Crash
Originally Written: May 2005
Screenwriter Paul Haggis has caught the P.T. Anderson/Robert Altman itch for epic character studies with this drama about racism set in Los Angeles. One doesn’t wonder why the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of “Million Dollar Baby”- making his directorial debut- was interested in telling a realistic and intelligent story of racial intolerance in the modern day United States and how- in the end- people are able to put that hatred away when basic humanity is the only alternative when situations are dire- it’s tragically as dramatically rich and necessary a subject as ever. One does wonder however why Haggis and co-writer Bobby Moresco felt it necessary to tell this story in a way that resembles the more ambitious and sprawling likes of P.T. Anderson’s “Magnolia” and Altman’s “Nashville” than the more intimate and engaging approach Haggis was able to take with “Baby.” Actually, scratch that, I know why he had to go that route- because that was the only way available to him in order to look at all kinds of racism, and the sometimes unusual and ironic ways humanity comes through in the end.
Unfortunately, the results are more “Magnolia”- which had its’ moments, but juggled too much in my opinion- than “Nashville”- which is classic Altman. Part of that probably comes from the overly simplistic way Haggis shows both racist attitudes and the compassion that is the only alternative to try and spread tolerance towards other people. “Crash” becomes more thoughtful and nuanced towards the end, when lives come together or are brought back together in surprising and disturbing ways, but by then, the film’s script has dug itself into a whole by showing a number of instances when many of the main characters have let their simple-minded bigotry rear it’s ugly head in a number of different ways. Granted, this isn’t the blatent don’t-know-any-better racism that continues to mar Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation,” if only because you know Haggis is making a point instead of just revelling in stereotypes like Griffith did, but the film’s depiction of intolerance with blinders on early sets the tone of the film quickly, a tone which even the most humane act by these characters (and there are many that are palpable and affecting) gets undercut by because we know the other shoe will drop somewhere down the line. Haggis’ point seems to be clear- “Can’t we all just get along? In the end…no, we can’t.” Of course, it’s a truthful point, and even when tolerance in the film is border-line sappy, it’s a point that needs to be made, because we need to see how little progress we’ve made to see how far we need to go. And “Crash” makes the important point that, we’ve still got a long way to go.
From Brian’s “Summer Movies 2005: May” email
In my full-length review of co-writer/director Paul Haggis’ morality tale about bigotry and racism in the modern day United States, it wasn’t my intention to ignore the large cast completely- it just turned out that way in discussing Haggis’ largely one-note and simplified drama. The cast- especially Ryan Phillippe as a cop with a lot to still learn; Matt Dillon as Phillippe’s prejudice partner; Michael Pena as a Mexican locksmith who encounters the worst in people, which only brings out the best in him to his young daughter; Don Cheadle as an Internal Affairs investigator estranged from his struggling mother and brother; and Sandra Bullock, surprisingly unleashing bigotted comments with fire and vulnerable feeling behind them- helps make the conflicted feelings of these characters palpable and feel like there’s more depth than there seems to be on the surface, and they should be commended for their standout work (other standouts include Thandie Newton, Terrence Howard, Larenz Tate, Brendan Fraser, and William Fichtner). But despite glimpses of optimism that maybe we as a people can change our hateful ways, Haggis undercuts that message with a final shot that suggests that maybe we’ll never change after all. Not the most upbeat message, but then again, this is from the writer of “Million Dollar Baby,” which wasn’t exactly a happy-go-lucky story either. Like “Baby,” though, “Crash” is honest, and from the movies, that’s not something we get terribly often.
