CRASH

Started by Finn, April 20, 2005, 05:02:29 PM

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Ravi

Quote from: GamblourIt IS horribly horribly stereotyped and that is what the fuck is wrong with this movie: you can't seriously address issues of race if you're dealing with overwritten stereotypes. People aren't racist so overtly, that's where racism is fucking scary is when it's covert and suggested, not in your fucking face like Matt Dillon or the car accident at the beginning. Hinting at inferiority is today's racism.

That's what I was thinking when I saw the movie yesterday.  People these days aren't all "lynch them niggers" and such.  The racism is there, but its passive-aggressive and hidden behind other things.  The LAPD has been notoriously racist so I had no problem there, but the way Matt Dillon is racist was not believable.  The opening car accident scene played out like some high schooler's play on racism.

Everyone in this film was some sort of stereotype, except the locksmith.  You got the racist white gun-shop owner.  The two black thugs.  The Cheadle's character has a crack-addict mother and his brother is one of the thugs.  The stuffy white Bullock character.  The racist cop.  The Asians who deal in human trafficking.  If a character here is not a stereotype or archetype, they're underdeveloped.  For a film that purports to be about racism, it does an awful job of portraying the characters as real people.

The events and dialogue were just.  A few moments shined, such as Dillon pulling over Howard and Newton, and Dillon's frustration at the HMO, but for the most part this has to be the most written-feeling film I've seen this year.  I'd say this film is worse than the sequels and remakes that HW churns out since it pretends to be intelligent and really isn't.  At least The Dukes of Hazzard has no such pretensions.

analogzombie

Quote from: GhostboyToday's undercover racism, and segregation, has just been widely exposed in the New Orleans situation.


I think you're confusing socio-economic factors related to historically unbalanced cultural norms with rascism. It's more about poverty than it is about rascism. Race is the smoke screen that keeps us from looking into the real issues (personal and social) that allow situations like New Orleans to happen.

At any rate, Crash strikes me as the moron's 'moving ensemble emssage film'. Much like Million Dollar Baby was. Both are overwrought and as blunt as a ballpeen hammer, completely lacking any nuance in the thinly drawn characters. Besides that, it has Brenden Frasier, Sandra Bullock, and Ludacris in it. I mean c'mon. 2 of the worst actors who are somehow popular today, and the prerequisite urban character as played by a rapper. The best thing about the movie is Don Cheadle and it seems obvious to me that he was cast to give the film some credibility.

This is a big stupid movie attempting to come off as an emotional character piece that attacks our preconceived notions of America. For people who don't know any better, it works.
"I have love to give, I just don't know where to put it."

Ghostboy

Quote from: analogzombie
Quote from: GhostboyToday's undercover racism, and segregation, has just been widely exposed in the New Orleans situation.


I think you're confusing socio-economic factors related to historically unbalanced cultural norms with rascism. It's more about poverty than it is about rascism.  

You're correct; I was thinking as well, though, of the news footage that showed black people looting while white people waited patiently on their roofs. A result of socio-economic factors, yes, but coun'dt that also arguably be a latent expression of racism?

pete

well, that's only if you truly believe that none of this is related--racism, classism, socio-economic discrimination...etc.  do all those black people just happen to be poor by coincidence?  the real estate prices in middle class neighborhoods in black and white long island just HAPPEN to be drastically different despite the fact that they're in the same socio-economic bracket?  in a capitalist country, of course racism is going to result in socio-economic issues.  the middle class white folks of today don't have to do much to reinforce racism, just by not being empathetic enough, you'll be propelling the current infrastructure of race and class in a capitalist America.  I mean, the New Orleans thing right, nobody in the middle class understood that to evacuate people in them po' black neighborhoods is gonna take more than shouting "the storm is coming so leave!" I mean we probably all thought the city had some kinda systematic evcuation process with buses and firemen or something, who knew it was just some guy saying some word.  and that's everyone in America's fault together, including me, an Asian male living in da ghetto of Boston who is not even a citizen.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Ravi

Quote from: rudiecorexxxthere's one shot in CRASH that lasts for only 3 seconds (maybe) that the editor should have taken out.  if they did take this shot out then CRASH would have been a much much better movie (imo).  can anyone guess which shot i'm talking about?  (probably not)

SPOILER








The shot of the red box of blanks?

analogzombie

Quote from: Ghostboy
Quote from: analogzombie
Quote from: GhostboyToday's undercover racism, and segregation, has just been widely exposed in the New Orleans situation.


I think you're confusing socio-economic factors related to historically unbalanced cultural norms with rascism. It's more about poverty than it is about rascism.  

