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	...	Motorcycle Cop
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:

Westwood Village, Westwood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,107,071, 8 May 2005

Gross USA:

$54,580,300

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$98,410,061

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

Michael Peña, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, and Shaun Toub all have appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the latter two appearing in Iron Man (2008), but again had no scenes together. Don Cheadle replaced Howard in Iron Man 2 (2010) and Iron Man 3 (2013), with the latter featuring a cameo by Toub. Peña appeared in Ant-Man (2015) as Luis.

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Goofs

When Daniel is leaving his daughter's room after the cloak story scene, he pauses at the door to look at her. The light switch is in the down position and the lights are on. We see the daughter in bed with the lights on, and then cut to Daniel about to leave the room where the light switch is still down, and he pretends to flip it down as the lights go off.

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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

The film's title isn't shown until all of the opening credits are completed.

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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 Late Night with Seth Meyers: Rachel Maddow/Kelly Osbourne/Craig Finn (2016)

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Soundtracks

In the Deep
(2004)
Written by Kathleen York (as Bird York) & Michael Becker
Performed by Kathleen York (as Bird York)
Courtesy of Sugaroo! o/b/o Blissed Out Records

User Reviews

a breathtaking film

Although the isolation and interconnectedness of automobiles and traffic are (forgive me) one of the driving metaphors of Paul Haggis's film Crash, the experience of the film's characters is more like a roller-coaster, where random strangers are thrown together through twisters and turns of a journey out of there control. A harrowing travail for them, but an impressive thrill for the audience. Equally impressive, perhaps, is the way the large cast quickly and completely inhabit their roles. This film isn't perfect. Haggis relays a bit too aggressively on coincidence, and the over the top emotionalism of a few key characters is a bit grating, Nevertheless, this is a good film that you won't want to miss.