Crash is a realistic drama which interweaves the lives of people living in Los Angeles, giving us a viewpoint on how different people are viewed and treated due to perdomedently the colour of their skin, there are also the themes of class and family but i thought race was the central theme throughout the film. I think Paul Haggis cleverly uses a non-linear structure in order to keep the audience engaged in the film due to a sense of mystery about each of the characters as we get to know them better, he uses stereotypes at first to make us feel a certain way about the individual characters (like how the two black men steal a car using guns). This makes the audience think the two men are nothing but criminals as they carry guns and steal cars for a job, as their individual storylines climax we get to see the men are not who we first see them to be as one is religious and the other gives freedom to the lives of people who may be sold into slavery.We also realise the two men are not murderers as one of them gets beat up due to not being able to kill the man while attempting to steal his car, I thought that the two men may of been stealing cars because they maybe found it hard to get a normal job at the time due to racism towards Black people at that time in America.
I think Paul Haggis uses the most trusted (possibly most likeable character (the young white police man) to commit the only successful murder in the film as this crime informs the audience anyone is capable of murder whatever colour you're skin,we know he carried out the murder as he thought the black guy had a gun when really it was a religious statue, he may of thought the man was carrying a gun due to the stereotypical thought of black men being dangerous criminals, this view could of possibly been passed on to him from his former partner who we know to be racist.
In conclusion I think Paul haggis was very successful in the creating of the film, as he used a variety of peoples lives from different ethnic backgrounds,race and class to show us that even though racial stereotypes may make us think a certain way about a certain person, we are all capable of the same things ( mainly shown by the young white man committing a murder), I also thought that the love and compassion the different people expressed towards different people at the end of the film emphasised that we are all the same and capable of loving someone whatever their skin colour, as we see the rich white women telling her maid that she is her best friend as she was there for her when she needed her most.
This is good. I like how you covered your own opinion on the film as well as the actual messages in the film. You went well in depth and briefly summarised the film. However, you could have spoken about the visual and audio codes throughout the film.
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