You're correct; I was thinking as well, though, of the news footage that showed black people looting while white people waited patiently on their roofs. A result of socio-economic factors, yes, but coun'dt that also arguably be a latent expression of racism?

you're right. it could be, but only if we assume that both black and white were looting for the same items i.e. not just food but material goods.

I saw that footage and thought "man looks like only the black people got stuck in town". And considering that the city of New Orleans has an extremely large population of black people that live below the pverty line, it's not surprising that we saw a disproportionate amount of black people to white on tv. Now to discuss why most of the poor people are black and not white is another discussion entirely. But I think you make a point that is common in America, and is made by Crash. namely that if you see any negartive images of black people in the media, it's almost automatically considered rascist. We all know that looting is something that is usually conducted by the extremely poor. We also know that the population of New Orleans is somehting like 65% black, with more than half of that number living in poverty and therefor unable to evacuate. So it's then no surprise to see black people looting. The few shots of white I did see were not looting, you are correct. But I also saw many scenes of black people not looting either. I think in this case it's more a symptom of the reality of the demographics and income level of the city than it is overt media rasicism.

However, I definitely do not rule out the possiblity of media bias. We all know that it exists, but even if that is the case, would you argue that the scenes of black people looting shoe stores and gun shops were staged? I'm not so naive to think that no white people were involved in the looting, but just because we only see certain images doesn't mean they aren't still accurate. And this is the major fault I find with the race-bating culture of this country, and films like Crash. They really don't attempt to tackle or even pose questions, about the real issues surrounding race in this country. Instead they seem content to continue to rely on racial witch hunts and the emphasizing of stereotypes to divide our society on the color line.

When automatically default to the issue of race whenever there is a problem in America, we often completely miss the bigger picture and real issues that led to that problem in the first place.
"I have love to give, I just don't know where to put it."

pete

but did you ever stop to think about why in a country with only 12% black, about 70% of them are in the inner cities?  did you ever learn about the "white flight" of America in the 50's and 60's?  that's not that long ago, that's our parents' generation ago.
"social economic" and racial discrimination is not just the KKK's burning crosses or "The Man" keeping everyone down with the media sensationalizing a certain race...it's mainly ignorance from the status quo--the middle class whites looking only for themselves, not realizing that there are people out there who have been oppressed and have never really been "freed" in a true capitalistic systematic American sense--so now that they're declared "free" they're still living in the same area getting the same crap from the same people.  it's not just about images of looters and stuff, it goes much further than that.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

That doesn't make this movie good simply because it addresses racism in a way that we don't think about.  I applaud the effort to reveal the undercurrent of an almost transparent, but very existent level of racism.  But there's a lot more to a movie than a premise, and Crash didn't really excel at anything more than that.  The dialogue was poor, the directing was so-so, the editing was all right... If we're debating the idea behind it, it wasn't so bad.  If we're debating the film, I don't see how it was very well done.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

modage

Quote from: Walrus StarIf we're debating the idea behind it, it wasn't so bad.  If we're debating the film, I don't see how it was very well done.
*cough BROWN BUNNY! *cough
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

*cough Star Wars Episode III cough*
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

modage

it was okay.  SPOILER the movie kicked in a bit during the scene where thandie newton is pulled out of the car crash by matt dillon. END SPOILER it was preposterous and yet i was being 'moved' against my will.  the whole movie was a bit like that.  WAY too focused on ONLY racism, you dont get to know any of the characters that much.  and taking GIANT leaps of faith/logic in order to make things happen to these characters seemed lazy.  also, all the actors but don cheadle seemed like they were playing out of their league (atleast in the beginning).  i didnt love it, i didn't hate it.  it was whatever.  C
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

w/o horse

I was just randomly reading the comment on Harry's 1st week of September DVD picks over at AICN news and I thought this one was funny:

QuoteIs Crash worth watching
by Jeeks September 6th, 2005
11:42:51 PM CST
I heard it was like Final Destination but with racism instead of death chasing you.
Raven haired Linda and her school mate Linnea are studying after school, when their desires take over and they kiss and strip off their clothes. They take turns fingering and licking one another's trimmed pussies on the desks, then fuck each other to intense orgasms with colorful vibrators.

pete

wow, that's so accurate.  and I haven't even seen final destination.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

Quote from: peteI haven't even seen final destination.

Lucky bastard.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

Kal

I just saw it on DVD... and its once again one of those movies that I was expecting to love and they are nothing special.

What is so great about it? What made it so special that everyone loved it and its supposed to be one of the few exceptions of the year and one of the most succesful films of the year (box office)? I dont get it.

It was ok... but damn even Transporter 2 had better editing and directing