Crashing the barriers

 The movie "Crash" from director Paul Haggis, is a complex drama about racial tensions and stereotypes in Los Angeles. Opening, appropriately enough, at the scene of an accident in which the two female drivers, one Hispanic, the other Asian, trade racial insults, the films central theme is expressed by Graham Waters, a black detective with the LAPD. A passenger in one of the vehicles, Waters muses that people are so separated by society that they need to crash into each other to compensate for it. The film then flashes back through the previous two days, portraying  the events leading up to the accident. The interactions between the various characters, an Iranian shopkeeper and his daughter, a Hispanic locksmith, a racist cop and his idealistic partner, a black television producer, two carjackers, and a District Attorney and his neurotic wife, serve as a backdrop to this unifying theme.
  The film also offers a striking example of the contrasts between film and theatre. Although the acting in the movie is excellent, and the cast first rate, the director is very much the driving force in this film. A movie such as this with it's flashback sequences and concurrently developing plot lines would be difficult to pull off convincingly in the theatre, where the acting takes place in real time and the theme is reinforced by each successive scene. In contrast to the relatively short scenes in the movie, on stage, the actors would have to sustain their intensity throughout the play, not an easy task in a movie of this type. A crucial factor in the theme of the film is the ethnicity of the characters, a distinction that would be difficult to make beyond the first few rows of seats in a theatre.The various dialogue sequences, such as the one where Daniel Ruiz(the locksmith) gives his daughter an invisible cloak, or the back and forth between the two carjackers, would have to be executed differently in a theatre, where the actor's voices must clearly reach all members of the audience. The movie also utilizes numerous close up shots to convey subtle details that assume greater importance later in the movie. The box of blank bullets mistakenly purchased by Farhad (the Iranian shopkeeper) and his daughter play a vital role later in the film, as does the St. Christopher statuette carried by Peter, one of the carjacker's. In addition, many of the emotional reactions of the characters can best be shown up close. Examples of this are the scene in which Christine Thayer, wife of a black TV producer, is molested by John Ryan, a racist police officer, as well as the later scene in which he pulls the same woman from a burning car. Much of the impact of scenes like this would be lost if viewed from farther away. After all, one of the primary needs of the stage actor is to be seen and heard clearly by the audience. This film is a classic illustration of the differences between the two acting venues.

  I gave this film two thumbs up for it's gritty and realistic portrayal of ethnic stereotyping and the problems that go hand in hand with it. Although the overall tone of the film is cynical, it also shows the possibility of understanding and reconciliation. Complex and just a little unpredictable, much like human beings themselves are.