Crash- A Collision of Stereotypes

White. Armed. Persian. Lonely. Black. Corrupt. Asian. Rich. Latino. These and many more facets of the characters in the film Crash come out in extremely interesting ways throughout the film. Although the color of someone’s skin is seen immediately, their true self is only glimpsed throughout the film. From the beginning to the end of the movie, the audience is learning just some of the reasons why each character acts as they do. A hardworking father does his best to protect his little girl, but in daily life, he is only seen as a Latino ‘gang banger.’ The tough as nails cop cares for his drug addicted mother although she criticizes him every chance she gets. The hardworking family loses their store because of a linguistic and cultural misunderstanding. The ability of director/writer/producer Paul Haggis and his staff to draw the viewer into each individual character is so powerful that it is easy to forget that one is sitting in front of screen watching a film.

Sound interesting? Get caught even move in this trailer.



Crash has the ability to continue its theatrical power into discussions on how we all deal with stereotypes. Acting on our stereotypes is not always bad, as the film shows with the character of Jean being afraid of two black men and ignoring her fear. However, more often than not, our stereotypes are not nearly as complex as the real life version. This can especially be seen in Don Cheadle's portrayal of the character Graham. The woman he happens to be sleeping with still has no clue about his life until it is forced upon her.

When leaving a viewing of the film, it is difficult not to talk about what you saw and heard. An easy first reaction could be a feeling of wanting more of each characters story, but the movie would be much too long, and also would not leave enough to the imagination. Room for thought, but including crucial details is this movie’s strength. After viewing, think back to the showing of the bullet boxes. Look closely at the framing of each shot. If you do, you’ll want to watch the movie again and again just to catch one more example of the genius of the film.

I would honestly recommend this film to any of my friends and family, and hope to show it to my often racially stereotypical grandfather. For this reason, I give the film 5 hearty grins for its thought provoking relevance to all.