* '''Lieutenant Dixon''' ([[Keith David]]) is Officer Ryan and Hansen's shift Lieutenant who is [[African American]]. When Hansen requests to change partners, Dixon states that doing so for reasons of Officer Ryan's racism will reflect poorly upon their unit, Dixon in particular for commanding him. Furthermore, Dixon explains that all the work he did to get a ranking position in an environment as racist as the LAPD will backfire on him personally for filing such a reason for changing partners. He suggests Hansen ride in a solo car for reasons of "uncontrollable flatulance" as a means of getting away from Officer Ryan and not making Dixon look bad for supervising Ryan.
* '''Lieutenant Dixon''' ([[Keith David]]) is Officer Ryan and Hansen's shift Lieutenant who is [[African American]]. When Hansen requests to change partners, Dixon states that doing so for reasons of Officer Ryan's racism will reflect poorly upon their unit, Dixon in particular for commanding him. Furthermore, Dixon explains that all the work he did to get a ranking position in an environment as racist as the LAPD will backfire on him personally for filing such a reason for changing partners. He suggests Hansen ride in a solo car for reasons of "uncontrollable flatulance" as a means of getting away from Officer Ryan and not making Dixon look bad for supervising Ryan.
* '''Cameron Thayer''' ([[Terrence Howard]]) is a black television director who becomes distraught after witnessing Officer Ryan molest his wife and realizing that the very show he produces is propagating racist stereotypes about black people. In an emotional moment, he fights off Anthony and Peter when they try to steal his car, takes away Anthony's gun, and gets himself into a harsh argument with armed white police officers. Just when it is very likely that he will be shot to death, Officer Hansen intervenes on his behalf and prevents any outbreak of violence.
* '''Cameron Thayer''' ([[Terrence Howard]]) is a black television director who becomes distraught after witnessing Officer Ryan molest his wife and realizing that the very show he produces is propagating racist stereotypes about black people. In an emotional moment, he fights off Anthony and Peter when they try to steal his car, takes away Anthony's gun, and gets himself into a harsh argument with armed white police officers. Just when it is very likely that he will be shot to death, Officer Hansen intervenes on his behalf and prevents any outbreak of violence.
* '''Christine Thayer''' ([[Thandie Newton]]) is Cameron's wife. She is molested by Officer Ryan after she and Cameron are pulled over. She becomes furious with her husband because he does not act to defend her. The two argue insult each other over their upbringings as both Cameron and Christine have grown up in a more privelaged environment than other [[African American]]s (Cameron insults her for being on her high school's exclusively white and privelaged [[equestrian]] team). The next day she is trapped in an overturned car due to a highway accident and, by an exquisite twist of fate, Officer Ryan is the man who willingly endangers himself to save her life. [[image:Matt_dillon5.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Thandie Newton (Christine) and Matt Dillon (Sergeant Ryan) in a dramatic scene of ''Crash''.]]
* '''Christine Thayer''' ([[Thandie Newton]]) is Cameron's wife. She is molested by Officer Ryan after she and Cameron are pulled over. She becomes furious with her husband because he does not act to defend her. The two argue insult each other over their upbringings as both Cameron and Christine have grown up in a more privileged environment than other [[African American]]s (Cameron insults her for being on her high school's exclusively white and privileged [[equestrian]] team). The next day she is trapped in an overturned car due to a highway accident and, by an exquisite twist of fate, Officer Ryan is the man who willingly endangers himself to save her life. [[image:Matt_dillon5.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Thandie Newton (Christine) and Matt Dillon (Sergeant Ryan) in a dramatic scene of ''Crash''.]]
* '''Daniel''' ([[Michael Peña]]) is a [[Mexican-American]] locksmith who faces discrimination from Jean and others because he looks like a "gangbanger" (has tattoos, shaved head, baggy jeans) to them, when he is actually a devoted family man. He is seeking a safe environment for his young daughter, '''Lara''', who had a bullet go through her window in their previous home. That is why he moved to a safe neighborhood and enrolled her in a private school. He and his daughter are shot at by Farhad but are not harmed due to a surprising twist of fate.
* '''Daniel''' ([[Michael Peña]]) is a [[Mexican-American]] locksmith who faces discrimination from Jean and others because he looks like a "gangbanger" (has tattoos, shaved head, baggy jeans) to them, when he is actually a devoted family man. He is seeking a safe environment for his young daughter, '''Lara''', who had a bullet go through her window in their previous home. That is why he moved to a safe neighborhood and enrolled her in a private school. He and his daughter are shot at by Farhad but are not harmed due to a surprising twist of fate.
