Crash (2004 film)
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| Crash | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Paul Haggis |
| Produced by | Paul Haggis Don Cheadle Bobby Moresco |
| Written by | Paul Haggis Bobby Moresco |
| Starring | Brendan Fraser Sandra Bullock Chris "Ludacris" Bridges Larenz Tate Don Cheadle Jennifer Esposito Matt Dillon Keith David Terrence Howard Thandie Newton Michael Peña Shaun Toub Bahar Soomekh William Fichtner Dato Bakhtadze Loretta Devine |
| Music by | Mark Isham |
| Cinematography | J. Michael Muro |
| Editing by | Hughes Winborne |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate in conjunction with DEJ Productions, Bob Yari Productions |
| Release date(s) | September 10, 2004 (Toronto Film Festival) May 6, 2005 |
| Running time | Theatrical cut 112 min. Director's Cut 115 min. |
| Country | USA Germany |
| Language | English Spanish Persian Mandarin Korean |
| Budget | $6,500,000 |
| Gross revenue | $98,410,061 |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Crash is a 2005 drama film directed by Paul Haggis. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2004, and was released internationally in 2005. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles. A self-described "passion piece" for director Paul Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real life incident in which his Porsche was carjacked outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard in 1991.[1] It won three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing of 2005 at the 78th Academy Awards.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
- See also the Characters section below
The film depicts several characters living in Los Angeles, California during a 36-hour period and brings them together through car collisions, shootings, and carjacking. Through these characters' interactions, the film seeks to depict and examine not only racial tension, but also the distance between strangers in general.
[edit] Characters
- Rick Cabot
Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser) is the white District Attorney of Los Angeles. He and his wife Jean are carjacked by Anthony and Peter, both of whom are black. Subsequently the Brentwood resident tries to save his political career by reassuring voters that he is racially sensitive. His character is never depicted as openly bigoted, making his racial stance ambiguous.
- Jean Cabot
Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is Rick's wife, whose racial prejudices escalate after the carjacking. At the end of the film, following an accident in her home, she realizes that the person who is the kindest and most helpful to her is Maria, her Hispanic maid, while her snobby friends are too busy with shallow pursuits to help her out.
- Anthony
Anthony (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) is an African American inner-city car thief who steals vehicles for a bigoted chop shop owner. He believes that society is unfairly biased against blacks, and at one point in the film he justifies his actions by claiming he would never hurt another black person. However, Anthony tells Peter to shoot a black man, Cameron, after they try to carjack his car and he fights back. A disgusted Cameron kicks Anthony out of his car and says "You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself." Towards the end of the movie, Anthony steals a van which - unknown to him at the time - was full of trafficked people from South East Asia. He refers to these immigrants disparagingly as Chinamen, but when the owner of the chop shop offers him $500 per head for the immigrants with the intention of selling them on, Anthony refuses. Instead, he lets them out onto the Asian district of LA in the closing scenes of the movie. Anthony gives them all of the money that is in his pocket – $40.
- Peter Waters
Peter Waters (Larenz Tate) is Anthony's friend and partner in crime. He is also Detective Waters' younger brother. Like Anthony, he is black, but he humorously scoffs at Anthony's paranoia over racism. He also likes the Los Angeles Kings hockey team. Peter is shot to death by Officer Hansen (Ryan Phillippe), who picks him up in the valley hours after their failed carjacking of Cameron's Lincoln Navigator and mistakenly shoots him after assuming he is drawing a gun during an escalating argument. In reality he was reaching into his pocket to show the cop a figure of Saint Christopher, identical to the one Officer Hansen had stuck to his dashboard.
