Paper on the Movie “Crash” Essay

The movie crash is a combination of many different things including labeling theory. Crash is not just a movie about car crashes, but also of cultures and values. There are several intertwined lives and personal relationships with a common point of prejudice involving ethnic issues. The narrative is circular, as the film’s message about racial discrimination develops as a snowball, the director Paul Haggis shows us how prejudice is the most central issue. The political crime that is shown on the film gives the audience an understanding of how betrayed a civilian can be by the law enforcers. Racist ideologies are perpetuated through discourse, actions and even of misunderstanding. It is possible to understand the interconnected nature of each core characters and how a certain attitude interferes with a subsequent event among others. The racial profiling is also seen extremely harshly. Being in the 21st century these things are overlooked, but there are still many people who classify people because of their race and what they look like. The characters in Crash are shown in their humanity attitudes sometimes negligible, sometimes admirable. The film is far from a Manichaeism to address the issue that no human being is totally good or totally bad by nature. The cop played by Matt Dillon takes contrasting positions – its portrayed both in times of abuse of his position of authority, to take advantage of Christine (Thandie Newton), as in heroics, saving the same girl in a traffic accident. People who condemn the prejudice facing black people can be absolutely phobic about the Arabs or Latinos. Behaviors are variable according to the circumstances and, therefore, can not judge a person independent of them. The different ethnicities also portray minority groups which are barely hanging on by a thread in society, we see this mainly in the Arab family. People with certain ethical values succumb before a higher offer, a personal benefit exactly like status inconsistency. Detective Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) is adamant in his ideals, but when given the opportunity to save his brother delinquent, he gives up his own principles and â€Å"sells itself† in favor of a family gain. That was a perfect example of people’s status changing consistently. Crash deals with ethnic prejudice analyzing multiple variables and deepening both motivations as consequences. The discrimination against any racial group, is present deep within every character in the movie. The nurse Shaniqua Johnson, black, shows anger on receiving the trespasses officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), but on another occasion directs all his hatred of a particular group of immigrants. Even those who at first appears to be incorruptible, as Officer Hansen (Ryan Phillippe), being disgusted by the racist behavior explicit companion Ryan, in the end, ends up having a prejudice outlook. His values may not have changed but his vision of morality changes because of the people he has been surrounded with. Rationally, condemns discrimination of fellow, but when the situation is outside the limits of rationality and asks for a quick response, intuitive, Hansen suspects the black who gives a ride and, a movement that seems suspicious, you know that is under threat and shoots. Even those who fight and seems strongly supported by human values, can not escape an ingrained prejudice, supported by education in a racist society. How could it be, Crash also addresses the role of the media through the character of Cameron (Terrence Howard), director of television. Cameron is forced to redo a scene where a black actor spoke without slang characteristics and therefore fled to their stereotype. By repeating the scene, also repeated a pattern of behavior expected for a black. Cameron, who holds a certain power to work in a vehicle of communication is cut off the possibility of spreading a change in society or at least not condoning what he considers to be wrong. Even when a black occupies a prominent position and has the possibility to intervene, larger forces interfere with his freedom of action and he finds himself with his hands tied. Overall it was a great film to watch. I was completely surprised by how explicit it was and how it showed even in the first 8 minutes of the movie how race and ethnicity sort of control everything. People who don’t want to discriminate are in fact prejudice and surprised by the fact that they are. The characters in the movie change and evolve, which was good to see because it means that with time less and less people can be discriminating, it just all depends on how they are raised and their beliefs; nature vs nurture debate has all of this taken into consideration.