"Crash": A Critical Review

Film Review # 116735

Film > Analysis, Criticism, Etc.

A critical review of Paul Haggis' film "Crash".

949 words () | 4 sources | MLA | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper contends that although Paul Haggis' film "Crash" won the Academy Award, it is a heavy handed, unoriginal, unrealistic film that won the award by default. The paper notes that there are individual scenes that evoke real emotional twists and show real cleverness, but as the film goes along, the twists become more predictable and the heavy-handed character development becomes tiresome.

From the Paper:

"This year, Paul Haggis' film Crash won the Academy Award for best picture. This win was seen as somewhat of an upset since the conventional wisdom said that Brokeback Mountain was a lock for the award. It seems, however, that the Academy was not ready to hand its top award over to a film about two gay men cheating on their wives. Instead, at a time when Hollywood is being accused of being out of touch with the rest of the country, the Academy seemed to be looking around for a more uplifting picture to award. With the absence of an obvious fit, such as a Forrest Gump (1994) or Shakespeare in Love (1998) the Academy was left with Crash. However, this heavy handed, unoriginal, unrealistic film will almost certainly go down in history as having won the award by default because the Academy was uncomfortable with its own image."

Sample of Sources Used:

Schager, Nick. "Crash." Slant Magazine. http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=1584
Schwartzberg, Shlomo. "Crash." Boxoffic Magazine. http://www.boxoffice.com/scripts/fiw.dll?GetReview?&where=ID&terms=8061
Scott, A.O. "Crash: Movie Review." New York Times. http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=301205&inline=nyt_ttl
Travers, Peter. "Crash." Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/_/id/6824329?pageid=rs.ReviewsMovieArchive&pageregion=mainRegion&rnd=1143222295375&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1069