- Detective Graham Waters
Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) is an African American detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. He is disconnected from his poor family, which consists of his drug-addicted mother and criminal younger brother. He promises his mother that he will find his younger brother, but he is preoccupied with a case concerning a suspected racist white cop who shot a corrupt black cop. Flanagan (William Fichtner) an assistant district attorney, offers Graham the chance to further his career in exchange for withholding evidence that could possibly have helped the white cop's case. Flanagan also tries to convince Graham that the black community needs to see the black cop as a hero, and not as a drug dealer, as Graham suspects that he may have been. Graham is both offended and opposed, and is ready to storm out, when Flanagan mentions that there is a warrant out for Graham's brother's arrest, and that this is his third felony, which carries a life sentence in the state of California. Graham makes a very difficult personal decision to withhold evidence and possibly corrupt a case in order to have the District Attorney forget about his brother. That brother is eventually revealed to be Peter, the hitchhiker who is killed by Officer Hansen.
- Ria
Ria (Jennifer Esposito) is a Latina detective, as well as Graham's partner and girlfriend. When a phone call from Graham's mother interrupts his sexual romp with Ria, she becomes upset with Graham for being disrespectful towards his mother and subsequently showing himself to be racially insensitive towards Hispanics. She is shown to be racist toward Asians, as she criticises an Asian woman's driving.
- Officer Tommy Hanson
Officer Tommy Hanson (Ryan Phillipe) is a Los Angeles police officer who after observing his partner Officer John Ryan pull over Cameron Thayer and Christine Thayer and physically molest Christine requests a change of partner because of feelings of guilt over the incident. His supervisor, Lieutenant Dixon, tells him he will transfer him if he claims his "uncontrollable flatulence" requires him to drive a one man car. The next day, after he presumably files the request due to his "uncontrollable flatulence," he is reassigned to a single man patrol car. While on patrol he joins a police chase of Cameron Thayer, who was being car jacked, but fought off his carjackers and is fleeing the scene with one carjacker still in the car. After driving into a dead end Cameron, now resentful of the LAPD, confronts the police officers. Tommy jumps in front of Cameron and tries to convince him to stand down to avoid a confrontation which could possibly result in Cameron's death. He then vouches for Cameron, stating that he is a friend of his, and asks the officers to let Cameron off with a "harsh warning," which they do. Tommy is later seen driving in his car when he picks up Peter Waters, who is hitch-hiking. He then pulls over after when he assumes thatPeter is laughing at him, and tells him to get out of the car. As Peter reaches into his pocket, Tommy wrongly assumes that Peter is reaching for a hidden gun, and shoots him dead. He removes the dead Peter from the car to cover up the incident. We later see Peter, who is revealed to be the brother of Graham Waters, dead in the grass near where Tommy pulled over. Finally, we see Tommy walking away from his burning car wearing a pair of latex gloves, trying to conceal his involvement in the shooting.
- Officer John Ryan
Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) is a bigoted white police officer who physically molests Christine, a woman with African American heritage, under the pretense of searching for a weapon after pulling over her vehicle. This causes his partner, Officer Hansen, to believe his partner has racist tendencies. Meanwhile, Ryan is trying to get help for his father, who possibly suffers from prostate cancer but has been diagnosed with a bladder infection, despite the ineffectiveness of treatment. His anger manifests in prejudice, as is evident when he exhibits a racist attitude towards an HMO employee preventing his father from seeing an 'out of network,' non-HMO physician. His racial prejudices seem to stem from the destructive impact that local affirmative action policies had on his father's business. After Officer Hansen requests solo patrol, Ryan is partnered with a Hispanic-American with whom he seems to get along. Ryan later puts his own life on the line to save Christine, the woman he molested earlier, from certain death in a fiery car wreck.
- Lieutenant Dixon
Lieutenant Dixon (Keith David) is Officers Ryan and Hansen's shift Lieutenant. An African American, Dixon believes that the LAPD is a racist organization that he personally had to work extra hard in to earn a ranking position. When Hansen requests to change partners, Dixon refuses stating that doing so because of Officer Ryan's racism will reflect poorly on their unit. He claims that going on record about supervising racist officers such as Ryan can be a move that will cost both Hansen and Dixon their jobs. In order to get away from Officer Ryan, he then suggests that Officer Hansen ride in a solo car claiming to have a condition of "uncontrollable flatulence."
