was okay. When the racist police officer saved Cameron’s wife from the
exploding car, I was so emotionally unstable. And I almost completely lost it when the nonracist police officer killed Peter Waters due to the lack of information that was provided. This
movie is one that everyone needs to see, because it doesn’t just concern racial stereotypes and
prejudice. It teaches you the essentials of being a good person all around, and the lessons that
are presented as the movie progresses are innumerable.
McKinnis 6
Works Cited
"Crash: A Disturbing Mirror on Humanity." Crash: A Disturbing Mirror on Humanity. N.p., n.d.
Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
"Crash - A Sociological Analysis Of The Movie." HubPages. HubPages, 25 Nov. 2011. Web. 15
Nov. 2015.
Scott, A.O. "Bigotry as the Outer Side of Inner Angst." New York Times. The New York Times
Company, 6 May 2005. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.
