The story of the movie Crash started when two black men were walking along the streets of a white people-dominated area. One of them (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) was complaining about the white waitress who was not able to serve them with coffee. He believed that the waitress intentionally did that because they were black and that it was established that black people do not give tips. They see Sandra Bullock, with his Los Angeles district attorney husband (Brendan Fraser), who obviously made a gesture that offended the two black men. The two decided to carjack the couple’s Navigator.
The carjacking was reported to the LAPD so a racist cop (Matt Dillon), with his newbie partner (Ryan Phillippe), saw a Navigator being driven by a black TV director (Terrence Howard). Dillon still went on with “arresting” the couple, even sexually harassing the wife (Thandie Newton) in front of Howard.
Meanwhile, Bullock got paranoid with what happened to them so when a Hispanic locksmith (Michael Pena) came to fix their door locks; she discriminated him and has mistaken him for a black. Pena had another costumer, this time a Persian man with a daughter who works for the government.
The Persian, who was discriminated to be a terrorist by an American in an ammunition shop earlier in the movie, owned a store which was robbed after Pena tried to warn him that it should be the door that he needs fixing and not the lock. The Persian blamed the locksmith and thought that he was the one who did the robbing. The Persian hunted for the locksmith and tried to kill him with his gun. As soon as the trigger was pulled, Pena’s little daughter came to catch the bullet meant for her father. Surprisingly, not even a scratch was visible in the girl’s body. The girl was alive.
The story ended with every character realizing their differences and dealing with them rationally.
Each character from the movie had their reasons for their prejudices but somehow, those prejudices that they have did not stay for long within them. One good example was a scene where Newton was trapped in her car which turned up-side-down during a traffic accident and Dillon arrived just in time to rescue her. Just when the car was about to explode and other cops have already pulled Dillon out of the car, he still went back to save the black lady whom he harassed and discriminated earlier.
Crash is totally a sad movie. The actors have been very effective in portraying their respective roles. In entirety, the movie was touching and every scene sank to the deepest part of my heart. There is no doubt at all, it deserved its 2006 Oscar Awards Best Picture and Best Screenplay.
Its musical scoring, specifically its official soundtrack, In the Deep by Mark Isham, added to the already heavy emotions within the film. As a matter of fact, just by listening to this song alone makes me feel the sadness I felt while watching the movie.
Watching this movie made me realize that no matter how much we hate other people, there will still come a point wherein you would be thankful that you’ve met each other. Somehow, there will always be this connection that will link the both of you, may it be in a good or bad situation; everything happens for a reason—that’s what we call destiny.
Generally, the movie spoke of racial differences, the reasons behind these differences, the arguments and reasons within these. Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco were able to capture and show the right emotions from the right person during every scene. They have carefully given a life for every character no matter how little and short his/her parts and lines were.
Somehow, Crash could be some kind of a tool for people to be enlightened about the issues of racial prejudices that we have in the world. If all mankind would be able to watch this movie then it might just change the way one looks at the other, like a white to a black, and learn to accept each one’s differences so we would be able to live in harmony and peace.