My first paragraph

"You think you know who you are. You have no idea".[1] How and why have a number of different social issues been represented in the film Crash?

"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something".[2] The film Crash depicts the lives of several different characters living in Los Angeles during a 36 hour time period. The majority of characters that are portrayed in the film have many connections in their lifes that are brought together by shootings, car accidents and carjackings which all take place within society.

The film depicts many realistic social issues such as racism, stereotyping, different characters having prejudices on selected charcaters throughout the film, the negative portrayal of women and lastly class divisons such as the rich and the poor. "Social divisions tend to divide people into "better" and "worse" catergories. Therefore social divisions result in social inequalities".[3] These social inequalities are evident in the film as most of the characters are racially prejudiced in some way, involving them in conflicts that force them to examine their own prejudices. Social issues are portrayed in the film Crash by the way in which Paul Higgis effectivly uses a number of different camera techniques and different genre devices to engage and appeal to an art house audience. The main reason to why these social isues are represented could be primarily due to the fact that contemporary issues such as the above are still dominant in society nowadays and not much change has occured since the pre 1900 period, which is evident by analysing the social realism presented in Los Angeles.

[1]- Crash(2004)

[2]- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375679/

[3]- Social Divisions -Geoff Payne-(2000)