crash

First Draft...

“You think you know who you are. You have no idea”[1]. How and why are different social issues 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"[1].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 life’s that are brought together by shootings, car accidents and carjacking which all take place within society.

The film depicts many realistic social issues such as racism, stereotyping, different characters having prejudices on selected characters throughout the film, the negative portrayal of women and lastly class divisions such as the rich and the poor. "Social divisions tend to divide people into "better" and "worse" categories. Therefore social divisions result in social inequalities"[2]. 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 Haggis effectively uses a number of different characters and diverse genre devices to represent a certain issue that is taking place in society to engage and appeal to an art house and mainstream audience. The main reason to why these social issues 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 occurred since the pre 1900 period, which is evident by analysing the social realism presented in Los Angeles.

“A haunting, perceptive and uncompromising examination of controversial subject matter, expertly written and directed by Paul Haggis and characterised by excellent performances from its starry cast”[3]. In the film Crash many characters have been carefully written to represent a specific social issue that takes place within society in America. This is made evident in the film as different characters are placed in the narrative to have certain prejudices on certain characters. For example in one specific scene in the film the audience sees the white upper class of Sandra Bullock whose racial prejudices escalate after her carjacking. In the scene Paul Haggis carefully constructed her character to assume that two black youths are going to do something to her and has an initial fear towards them. Therefore this immediately brings out the prejudice in her character and creates a social issue straight away as the fear towards a black character has created a social barrier and a social division. The reason to why the social issue of prejudice might have been placed in the this specific scene could be due to the fact that Paul Higgis wanted to make the audience aware that such issues do still exist in society nowadays. “Crash” pulls the audience in and makes us examine how we view all walks of life.”[4] Therefore this engages the audience as they have noticed that many characters in the film are vividly prejudiced forcing them to challenge their own assumptions on different races in society.

“Prejudice is, as the name implies, the process of "pre-judging" something.”[5] Another main character in the film that is pre judged in a certain way is the locksmith “Daniel” who faces a lot of discrimination from upper class characters. For example the depicted character of Sandra Bullock again reinforces her prejudice towards him as she thinks he is a menace to society. This is further emphasised by the way in which the locksmith is being represented to the audience. For example he has a shaved head, wears baggy jeans, and has a majority of tattoos placed around his body. However in reality the locksmith is a family man who has a lot of love and affection for his daughter. Therefore the social issue of discrimination and prejudice is represented in the film Crash by the way in which Paul Haggis depicts different representations on characters to send a message out to the audience that you should not judge people on the way they look. Furthermore this engages the audience by the fact that innocent characters in the film are being judged for no reason suggesting that society in a way is issue driven.

The use of prejudice in Crash also links to certain social issues of racism that are portrayed in the film. “Racism is the stigmatizing of difference in order to justify advantage or the abuse of power, weather that advantage or abuse be economic, political, cultural or psychological.”[6] For example in the film this is made evident by placing a Persian family to own a store in LA. The Persian family is afraid for their own safety as the father of the family (Farhad) is very frustrated by the racial harassment he experiences in the United States. He also has difficulty in speaking and understanding English which could be another reason to why characters are racist towards him in the film. In one scene his door needs to be replaced but Farhad does not listen to the locksmith as he believes he is being cheated. Ironically later on in the film the shop does eventually encounter a break in and he blames the locksmith for this racial destruction. Farhad takes revenge and shoots the locksmiths daughter with a gun that has blank bullets. Therefore the issue of racism is represented in the film Crash by placing an ethnic family to be racially abused in American society as they are from a different cultural background. The reason to why the social issue of racism might have been placed in the film could have been to bring out the inner racial conflicts that certain charters are portrayed to have in the film.

Furthermore throughout the movie the audience see “Rick” a white upper class district attorney to tackle the issue of racism and prejudice in a very different way compared to his wife (Sandra Bullock). He is represented to be a very calm and considerate character and does not tend to be abruptly racist like his wife. “The term racism is usually applied to the dominant group in a society, because it is that group which has the means to oppress others”.[7]This links to the fact that his position in society in the film is very high and he does have dominance and control over other lower class characters. Therefore this could lead to many values and ideologies that are being raised in the text such as there should be an end to racism as Paul haggis has carefully considered the character of Rick to have a positive effect to the issue of racism. However the way in which Rick is portrayed to cope with the issue of racism can also be seen from a different perspective. This is because he might not want the position of his character in society to be ruined because if he was an extreme racist like many of the other characters in the text, this will hurt him politically. Hence this can also suggest the idea that racism is a never ending issue and will always be in society as people can be racist on the inside and deceitful on the outside. Therefore the issue of racism is represented in the film crash by the way in which Paul Haggis thoughtfully uses certain characters to convey different meanings of racism to send a message out to the audience that racism is an unavoidable issue, adding a sense of realism.

In the film, the issue of racism is represented to the audience by the way in which Paul Haggis uses negative stereotypes on certain races to reinforce the idea of two separate classes in society. “Asian and Afro-Caribbean characters, after many generations’ residence, begun to be imaged differently. Other ethnic groups nevertheless are often represented in very thin or negative terms”[8]. This is evident in the film as many black characters such as Anthony are stereotyped in a very negative way as black characters are portrayed to be criminals to society by most white or upper class characters that have certain hatred or fear towards them e.g. Jean and the police officer Ryan. Also many depicted Asian characters in the film are also portrayed to be stereotyped in a negative way. For example towards the end of the film the audience see Anthony rescuing Asian immigrants who are poor and don’t have a high job role in society. “Stereotypes can take something that is an effect of a groups’ situation and encourage audiences to feel it is the cause of that groups’ low status”[9]. This is made evident in the film as the majority of black and Asian characters do not have a high class job in society whilst the white characters in the film are portrayed to be rich, dominating and powerful. Therefore the issue of racism is represented in the film Crash by having the negative stereotypical view on black and Asian characters, to send a message out to the audience that society nowadays is still issue driven and is divided into different classes e.g. “the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless all defined in one way or another by racism”[10].

Thus the idea of a divided society and stereotyping on black youngsters are also key issues used in other contemporary texts such as “Bullet Boy”[11] (2004) and “Kidulthood”[12] (2006). In these two British art house films mentioned many characters and certain settings portrayed in the films link to the fact that social issues do still exist in society. For example in the film “Bullet Boy”, directed by “Saul Dibb” we as the audience see the negative representation on black males and the use of violence and crime taking place in society between different gangs which is also similar in the film “Kidhulthood”, directed by “Menhaj Hudha”. The use of a realistic mise en scene used in both films adds to the generic device of gritty realism which reinforces the idea that social issues are evident and are still contemporary in society as both films create a realistic atmosphere like LA. “The film contains several scenes of gun-related violence[13]”. The social issue of violence inflicted upon by black characters in Bullet Boy can link to the portrayed character of Anthony in Crash. For example in Bullet Boy we see many characters holding a gun to reinforce the role of violence and crime and in the film crash the audience sees the character of Anthony, an inner city car thief who is also involved in crime. Therefore by the use of contemporary British art house texts it can be suggested that the issue of stereotyping on black youngsters is inflicted by the use of crime and violence that is committed in society. This can also send a message out to the audience that violence and crime is a diverse issue as it takes place all over the world.

One of the most important films to be made in the 1960s which depicts social issues of racism, class divisions and prejudice is “To Kill a Mockingbird”[14] directed by Robert Mulligan. Many aspects of the film are very similar to Crash which sends a message out to the audience that social issue such as racism and prejudice still does remain in society today and not much change has occurred since the 1960s by using this key historical text as an example. For example in the film we see the main character of Atticus Finch defending a black person against an undeserved rape charge and also shows the way in which he protects his children against prejudice in a dominating white society. In once main scene in the film the audience sees Atticus at a court case giving out a speech which summaries the whole issue of a black and white divided society. “Now what did she do? She tempted a Negro. She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable. She kissed a black man.”[15] Therefore the social issue of racism and class conflict is represented in the film To Kill a Mockingbird by the way in which the director makes the scene very dramatic and suspenseful to emphasise the importance of a divided society between two different races in the film. The reason to why the social issue of racism and prejudice was made evident in the film could be due to the fact that the director wanted to make a 1960s audience aware and educate them on the fact that such issues are occurring in the society of Alabama and there were political differences between the white and the black. By the fact that realistic films such as Crash, made in the 21st century expose racism and other social issues suggests that not much change has occurred since the 1960s and issues such as prejudice and class differences will always remain in society.

