August 11, 2005
Crash
It took me a while to see it, but I finally saw the movie Crash last night with my friend, Julayne, who is visiting Mpls from Seoul, SK. It was an unplanned movie night that began with a juicy lucy burger at Matt's (35th St/Cedar Ave) and us just happening to drive by the Lagoon theater in Uptown. We lucked into a close parking spot and made the movie just before the funny Stella Artois short movie (basically a long commercial which I usually hate but this one was entertaining).
My initial impression of Crash is that I liked it and it validated my experiences as a minority. But then after a few moments passed, I was somewhat unsatisfied (tho' not dissatisfied). It was refreshing to see racial politics openly displayed from all perspectives. At the same time, the characters were meant to portray the complexities of racial politics but they nevertheless were caricatures in many ways.
Each main character is seen as both the victim and the perpetrator of racism. But in this way, it excuses the racism by Whites by putting it in the context of their feeling misunderstood, frustrated, fearful. It also puts some unnecessary blame on the minority characters by showing them as too selfish, too unacculturated, too angry.
Okay, I appreciated the turnaround of Matt Dillon's character but is it so necessary to always redeem the White man? Why can't they make a movie in which the White characters are just left as is -- often like in life?
Still, the movie made you think and left you wanting to talk about racial politics upon leaving the theater. For this reason, it's a worthwhile film. I likely will one day show it in my class to start an open dialogue.
Posted by richlee at August 11, 2005 11:35 AM