OK, what the hell is "Crash" about?

[ZombieNixon]

The first I've even heard of it is tonight. :shrug:

:wtf:'s the deal?

[KitchenWitch]

1. Good film - in a nutshell it is about everyone's internalized prejudices

[ZombieNixon]

5. I take it it won best film?

(I'm not watching the Oscars, too much homework :()

[KitchenWitch]

9. Yes it did

[karlrschneider]

2. Beats the shit outta me, I never ever heard of it before now...

:eyes:

[leftofthedial]

3. great movie

terrific ensemble cast

lots of interlocking stories

excellent movie about racism (and LA--duh)

[Archae]

4. Whiny yuppies and gang-bangers whining about racism.

Ok, ok, it's not really.

But I just read a "spoiler" about "Crash," and that's what it sounds like to me.

[Connie_Corleone]

6. You can rent it on DVD.

Or go to the library and check it out. It's been at the video store for months.

[KharmaTrain]

7. And It Was Released in 2004...What's The Deal There?

Maybe someone can explain why this wasn't up last year.

[LynneSin]

14. It was released in may of 2005

They showed it for a film festival in Canada in 2004 but didn't release it official until 2005

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375679/releaseinfo

[KharmaTrain]

23. Thanks Lynne

I was checking IMDB, but couldn't find that info.

Cheers...

[Punkingal]

8. Awesome film!

Really awesome. I'm surprised it won, though.

[ghostsofgiants]

10. Really good film.

Basically ties together a number of separate stories that focus on race relations around Los Angeles.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. It's very good. I couldn't say whether I think it's the "best"

because I haven't seen the others. But "Crash" is very well done, rather dark and intense, addresses a lot of uncomfortable issues.

[In_The_Wind]

12. I'm glad you ask this question.

I've seen it for rent but never brought it home. I guess I'll have to take a look at it someday.

:hi:

[ZombieNixon]

13. Hi, Joani!

:hi:

[In_The_Wind]

18. Hey ZombieNixon

I may take the rest of the night off after a few more post. I feel a little crispy around the edges at the moment.
I bit off a big chunk of real life today: www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4841896

How are your studies going?

[ZombieNixon]

20. Slooooowly

Starting Wednesday, I'm taking an indefinate length hiatus from DU, this place is consuming my life...I need to reevaluate. :(

[spooky3]

15. Great movie--it's like a Pulp Fiction with a race relations theme

and about how no one is fully good nor completely bad,
stereotypes are often partially true
great dialogue, great acting, very original, I couldn't take my eyes off it when I watched on DVD

[tishaLA]

16. A banal, decidedly suburban, film about "racism"

With the scare quotes always intact. It is a faux version of the "gritty realism" it says is everywhere in Los Angeles. Hackneyed, overwrought direction, some very good acting, unrealistic sentimentality, cinematic drek.

It is a movie that tells you rather than shows you and its heavy-handed didacticism quickly grows tiresome.

[aaronbees]

21. I agree with your assessment...

I found it entirely manipulative as it wore on. Not an awful film, just obvious.

[loudestchick]

17. It's a series of gut punches...really makes you examine your own

latent racism...and the little girl....

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

19. It's one of those films with a chaotic, disjointed plot composed of a

million story threads involving different characters, that are all intertwined by a few events that occur. The one common theme in all the story threads is racial tension and racism between different groups in L.A.

I was disappointed. I thought parts were very good but it felt contrived to me. The one really strong part is where Terence Howard plays a man, a TV producer, (black man with a black wife) who is pulled over by a racist cop (Matt Dillon) for no apparent reason. During their encounter, the cop feels up his wife in front of him, it's essentially an act of rape.. he does nothing, knowing that he and his wife will likely be beaten or killed if he acts. This scene, and the subsequent fallout in the relationship between husband and wife, is very well done.

But much of the rest felt contrived to me.

For example, Don Cheadle (director) played a detective in the film, with a Hispanic girlfriend. He says some stupid gratuitous racist against Hispanics shit to her early in the film, that felt totally gratuitous to me, just to inject the "racial antagonism" element into their particular story. I thought it unnecessarily made the Cheadle character act like a dick which I didn't think was very consistent with the nature of the character, it was just done to "fit in" with the common theme of racial antagonism, and rang false to me. My humble opinion.

[Writer]

22. It's a great film but about 15 years too late thematically.

In comparison to the greater cultural issues at play today, I think Crash falls flat thematically. Racism, etc. are always important issues, but there are larger and more important themes at play in the Best Picture pool this year. It fits better in 1990 and not 2005. I'm very disappointed that it won Best Picture. Versus Good Night and Good Luck? Brokeback Mountain?

It was a TERRIBLE choice. :(