- Cameron Thayer
Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) is a black television director. He witnesses Officer Ryan molesting his wife and later realises that the producers of his television show propagate racist stereotypes about black people. In an emotional moment, he fights off Anthony and Peter when they try to steal his car, takes away Anthony's gun, and argues fiercely with armed white police officers. Just when it is very likely that he will be shot to death, Officer Hansen intervenes on his behalf and prevents any outbreak of violence.
- Christine Thayer
Christine Thayer (Thandie Newton) is Cameron's wife. She is molested by Officer Ryan after she and Cameron are pulled over. She becomes furious with her husband because he does not act to defend her. The two insult each other over their upbringings – as both Cameron and Christine have grown up in more privileged environments than many other African Americans. The next day she is trapped in an overturned car due to a car accident and, by a twist of fate, Officer Ryan is the man who willingly endangers himself to save her life.
- Daniel Ruiz
Daniel Ruiz (Michael Peña) is a Mexican-American locksmith who faces discrimination from Jean and others because he looks like a gangbanger to them, when he is actually a devoted family man. After Anthony and Peter steal Jean and Rick's car, Daniel comes over and changes the locks on their home. Daniel seeks a safe environment for his young daughter, Lara, who had a bullet go through her window in their previous home. That is why he moved to a safer neighborhood and enrolled her in a private school. Near the beginning he gives Lara an invisible "cloak" that he says will protect her should someone try to shoot at her. Farhad shoots at Lara and Daniel but they escape unhurt, because there were blanks in the gun. Lara believes that this is due to the protective powers of the "cloak."
- Farhad
Farhad (Shaun Toub) is a Persian store owner who is afraid for his safety. He is depicted as frustrated by the racial harassment he experiences in the United States (despite being an American citizen), as well as deterred by difficulties with speaking English. To protect his store - the only thing his family has - he goes to a gun shop and attempts to buy a gun. The gun store owner quickly becomes frustrated with Farhad's conversation with his daughter Dorri in Persian, leading to racist and terrorist remarks (since the owner believes that Persians are Arabs and therefore, "terrorists"), one of these comments being "Yo, Osama, plan the jihad on your own time." The owner refuses to sell Farhad a gun, but finally sells the gun to Farhad's daughter after being cryptic and lecherous about which bullets she needs.
The store run by Farhad and his wife Shereen (Marina Sirtis) has a door which will not close properly, so they call a locksmith, Daniel. Farhad's suspicion of others is compounded by his difficulty understanding English; he does not heed Daniel's warning that his shop door needs replacing, believing Daniel intends to cheat him, and as a result suffers a break-in. Shereen reacts to the slurs written on the walls of the store: "They think we're Arab. When did Persian become Arab?" Blaming Daniel for the invasion and racially-motivated destruction of his store, and angered by the insurance company rejecting his claim on the grounds of negligence, he confronts Daniel at his house, wielding his gun. Farhad fires at Daniel but accidentally shoots Daniel's daughter Lara, to the horror of both Daniel and Farhad. Fortunately, the gun was loaded with blanks, which were chosen by Dorri in the beginning of the film as she did not trust her father with a gun because of his constant emotional outbursts. Farhad leaves without further incident, later telling his daughter that his "fereshteh," his guardian angel, saved the little girl and himself. Little did he realize that it was his own daughter who was his guardian angel.
- Dorri
Dorri (Bahar Soomekh) is Farhad's daughter, and is more acclimated than her father to American culture. She is constantly trying to calm her father down during his emotional temper outbursts. She is also an employee at the morgue; she escorts Graham and his mother to Peter's body after it is discovered in a field.
- Jake Flanagan
Jake Flanagan (William Fichtner) is an aide to Rick who tries to talk Graham into accepting a corrupt deal. He holds a complex viewpoint that is not blatantly racist, yet he makes bigoted remarks in a conversation with Detective Waters. He argues that the black community needs to see a deceased black cop as a hero, even if he was corrupt. It appears that Flanagan is interested in the political aspects of the case as the DA's office will look better in the eyes of the black community for convicting an officer who has a troubled racial history of a crime that he is partially guilty of. When Graham refuses to play, even if offered a promotion in exchange, Flanagan subtly mentions that Graham's brother has had a warrant issued for his arrest, and that perhaps this was a mistake. Flanagan implies that if Graham will do what the District Attorney wants, the case against his brother could be buried. Graham appears to accept the deal.
