Comments on: CRASH Review – Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe d: Paul Haggis http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/crash-paul-haggis/ The Oscars, film awards, new releases, Los Angeles screenings, movie classics, gay movies, film festivals, box office, foreign and independent films Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:29:46 +0000 hourly 1 By: Andre Soareshttp://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/crash-paul-haggis/#comment-514874 Andre Soares Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:25:46 +0000 http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=377#comment-514874 Many thanks, Nathan. Many thanks, Nathan.

]]> By: Nathan Donarumhttp://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/crash-paul-haggis/#comment-514848 Nathan Donarum Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:43:02 +0000 http://www.altfg.com/blog/?p=377#comment-514848 I think this is actually one of the best reviews I've read of Crash. Why? Because it treats it exactly as it should be treated. Not as some life-altering brilliant work of fiction, nor as one of the worst disgraces to ever appear on screen. It's a pretty middle of the road kind of movie in which a very talented cast and clearly well-executed technical credits are unfortunately overshadowed by a sad simplemindedness concerning an issue that is perhaps the most complicated and multi-faceted issue in America. To boil things down to essentially "we all judge based on race", or even more simply "we all have a tendency to be a little racist" misses the mark by a mile. There's no subtlety in Haggis and Moresco's screenplay to suggest that perhaps what drives us is not just the exterior. Matt Dillon's character comes the closest, especially when he finally begins to question his own moral and ethical code. Why didn't the whole movie treat its characters with this much care? Why are we instead treated to such one-dimensionality? Ludacris gives us perhaps the second most-realized character in the sense that he feels like a real person. Being a black man from a poverty-stricken part of town, it's not hard to understand why HIS lenses are colored by race. But unfortunately, this is a character that we've seen all-too-often in much greater films. It's all frustrating to say the least. I will say that I agree that Mark Isham's score is beautiful. I think at times I overlooked many of the film's contrivances because the score was so good. At the end of the day, Crash will always be remembered, not because it made an indelible mark on American cinema, but because in the end it overshadowed another movie that did. But that's a conversation and debate that has been talked and fought to oblivion. I need not rehash it here. I think this is actually one of the best reviews I've read of Crash. Why? Because it treats it exactly as it should be treated. Not as some life-altering brilliant work of fiction, nor as one of the worst disgraces to ever appear on screen. It's a pretty middle of the road kind of movie in which a very talented cast and clearly well-executed technical credits are unfortunately overshadowed by a sad simplemindedness concerning an issue that is perhaps the most complicated and multi-faceted issue in America. To boil things down to essentially "we all judge based on race", or even more simply "we all have a tendency to be a little racist" misses the mark by a mile. There's no subtlety in Haggis and Moresco's screenplay to suggest that perhaps what drives us is not just the exterior. Matt Dillon's character comes the closest, especially when he finally begins to question his own moral and ethical code. Why didn't the whole movie treat its characters with this much care? Why are we instead treated to such one-dimensionality? Ludacris gives us perhaps the second most-realized character in the sense that he feels like a real person. Being a black man from a poverty-stricken part of town, it's not hard to understand why HIS lenses are colored by race. But unfortunately, this is a character that we've seen all-too-often in much greater films. It's all frustrating to say the least.

I will say that I agree that Mark Isham's score is beautiful. I think at times I overlooked many of the film's contrivances because the score was so good.

At the end of the day, Crash will always be remembered, not because it made an indelible mark on American cinema, but because in the end it overshadowed another movie that did. But that's a conversation and debate that has been talked and fought to oblivion. I need not rehash it here.

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