Crash
Movie Rental Review
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United States/Germany, 2004
U.S. Release Date: 5/6/05 (wide)
Running Length: 1:40
MPAA Classification: R (Profanity, sexual situations, nudity, violence)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cast: Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Terrence Dashon Howard, Ludacris
Director: Paul Haggis
Producers: Don Cheadle, Paul Haggis, Mark R. Harris, Robert Moresco, Cathy Schulman, Bob Yari
Screenplay: Paul Haggis & Robert Moresco
Cinematography: James Muro
Music: Mark Isham
U.S. Distributor: Lions Gate Films
Movie Rental Review Rating: 8/10
Crash is about a group of people in a city that the movie follows; we see how racism causes rifts between ethnic groups. Haggis puts together a large all-star cast for this movie to deal with its delicate subject matter, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Thandie Newton and Ryan Phillippe are just a few off the top. He even pulled Tony Danza into this movie. This movie had many plot threads running through it, some threads crossed paths and some did not. On a personal level, this movie was really quite disturbing. To think that currently we still have this level of racism, quite sad because we have come so far and still have so far to go. One of the most powerful scenes in this movie for me was when Farhad (Shaun Toub) was confronting Daniel (Michael Pena) in front of his house about the money that Farhad believes Daniel owns him from the break in at Farhad’s store. Lara (Ashlyn Sanchez) was watching this confrontation from the front door. Lara sees that Farhad has a gun and she yells to her mother Elizabeth (Karina Arroyave), “He doesn’t have it” (she was referring to the impenetrable cloak). Lara jumps to her father’s defense to protect him just as Farhad fires a shot. The following moments of the great distress that Daniel and Elizabeth felt as they saw their young and innocent daughter get shot was very overwhelming. However, Dorri (Bahar Soomekh) being Farhad’s smart daughter purchased the gun with blanks. The reason why I found this to be a very powerful scene was how far racism can go; the death of innocence is usually the result. This whole movie was like this, it really made you feel for a lot of the characters but there were some characters that got what they deserved.
The Movie Rental Review was going to give this movie a low rating but as I thought about the movie more and more, I came to the realization the brilliance of the script, cinematography and how the actors portrayed their parts. Truly a great depiction of where racism can lead.