- Lucien
Lucien (Dato Bakhtadze) runs a chop shop in which Anthony and Peter try to sell cars. The two thieves first try to sell him the Lincoln Navigator they stole from the Cabots, but he refuses to accept it because they ran over a Korean man and he believes the crime will be traced back to him. This suggests that the various other characters who had committed crimes could be caught, although this is never confirmed. He is later shown to have his own racist beliefs when Anthony arrives with a van (belonging to the man that he and Peter ran over) full of Asian illegal immigrants. Lucien tries to buy the immigrants as workers, claiming they can be sold for an easy profit.
[edit] Box office
Crash opened in wide release on May 6, 2005, and was a box-office success in the late spring of 2005. The film had a budget of $6.5 million (plus $1 million in financing). Because of the financial constraints, director Haggis filmed in his own house, borrowed a set from the TV show Monk, used his car in parts of the film, and even used cars from other staff members. It grossed $53.4 million domestically, making back more than seven times its budget. Despite its success in relation to its cost, Crash was the least grossing film, at the domestic box office, to win Best Picture since The Last Emperor in 1987.
[edit] Critical reception
The film received generally positive reviews with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 135 out of the 180 reviews they tallied were positive for a score of 75% and a certification of "fresh",[2] while metacritic tallied an average score of 69 out of 100 for Crash's critical consensus.[3] Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and described it as, "a movie of intense fascination"[4] listing it as the best film of 2005.
Some critics assert that Asians are portrayed in an overwhelmingly negative light with little, if any, redeeming qualities. The film has been criticized for reinforcing Asian stereotypes and lacking any manner of significant development of its Asian characters.[5] From an alternative perspective, the film has been critiqued for "laying bare the racialised fantasy of the American dream and Hollywood narrative aesthetics" and for depicting the Iranian shopkeeper as a "deranged, paranoid individual who is only redeemed by what he believes is a mystical act of God".[6]
[edit] Best Picture Oscar
Crash won the Best Picture Oscar for 2005, beating, among others, Brokeback Mountain. Some of Brokeback's supporters (including its author E. Annie Proulx) criticized the decision, referring to Crash as a "hometown movie", although other film critics dismissed these arguments. Roger Ebert asserted that Crash won the award because "Crash was better than Brokeback Mountain".[7]
Satirist Stephen Colbert predicted Crash would win Best Picture on an episode of The Colbert Report, which aired a few days before the awards broadcast.
[edit] Awards
Crash was nominated for six awards in the 78th Academy Awards (2005), and won three of them, including a win for Best Picture. It was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards: one for Best Supporting Actor (Matt Dillon) and the other for Best Screenplay (Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco).
Other awards include Best Ensemble Cast at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards; Best Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild of America Awards 2005; Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Thandie Newton) at the BAFTA Awards; Best Writer at the Critics' Choice Awards; Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role (Terrence Howard) at the Black Movie Awards; Best First Feature and Best Supporting Male (Matt Dillon) at the Independent Spirit Awards; Best Acting Ensemble and Best Writer at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards; and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Terrence Howard) and Outstanding Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards.
