Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more.
I finally got the chance to watch Crash two nights ago. It was highly recommended by Joyce and I had the movie since last year but I never really got the time actually watch it. When I got my Touchy, I thought it would be nice to have some movies in my library. So I put some movies into my iPod and because I am so “kebaruan” (don’t ask me to translate, I don’t even know how to explain this local dialect in Malay) with my new gadget, I watched all the movies in my library back to back! Crash just happened to be one of those movies.
Crash is hands down one of the best films I’ve seen this year. Not only it’s a brilliant social commentary. It also delves deeper into the human character. It explores the theme of racial prejudice and the nature of good versus evil. I love how it concluded in the end that no one is all bad or all good. We are all capable of doing things beyond our idealisms when something big is at stake. My favourite character has to be the one played by Matt Dillon. He played a cop who is a well-known racist in LAPD. He sexually harassed an African American woman during one of his patrol to the disgust of his younger colleague (played by Ryan Phillipe).but the very next day he saved the same woman from a dangerous car wreck and endangering his own life in the process. What I like about him is the fact that he knew what matters most. He’s racist but he knew that he’s a cop and saving lives was one of his job description. He could’ve left the woman and claimed that he did his best, but he didn’t. Instead he crawled into a burning car to save the woman. I like the fact that he’s a racist but he didn’t let that prevent him from doing what’s right. If all racist can be as clear-headed as this guy, the world would be a much better place.
After seeing the film I feel like I need to change my tendency to judge people way too quickly. The late Randy Pausch said “Everyone has a good side, you just have to give them time to show you their good sides”. I think that’s rather optimistic, but there’s no harm in believing in good things. Right?
No. It’s not an iPhone. It’s Touchy, my fav new baby… I mean iPod. He’s so cute and smart. Now I am going to start saving money so that he could go to Harvard and run for President when he’s older.
