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:

It's not like things are black and white.

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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:

Alto impacto

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

Lions Gate bought the distribution right to the film for $4 million at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival.

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Goofs

Partway through Officer Ryan's rescue of Christine from her overturned SUV, the camera ran out of film, as evidenced by film sprockets appearing in the frame. This is an acknowledged goof from director Paul Haggis.

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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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Connections

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges (2006)

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Soundtracks

Problems
Performed by Vie Marshall
Written by Adrian Bailey, Oliver Nathan, Justin Bandy
Published by O Natty Music
Used Courtesy of Wax Paper Records

User Reviews

Poorly constructed morality tale

The film tells several extraordinary stories happening over the scope of a few days and connects them using implausible coincidences. This makes it difficult to suspend disbelief during the entire film. All the stories share the same motif: There is good and bad in all of us, and racism has complex causes. There is little variation and little originality in the presentation of this theme.

I think the makers of the film were aware of this, and tried to make the film more interesting by arranging it chronologically in such a way that the process of the different pieces of the puzzle coming together is meant to be interesting. Both the film title and the introductory dialogue allude to this, but to me it seemed like a poor excuse not to tell rich, conclusive and well-developed stories.

I do appreciate movies that do not follow a simplistic good/evil pattern; I would have liked to see a more developed and refined story of Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon) and his interaction with Shaniqua and his father, for example. But there are too many plot lines to make any single one stand out, and as a consequence, the characters seem artificial rather than realistic. (As a European, I cannot judge whether the individual subcultures portrayed at all resemble reality.) The movie is not "trash" as some reviewers have called it, but it is forgettable and certainly not deserving of an Academy Award. As opposed to "Brokeback Mountain", I doubt anyone will talk much about "Crash" in 20 years.