Crash (2004)

Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.

Director:

Paul Haggis

Writers:

Paul Haggis (story), Paul Haggis (screenplay)

Stars:

Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Thandie Newton

Won 3 Oscars. Another 64 wins & 111 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Karina Arroyave	...	Elizabeth
Dato Bakhtadze	...	Lucien
Sandra Bullock	...	Jean
Don Cheadle	...	Graham
Art Chudabala	...	Ken Ho
Sean Cory Cooper	...	Motorcycle Cop (as Sean Cory)
Tony Danza	...	Fred
Keith David	...	Lt. Dixon
Loretta Devine	...	Shaniqua
Matt Dillon	...	Officer Ryan
Jennifer Esposito	...	Ria
Ime Etuk	...	Georgie (as Ime N. Etuk)
Eddie J. Fernandez	...	Officer Gomez (as Eddie Fernandez)
William Fichtner	...	Flanagan
Howard Fong	...	Store Owner

Storyline

Over a thirty-six hour period in Los Angeles, a handful of disparate people's lives intertwine as they deal with the tense race relations that belie life in the city. Among the players are: the Caucasian district attorney, who uses race as a political card; his Caucasian wife, who, having recently been carjacked by two black men, believes that her stereotypical views of non-whites is justified and cannot be considered racism; the two black carjackers who use their race both to their advantage and as an excuse; partnered Caucasian police constables, one who is a racist and uses his authority to harass non-whites, and the other who hates his partner because of those racist views, but who may have the same underlying values in his subconscious; a black film director and his black wife, who believes her husband doesn't support their black background enough, especially in light of an incident with the racist white cop; partnered police detectives and sometimes lovers, one Hispanic female ...

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Plot Keywords:

racist | racism | race relations | stereotype | social problem | 

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Taglines:

You think you know who you are. You have no idea.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, sexual content and some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English Persian Spanish Mandarin Korean

Release Date:

6 May 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Crash

Filming Locations:

3500 S. Gaffey Street, San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,107,071, 8 May 2005, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$54,580,300, 6 April 2006

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$98,410,061, 12 July 2006

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bob Yari Productions, DEJ Productions, Blackfriars Bridge Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min 115 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Cusack was the original choice for the role of District Attorney Rick Cabot, which eventually went to Brendan Fraser.

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Goofs

When Daniel is putting his daughter to bed, her pastel quilt twice changes position from the periwinkle patterned side to the square and rectangle side.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Graham: 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.

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Crazy Credits

Producers gratefully acknowledge the valuable assistance of The Culbert Family; Members of the Actors Gym, Hollywood, California.

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Alternate Versions

The two-disc director's cut DVD features an additional two minutes of dialogue and footage

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Connections

Referenced in The Cinema Snob: Let My Puppets Come (2013)

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Soundtracks

Whiskey Town
Written and Performed by Moot Davis
Published by Highway Kind Music (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Little Dog Records

User Reviews

A near miss

Haggis' directorial debut is a powerful and thought provoking look at a slice of LA life. In some ways, with its multi strands, it reminded me of some of Altman's "Nashville". The film successfully pulls all the strands together to make some pertinent points about different races fearing and misunderstanding each other without resorting to platitude too much.

On the flip side I found it schematic, too reliant on coincidence and frequently implausible (it would seem that there are only 5 cops including Officers Dillon and Phillipe in the whole of LAPD). At some points the film begins to bow under the weight of its own ambition - I would usually say that is a good thing, but here I felt that less incident would have given the characters more space to breath and come alive for the viewer. At times I felt that the characters moved from interesting 3D portrayals to screenwriters mouthpiece and this distanced me from an otherwise powerful film We need intelligent and provocative cinema and, in many ways, Crash delivers but I still think that it has been overrated by an audience desperate for something more than the usual popcorn fare