Crash – movie review

A good movie, slickly directed and edited and made to extract every kind of emotion in you…from anger and indignation to sadness, despair and just plain shame. The emotions are easily aroused because of the feel of the movie, simple, direct, and real. Frighteningly real.

The movie is about racism guys. Racism in America against all sorts of people, from Mexicans, Chinese and Persians to the native black population. It profiles a cross-section of amazingly diverse characters from these communities as well as from the white community. Drama and even humour, is brought out in the interaction of these characters. The movie has it all – cops and robbers, racists and sadists, heroes and cowards, husbands and wives.

Stereotypes are busted and the men and women in this movie are shown with all their complexities. A bald, burly coloured locksmith who looks like a thug is the best father in the world. A racist molester shows his brave, almost heroic side. A struggling immigrant, an apparent victim, turns to the gun and almost kills a little girl. A thief is shamed into changing his way of life.

This movie is about people, and their hopes, dreams and fears, but mainly – it’s about the way coloured people cope with the day to day racist slurs in American society, and how they have to live with the compromises they make and the indignities they have to face. It also becomes clear as to why white people hate and fear the coloured people. Finally, the movie tells you what happens when the dam bursts.

There is no hero or heroine. There is no story as such, just a delving into the most intimate moments of the various characters and this gives the movies it’s drama and emotion. There are no boring moments. The characters breathe and live and that’s what makes the movie worth seeing.

The movie is quite an eye-opener for anyone who does not know what it is like for a coloured person to live in America. It will make those who live in our dear India very glad that they are living here, not there, in that alien land. From the movie it’s clear that racism is so much a part of the American society that no one can escape it.

However, this is not a movie for anyone who wants to see an action movie or a movie with a strong story. Its a movie that makes you think though and its worth a see.