Theme Based on the Movie Crash, Screenwriter Paul Haggis

There are racisms, prejudice, and stereotypes that we faced everyday of our lives in this world. We may not see it, but consciously we know it is there. In contribution to this, the movie “Crash” written and directed by Paul Haggis shows individuals, such as, family members, business people, working people, and strangers say the most harmful and violent thing to each other. Every character in the movie have their own scenario or irony facing a range of prejudice: gender, class, and, above all, race. Crash is not just a matter of colliding cars against each other but also an indication of culture clashing with each other. In addition, the cars or someone or something relating to a vehicle is also a symbolism reflecting the characters or the setting. In the following, I will discuss examples of relations of the people in the movie that connects with vehicles.

In the beginning of the movie, there was car wreck between an Asian woman and a black detective cop’s Latina partner (Jennifer Esposito). The Asian woman accused the Latina for the wreck by saying “Mexican can’t drive.” The Latina said that the Asian lady was too short the she could not see the top of her steering wheel and the Asian lady should be the cause of the wreck. This conveys the stereotyped and assumptions of that everyday Americans of all races face in L.A.

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Another scenario is two black men (Larenz Tate and Ludacris), walking in the middle of L.A. downtown, talking about how white people are always getting better service than black folks. Ludacris was getting mad about the waitress, also black, serving white people because “black people don’t tip” and “she wasn’t [going] waste her time.” This represents racial discrimination is everywhere and even in the professional field, people can come across discrimination of all kind. Plus, Crash also display humor in the scene of Ludacris’s friend saying, “how come you didn’t tip?” and he replied, “Because she was giving bad service.” Ludacris changed his subject when two Caucasian started walking towards them from opposite direction and the lady clutched her arms tight against her partner. This turning point which is a weak stand for the audience that would have thought the two black men were going to be good turned out to carjacked two high class Caucasian’s vehicle. Again, this connects with vehicle and how two men that were assumed to be bad guys ended up be what the white lady had thought when she was walking pass them. This event symbolizes fear and racism that are in L.A. and how other people are so used to the stereotypes that are coming to them. The politician (Brendan Fraser) was really worrying about how he is going to lose the black community voters because the carjacker were black and he did not want that out to the public. This shows political discretion in the U.S. that many Americans that may see politicians as trying to get all people in all classes.

Next, a racist white cop (Matt Dillon) pulled over the wrong vehicle with a black couple that did not fit the description of the carjackers. The rookie even mentioned that it

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was the wrong vehicle and learned that his partner was a “racist prick.” The cop did a body search on them and he performed an inappropriate move on the lady by explicitly placing his hands between the lady’s legs while her husband watched it powerlessly. This is obvious that anywhere in the world, there are people that will have the authority to do whatever they want with innocent people or civilians because they think they can get away with it so the weaker people just try to cooperate so they would not get harm, even if it takes to save their life.

More over, the comments that are made by the characters in the movie are viciously stated to harm others, and these characters are seemingly ignorant because they do not give their time to know these other people individually. For instance, an Iranian asked,