Cathy Schulman, Don Cheadle, Bob Yari, Mark R Harris, Bobby Moresco, Paul Haggis
Director of Photography:
J Michael Muro
(Open Range)
Music Score:
Mark Isham
(The Cooler, A River Runs Through It)
Cast:
Jean: Sandra Bullock
Graham: Don Cheadle
Officer Ryan: Matt Dillon
Ria: Jennifer Esposito
Flanagan: William Fichtner
Rick: Brendan Fraser
Cameron: Terrence Howard
Anthony: Chris ³Ludacris² Bridges
Christine: Thandie Newton
Officer Hansen: Ryan Phillippe
Peter: Larenz Tate
The feel-bad hit of this Summer, Crash
is certainly no relation of David
Cronenberg's movie of the same name. But it does induce similar knots of
anxiety in the stomach while watching. Allegedly made for a pittance, it was
funded by a handful of people like star Don Cheadle, who believe in veteran
TV writer Paul (Due South, EZ Street) Haggis. For Crash is an issue movie.
And the uncomfortable issue is race.
Set in Los Angeles, right here, right now, and peopled with articulate
characters on every side of the law, the circular and densely interwoven
plot is less important than the messages it conveys. Moral certainty is hard
to pin down; everyone is suspicious of their neighbour, everyone has a
price, and trust is in short supply. And just when you think you have a
character sussed, they do a handbrake turn and leave you gasping in
disbelief. LA is viewed as a powder keg of racial tension and simmering
anger, ready to be lit by the simplest inflammatory act.
There are some seriously good bits of acting on show here. Sandra Bullock
discards her cooky, rom-com persona as the emotionally cold, moneyed
housewife in her ivory tower who fears everyone. Don Cheadle discards his
dodgy Oceans Eleven cockney accent to play a police detective with a Latino
girlfriend, a junkie mother and a thieving brother. He tries to do the right
thing, but is inevitably compromised at every turn. Rapper Ludacris and
Larenz Tate are perfect as the constantly feuding and frequently funny young
thieves constructing their own flexible moral code as they indulge their
passion for SUVs. And Matt Dillon is just plain obnoxious as the
foul-mouthed uniformed cop consumed by bitterness.
Multi-culturalism takes a bit of a bashing, as do idealism, political
correctness and old-fashioned decency. In fact, only money, guns and
politics flourish in this climate of fear. Nothing on view is completely
black and white though. Which is Haggis' point.
Just when you think there is no hope left, however, entrenched positions
shift ever so slightly, stereotypes show another side and a couple of
characters even achieve unlikely redemption. The violent, racist cop
heroically risks his life and the car-jacker turns down easy money to do the
decent thing. But the overall outlook remains bleak.
These are complicated times we live in, and Los Angeles looks itself in the
mirror in Crash and doesnıt like what it sees. But our inclusive attitudes
to race in the UK have also been shaken recently and we can no longer be
complacent. British audiences should emerge questioning and discussing their
own attitudes something few films achieve.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
