Crash: Isolation, Materialism, and Racism in Modern America - Essay Example

8 December Crash (2004 Isolation, Materialism, and Racism in Modern America Racial equality exists in liberal, modern America. The film Crash, directed and written by Paul Haggis, questions this “reality.” Crash depicts social and racial issues in Los Angeles, California. The film grossed around $98 million around the world. It also won three Oscars in 2005 at the 78th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing. The main dilemmas of the films characters are their racial prejudice and isolation that affect their behavior toward minority and dominant groups. Each of them gets the chance to show the audience their personalities, which racism also affects. When the characters try to resolve their dilemmas, the arc shows that they allege each other as racist and yet they are also racists themselves. The resolution of the story takes place when the characters realize that they are all human beings with flaws, flaws that are not related to their racial characteristics, which the tag line “Its not like things are black and white” indicates. This film is important to the study of pop culture, since it describes the social and racial tensions in modern culture. In Crash, Haggis uses the plot of the film to show how the themes of materialism, isolation and racism shape peoples biases, as well as to describe the irony that people are unaware of their underlying racial prejudice. The plot of the film explores the themes materialism, isolation and racism and their effects on peoples prejudice and behaviors toward each other. Dragon commends the film for representing “progress,” because it underlines the “cultural awareness of Otherness” (111). Dragon is saying that Crash has brought into attention something that modern society has overlooked- the existence of Otherness that persists up to now. People want to think that there is no more racism in modern American society, but this is a comfortable lie. The modern life, with its technology and numerous material distractions, increase the distance between people. Detective Graham Waters says: “Were always behind metal and glass. Think we miss that touch so much, we crash into each other just to feel something.” This statement signifies that because of modern lifes distractions and materialism, people have become increasingly isolated from each other. As a result, instead of promoting interaction among cultures, modern cultures spreads racism, as people keep to themselves and their racial groups. And since racism intensifies, people clash with each other with anger and oftentimes, violence. Hilliard agrees that not knowing more about other races affects human attitudes and behaviors: “...racism arises from a lack of understanding that generates fear” (146). Some of the films white characters, for instance, judge black and Hispanic people, because they do not know who they are as human beings. Detweiler also highlights the films theme of isolation, where people are “not alone in their aloneness” (142). Farhad could have killed a young girl, because he feels his oppression as part of the minority group. But the film depicts that Farhad is not alone with his racial issues. Other people, including whites themselves, suffer from being part of the “Other,” in the eyes of people that come from different racial groups. The choice of the plot explores vital themes of isolation, racism, and materialism, and how they all interact to create fear and xenophobia in modern society. I am praising the film for highlighting the harsh, but true, reality of social and racist issues in America. Dragon mentions some critics who found the portrayal of ethnic groups in the film as “degrading,” because it turned people into “caricatures” (111). He is saying that the characters are too simplified. Their personalities cannot be seen as realistic, such as when Farhad shot a Hispanic locksmith, which made him look like a paranoid fool. I disagree with this criticism, because these characters actually ranged the spectrum of human behavior. They are dynamic enough to exist in real life. An example is Jean Cabot, a wealthy white woman, who felt her isolation enough to be angry about it. She has racial prejudice, but she soon realizes that this anger for the other has no meaning and that in fact, the only best friend she has is her Hispanic maid. In support of my argument, Shapiro stresses that Haggis effectively used numerous images to demonstrate the “both the ethnic partitioning of urban space and perceptual practices that attend the separations” (51). He is saying that Haggis is able to use images to show how people see each other, which is through their social, cultural, economic, religious, and political lenses. An example is Officer John Ryan who sees the world from his bigoted experiences, which are also tainted by his socio-economic circumstances. He too is an angry soul, because he feels the social injustice that his father endures, while he thinks that other minority groups have a leverage because of affirmative action programs. This example shows that human beings are not black or white in character. They are ambiguous human beings, because diverse internal and external factors continue to shape their identities. Crash shows that many people may not acknowledge it, but they have deep-seated racist attitudes that affect how they interact with other racial groups. A materialist culture reinforces racism, because it isolates people from one another, thereby making it easy for people to use stereotypes that can help them define diverse cultural groups. Though some critics stress that Crash is a simplified version of reality, it offers a riveting picture of humanity. It has a plot that emphasizes humanitys flaws, especially their inability to see other peoples weaknesses, but not their own. It leaves the message that if only people interacted more with other racial groups, they can erase their fears of the other. If only they took the time to touch and communicate with each other, they will no longer crash with one another so violently and meaninglessly. Works Cited Crash. Dir. Paul Haggis. Perf. Karina Arroyave, Dato Bakhtadze, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon and Michael Peña. Bob Yari Productions, 2004. DVD. Detweiler, Craig. Into the Dark: Seeing the Sacred in the Top Films of the 21st Century. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008. Print. Dragon, Zoltán. “Crash (2004).” Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia. Ed. Philip C. Dimare. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 110-112. Print. Hilliard, Robert L. Hollywood Speaks Out: Pictures that Dared to Protest Real World Issues. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2009. Print. Shapiro, Michael J. The Time of the City: Politics, Philosophy, and Genre. New York, NY: Routledge, 2011. Print. Read More