| Award | Category | Winner/Nominee | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 78th Academy Awards | Best Director | Paul Haggis | No |
| Best Editing | Hughes Winborne | Yes | |
| Best Picture | |||
| Best Original Song | "In the Deep" | No | |
| Best Screenplay - Original | Paul Haggis & Robert Moresco | Yes | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Matt Dillon | No | |
| 1st Austin Film Critics Association Awards | Best Director | Paul Haggis | Yes |
| Best Film | |||
| 59th BAFTA Film Awards | Best Cinematography | J. Michael Muro | No |
| Best Director | Paul Haggis | ||
| Best Editing | Hughes Winborne | ||
| Best Film | |||
| Best Sound | |||
| Best Screenplay - Original | Paul Haggis & Robert Moresco | Yes | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Don Cheadle | No | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Matt Dillon | ||
| Best Supporting Actress | Thandie Newton | Yes | |
| Black Reel Awards | Best Actor | Don Cheadle | No |
| Best Cast | Yes | ||
| Best Film | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Terrence Howard | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Matt Dillon | No | |
| Best Supporting Actress | Thandie Newton | ||
| 11th BFCA Critics' Choice Awards | Best Cast | Yes | |
| Best Director | Paul Haggis | No | |
| Best Film | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Matt Dillon | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Terrence Howard | ||
| Best Writer | Paul Haggis & Robert Moresco | Yes | |
| Casting Society of America (CSA) | Best Film Casting - Drama | Sarah Finn & Randi Hiller | Yes |
| 18th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Film | Yes | |
| Best Screenplay | Paul Haggis & Robert Moresco | ||
| Best Supporting Actor | Terrence Howard | No | |
| Cinema Audio Society (CAS) | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures | No | |
| 12th Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Matt Dillon | Yes |
| 58th Directors Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Directorial Achievement | Paul Haggis | No |
| Empire Awards | Best Actor | Matt Dillon | No |
| Best Actress | Thandie Newton | Yes | |
| Best Film | No | ||
| Scene of the Year | |||
| 63rd Golden Globe Awards | Best Screenplay | Paul Haggis & Robert Moresco | No |
| Best Supporting Actor | Matt Dillon | ||
| 17th Producers Guild of America Awards | Motion Picture Producer of the Year | Paul Haggis & Cathy Schulman | No |
| 12th Screen Actors Guild Awards | Best Cast | Yes | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Don Cheadle | No | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Matt Dillon | ||
| 6th Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Terrence Howard | Yes |
| 4th Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards | Best Cast | Yes | |
| Best Film | No | ||
| Best Screenplay - Original | Paul Haggis & Robert Moresco | Yes | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Matt Dillon | No | |
| Best Supporting Actor | Terrence Howard | ||
| 58th Writers Guild of America Awards | Best Screenplay - Original | Paul Haggis & Robert Moresco | Yes |
[edit] DVD
Crash was released on DVD on September 6, 2005 as widescreen and fullscreen one-disc versions, with a handful of bonus features that includes a music video by KansasCali for the song "If I..." off of the "Inspired By Soundtrack to Crash". The director's cut of the film was released in a 2 disc special edition DVD on April 4, 2006, with more bonus content than the one-disc set which includes the music video for Bird York and her Academy nominated song "In The Deep". The director's cut is 2 minutes longer than the theatrical version. The differences are the scene where Daniel is talking with his daughter under her bed is extended, and there is a new scene added with Officer Hanson in the police station locker room. The film also was released in a limited-edition VHS version, as films in the VHS videotape format were all but being phased out by this time, thus restricting future film releases for home video release only in the DVD format starting in 2006. It was also the last Oscar winner for Best Picture to be released in the VHS tape format.
[edit] See also
- Hyperlink cinema - the film style of using multiple inter-connected story lines.
[edit] References
- ^ Crash DVD Commentary Track. 2005.
- ^ rottentomatoes.com, Crash, accessed January 8, 2007
- ^ metacritic.com, Crash, accessed March 10, 2008
- ^ rogerebert.com, Crash review, accessed January 8, 2007
- ^ “Crash” ultimately upholds stereotypes about Asian-Americans at We’ve moved to www.racialicious.com - update your bookmarks!
- ^ darkmatter » Crash and the City
- ^ :: rogerebert.com :: Oscars :: The fury of the 'Crash'-lash (xhtml)
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Crash at the Internet Movie Database
- Crash at Allmovie
- Crash at Box Office Mojo
- Crash at Rotten Tomatoes
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Million Dollar Baby |
Academy Award for Best Picture 2005 |
Succeeded by The Departed |
|
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