Crash

This film, and the critics reviews I've since read leave me feeling slightly at crossed purposes. On the one hand the issues traversed in the film are engaging and relevant (though in some instances a bit extreme) to problems associated with race in America today, on the other from a movie goers point of view I was thoroughly disinterested in the structure and realism in the film.

Crash utilises humour to convey the racial tensions and prejudices present but this in turn makes the viewer uncomfortable because they become aware that their acknowledgement of the jokes may be down to similar prejudices within them. A similar thing occurs when dealing with the problem of the white TV producer who feels that his black actor doesn't sound 'black enough', this speaks to how a (probably) majority white audience needs to perceive black characters on television. This again would make the audience aware that they are probably guilty of similar preconceptions.

The sequences that make up the movie feel very forced. The storytelling style of having lots of intermingling characters lives crossing paths is one that has become more popular in recent years but in Crash feels incredibly fabricated. It doesn't allow the film to flow and tell the stories but stunts them which draws attention to the message or lessons associated with each 'crash' and then you, as a viewer, begin to feel like your being preached to. It also 'shows' you too much of the story, telling obvious things that the audience have already worked out and therefore end up having a negative impact to the significance of the message.

True to the topic being discussed it seems the people who made Crash have been very careful to finely balance the race ratio's of perpetrators to victims so that no discrimination can be discerned. The film also deals with other urban issues in America such as poverty, drug abuse and gun crime as well though these all take a back seat to racism.

Overall I didn't enjoy the film as entertainment but felt it was a good representation of how the American public perceive race issues in their country, as well as maybe how it is in reality. But being a white English man who's never travelled to America I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment.