Crash

Crash is a deep film with many different and difficult issues involved.  From the racial altercations in the beginning that followed a car accident to the car accident at the end, this film does a good job of keeping the viewers attention and making them focus on some complex problems in today’s society.  In this blog I will explain why I believe this movie is not a social problem film, how this movie affected me and how I believe it affects society as a whole, and finally close on my take on the fact that film can reflect on social and cultural values.

Our book defines a social problem film as difficult to evaluate, for their aging can occur very rapidly.  It goes on to say that these types of movies can become dated and irrelevant within society over the course of just a few years.  Racism has been a problem in the world for thousands of years, and unfortunately will more than likely continue to be.  As technology grows if gives people the ability to spread their hatred and attempt to pull more people on to their “racial bandwagon”.  For whatever reason people experience these feelings of hate towards someone else due to their ethnicity can span from a million different things.  I guess what I am trying to say is that this movie cannot become dated, because this issue as much as we want to believe is not around anymore is still prevalent worldwide.

Crash definitely reached out to me and made me think long and hard about the topics I previously discussed.  It really tries to hit hard on these issues by throwing very rough racial slurs and involving weapons into the whole complex racial equations.  Growing up in Chicago I was actually the minority at my school and even in my neighborhood.  So I saw and heard a lot of this stuff growing up.   Gangs are extremely popular in Chicago and are mostly based on race.  These gangs preach that it is right to kill someone else just because they are Black, Hispanic, or White.  So does this film affect or reflect society?  The answer is simple.  It reflects what people already know and do.

So to expand on that point, how do some films affect society and others reflect it?   I have used this film example in a prior discussion but I am going to use it again.  The movie United 93 is a film that can definitely affect a viewer.  Why? Because it shows the deeper side to a story that no one really had a first-hand account of.  It brings you into the dramatic situation that took place on that flight and AFFECTS what you could only imagine.  When doing this it brings a new image of what you only perceived at first.  On the flipside a film like crash simply reflects and then expands on a cultural issue such as racism.  So from my analytical standpoint movies can be very strong and persuasive tools, but at the same time can also be very informative and moving tools as well.