Abstract This paper discusses how the film "Crash" is more than just a collision of cultures. The paper also takes a look at reasons for "Crash" winning an Oscar for "Best Picture", some believing that it was due to the film's theme of a realistic urban clash of racial conflict and community chaos.
According to the paper, this film clearly grabbed the issue of racial intolerance and cultural stereotyping by the neck, and shook it.
Outline:
Introduction
The Characters in the Movie
The Nuts and Bolts of the Movie -- Lighting
The Nuts and Bolts of the Movie -- Direction
The Nuts and Bolts of the Movie - Music
The Nuts and Bolts of the Movie - Script
The Nuts and Bolts of the Movie - Cinematography
The Nuts and Bolts of the Movie - Action
The Nuts and Bolts of this Movie - Editing
The Nuts and Bolts of this Movie - Casting
From the Paper "Dillon is a total prejudiced, hateful jerk towards the couple he stops and towards a black woman who works for the HMO that his father is a member of, and yet Dillon is very kind to his suffering father; "we understand why he explodes at the HMO worker," Ebert writes. Dillon "victimizes others by exercising his power, and is impotent when it comes to helping his father." But then Haggis maneuvers the story so "the plot turns ironically on itself," Ebert continues; both Dillon's character and the young cop who despises Dillon wind up saving the lives of the black couple (a TV director and his wife) who were stopped (and harassed) without justification earlier in the film. "Is this just manipulative storytelling?" Ebert wonders."
