Deconstructing Crash

2004's Crash won the Best Picture Oscar in 2005 amid a sudden barrage of buzz for its edgy racial issues and spiraling and intertwining storylines. It catapulted Paul Haggis into the stratosphere as Hollywood's new it writer, and following on the heels of 2004's Million Dollar Baby, he found himself the script writer of two consecutive Best Pictures. Not bad for a guy who started his career writing Richie Rich and Scooby Doo cartoons. His career continues, but his critical and box office reputation is in decline. His name is no longer synonymous with highly anticipated dramatic fodder, and I'm going to tell you why.

You may be wondering why I'm deconstructing a film that was made 8 years ago. I'm making a claim that Crash is the worst film ever to win the Best Picture Oscar. Two films were decidedly more deserving of the award in that particular year; Brokeback Mountain, and the vastly underrated Munich.

1998's Shakespeare in Love is a close contender, in a year when Saving Private Ryan was robbed. A bit further behind is 1996's The English Patient, who should have been backseat to Fargo, and going further back, I'm not judging because the relative quality deteriorates with time, and frankly I haven't seen enough of the films pre-1970 that hover in that "good, but not great" range.

Crash gave us Matt Dillon's most compelling role, and showed us a side of Sandra Bullock and Brendan Frasier that we hadn't seen before. It introduced us to the talented and under appreciated Michael Pena. It showed us a surprisingly strong performance by Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and most importantly, it signaled the era of stars lowering their asking prices to appear in what they think is a surefire critical success. Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, William Fichtner, a young Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillipe, Larenz Tate, and even cameos by Tony Danza and Keith David.

The setup was somewhat innovative at the time, abandoning the standard film template in favor of a more emotionally manipulative humanity-themed ensemble. The main characters trade screen time, ensuring that everyone has a completely different back story, but live in the same jaded and prejudiced world.

Matt Dillon is the bitter cop trying to get proper medical care for his ailing father. Don Cheadle is a detective trying to make sense of the concrete jungle. Ludacris is a thug pretending to be angry about racial stereotypes, while embodying exactly what he is angry about, and Bullock and Fraser are a wealthy political couple whose life is interrupted by a carjacking.

Each of the individual characters' struggles are over the top prejudice. Whatever the worst case scenario could be, happens and everyone's preconceptions are turned on their heads, leading some to a better place, and others to flounder in their existence, or in some cases, a tough life lesson. Where the film goes wrong is that the preconceptions are contrived and exactly what one would expect. Ironically, as original an idea as Crash is, it brings up the most unoriginal situations imaginable. A cop molests a woman and then saves her life. A racist woman is attacked by a black man. A Hispanic man with tattoos happens to be the nicest character in the film. A non-English speaking shop owner is taken advantage of. The list really goes on and on, and it's almost as if Paul Haggis rummaged through his personal collection of taboo racial issues and threw them all on a storyboard.

I didn't catch this the first time I saw the film, and neither did the critics apparently, but if you go back and watch it again, it appears wildly outdated and almost eye-rolling cliche. It's only been 8 years since the film came out, but the film industry has changed dramatically both technologically and what constitutes a great film. Sure, there are still bad movies made, and the intent is well and good, often motivated by financial gains if not a stepping stone to something better, but the fact is, a movie like Crash made today is not Oscar nominated.

Race relations has been done to death as a genre, and when contorted into such stereotypical scenarios, it is just plain gratuitous. We all know that there is a cultural divide that is uncomfortable, but that is what you get when you live in a "melting pot" such as the United States. In no other country in the world will you find such a mix of races, religions, ethnic groups, sexuality, and even nationalities. America is the cutting edge place for acceptance and integration no matter how you argue, because we are the third most populated country in the world, behind only China and India, and those are both very homogenous. Think about the ethnic breakdown of our citizens (and illegal aliens); White is still the dominant race, but that is a collection of origins from an entire continent (and Russia). If you go to Germany, the vast majority of the population is of German heritage. Black also is a collection from an entire continent. Next time someone says they are African-American, ask them which African country, and you'll probably get an incredibly diverse collection of answers. Likewise with Asian. Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Filipino, etc.

My point is that America in the 21st century has no need to beat around the race bush anymore. Back to Crash. Each of the character portrayals is flat and racially cynical, suggesting a norm in society when in fact I think it's the exaggerated view of the deteriorating stereotype.

I see film as one of the most opportunistic forms of art, which is beautiful and magical. It's the most accessible form of storytelling, and can be done in great detail or in a sweeping broad stroke. Thinking about the hundreds of thousands of films that have been filmed since Muybridge's Horse in Motion in 1878, stories are created and told, adapted and interpreted, remade and modified. It goes to figure that the audience scrutiny and expectation bar has to constantly be raised. Patronizing the public's perception in the way that Crash ultimately does (especially after another viewing) is nothing more than an attempt at emotional manipulation, which many other films do. The difference is that Crash isn't without a sort of transparent agenda.

Paul Haggis is a talented writer and director, but I hope he can restore the luster and magic that he once had, and come up with something new and as charged as Crash, but without the obvious overtones. Crash stands in my book as the worst selection of a Best Picture of all time.