Another social issue raised in the film Crash is that women have portrayed to be inferior to men and do have less dominance and control in society. “How women are represented in the media may encourage particular expectations of women”.[16]For example in one main scene in the film the audience see a black women getting sexually molested by a white racist police officer. This immediately raises the issue of prejudice against women in society. This is further reinforced by the way in which Paul Haggis uses a variety of extreme close up shots of her legs which are fetishised whilst the camera is panning up and down with the police officers hands still on her legs, enabling the black female to have less power and control in the situation. “Mulvey distinguishes between two modes of looking for the film spectator: voyeuristic and fetishistic”.[17] Hence this specific scene links to the theory of Laura Mulvey because the main voyeur in the audience would primarily be a male and therefore the female that is being represented on the screen has the total quality to-be-looked-at-ness, making her feeble and inferior. This situation in the film does conform to Laura Mulvey’s theory of the controlling gaze to an extent as the film does present the female to be a “spectacle”[18] and the male to be “bearer of the look”[19], although the female is not specifically a knowing object of the gaze, because she did not choose to be in this situation. Therefore the social issue of women being inferior to men is represented in the film Crash by using a black female character to be passive, whilst the white male character is the active male. The main reason to why this specific social issue of women is represented in the film Crash could be to portray the function of the black female character, as it might have been chosen to bring out the prejudice in the white male. Another reason could be to represent the fact that women are still portrayed to be weaker than males hence the reason we still live in a patriarchal society.

However the social issue of prejudice and other social issues in the film can be represented to send out an encouraging message to the audience that racism should stop. This is created by the use of different role reversals between different characters as they turn from evil characters to good characters linking to the theory of “binary opposition”[20] by Levi-Strauss. For example in the film we see the character of Ryan (a white racist police officer) rescuing a black women which of whom he sexually molested before from a burning car. Many close up shots are used in this scene to emphasise facial expressions and also to create a dramatic effect to feel what the main lady protagonist is going through. The music is very calm yet also very dramatic at the same time. This theme fits in well with the whole scene as the situation is very intense as the two protagonists featured in the scene, have previously encountered a negative situation together in which the women gets sexually abused. The edits in this scene are very fast and creative to catch and engage the audiences’ attention. Therefore the social issue of racism, prejudice and women is represented in this specific scene by the use binary opposition taking place and different camera techniques, as depicted evil characters before in the narrative have turned into good characters. The reason for placing this scene in the film could be to send a message out to the audience that racism should stop as portrayed characters are changing their roles in the film.

Furthermore this can also link to the theory of Propp as many different character roles are existent in the film and do seem to change on a regular basis. “Propp argues that narrative functions are spread between the main characters”[21]. This is evident in the film as the white racist police officer could have been portrayed as the villain before in the narrative, however as he does rescue a black women from a burning car he can be suggested to be the Hero. Another key character in the text is the Persian shop owner who could have been portrayed to be the hero earlier on in the narrative, however as he does attempt to shoot an innocent girl he can be the “false hero”.[22] Therefore by applying the theory of Propp to the film Crash this does send a message out to the audience that there is no point in being a racist as many characters roles in the film change on the way they view society.

In conclusion, there are a variety of different social issues that are represented in the film Crash that are represented to the audience in a number of different ways. The main way in which a social issue is represented in the film is by constructing each character to represent a certain issue that is taking place within the society of LA. The main issues that take place during the film are racism, prejudice, class divisions, the representation of women and lastly the idea of a divided society between the rich and the poor. The main reason to why these social issues might have been placed in the film is to suggest the idea that such issues to still take place within society and not much change has occurred since that 1900 historical period, which is evident from looking at different historical texts. Therefore such issues can be represented to be contemporary ones and will remain ongoing for a number of years as it does take a while for social issues to stay in society, in Hollywood. The film does not offer any real solution to racism because towards the end of the film another crash occurs which can send a message out to the audience that racism and social issues are inescapable and are part of every day life.

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