* '''Farhad''' ([[Shaun Toub]]) is a [[Persian people|Persian]] store owner who is afraid for his safety. He is depicted as a man frustrated by the racial harassment he experiences in the United States, as well as deterred by difficulties with speaking English (despite being an [[United States|American]] [[citizen]]). To protect his store — the only thing his family has — he goes to a gun shop and attempts to buy a gun. The gun store owner quickly becomes frustrated with Farhad's conversation with his daughter in Persian, leading to racist remarks and his refusal to sell Farhad a gun. He sells the gun to Farhad's daughter after being cryptic and lecherous about which bullets she needs. Farhad's suspicion of others is compounded by his difficulty speaking English: he does not heed Daniel's warning that his shop door needs replacing, believing Daniel intends to "cheat" him, and as a result suffers a break-in. Blaming Daniel for the invasion and racially-motivated destruction of his store, he confronts him at his house and is about to fire the gun at him. Daniel's daughter Lara rushes to her father's aid; she believes herself to be wearing a "special" cloak that, her father has told her, is impenetrable and thus will protect them both. Farhad fires at Daniel but accidentally shoots his daughter, to the horror of both Daniel and Farhad. However, unknown to Farhad and Daniel, the gun is loaded with blanks. The fact that the daughter is not hurt is a great relief to Farhad, who believes an angel intervened, and he leaves without further incident.
* '''Farhad''' ([[Shaun Toub]]) is a [[Persian people|Persian]] store owner who is afraid for his safety. He is depicted as a man frustrated by the racial harassment he experiences in the United States, as well as deterred by difficulties with speaking English (despite being an [[United States|American]] [[citizen]]). To protect his store — the only thing his family has — he goes to a gun shop and attempts to buy a gun. The gun store owner quickly becomes frustrated with Farhad's conversation with his daughter in Persian, leading to racist remarks and his refusal to sell Farhad a gun. He sells the gun to Farhad's daughter after being cryptic and lecherous about which bullets she needs. Farhad's suspicion of others is compounded by his difficulty speaking English: he does not heed Daniel's warning that his shop door needs replacing, believing Daniel intends to "cheat" him, and as a result suffers a break-in. Blaming Daniel for the invasion and racially-motivated destruction of his store, he confronts him at his house and is about to fire the gun at him. Daniel's daughter Lara rushes to her father's aid; she believes herself to be wearing a "special" cloak that, her father has told her, is impenetrable and thus will protect them both. Farhad fires at Daniel but accidentally shoots his daughter, to the horror of both Daniel and Farhad. However, unknown to Farhad and Daniel, the gun is loaded with blanks. The fact that the daughter is not hurt is a great relief to Farhad, who believes an angel intervened, and he leaves without further incident.
The film depicts several characters living in Los Angeles during a 36 hour period and brings them together through car accidents, shootings, and carjackings. Most of the characters depicted in the film are racially prejudiced in some way and become involved in conflicts which force them to examine their own prejudices. Through these characters' interactions, the film attempts to depict and examine racial tension in the United States.
Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser) is the whitedistrict attorney of Los Angeles. He and his wife Jean are carjacked by Anthony and Peter (both of whom are black). Subsequently, the Brentwood resident tries to save his political career by reassuring voters that he is racially sensitive (as he is a Democrat and African Americans and Hispanics are his key demographics). His character is never depicted as a bigot, which makes his racial stance ambiguous. The use of ambiguity by the filmmakers likely asks whether people who take such actions are racially positive or just discriminatory in pursuit of goals.
Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is Rick's white wife, whose racial prejudices escalate after the carjacking. At the end of the film, following an accident in her home, she realizes that the person who is the nicest and most helpful to her is Maria, her Hispanic maid, while her snobby friends are too busy with shallow pursuits (such as getting a massage) to help her out.
Anthony (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) is an African-American inner-city car thief. He believes that society is unfairly biased against blacks. At one point in the film he justifies his actions by saying he would never hurt another black person. Yet, after he and Peter mistakenly try to carjack a car driven by a black man, Cameron, and when Cameron attacks Anthony during the carjacking, Anthony's response is to call on Peter to shoot Cameron.
Peter Waters (Larenz Tate) is Anthony's friend and partner in crime. Like Anthony, he is black, but he scoffs at Anthony's paranoia over racism. The only character killed throughout all of the film's near-tragedies, Peter is shot to death by Officer Hansen, who picks him up in the valley hours after their failed carjacking and mistakenly shoots him after assuming he is drawing a gun, when in reality he was reaching into his pocket to show the cop a figure of Saint Christopher.
Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) is a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. He is disconnected from his poor family. He promises his mother that he will find his younger brother, but is preoccupied with a case concerning a racist white cop who shot a possibly corrupt black cop. Flanagan offers him the chance to further his career and clear his brother's record in exchange for leaving out what is controversial evidence. Graham, offended and opposed at first, is convinced with some arguments for affirmative action in a private conversation with Flanagan. In the end he makes a very difficult personal decision to withhold evidence and possibly corrupt a case in order to clear his brother's name. Ironically, that brother is eventually revealed to be Peter, the carjacker who is killed by Officer Hansen.
Ria (Jennifer Esposito) is a Latina detective, as well as Graham's partner and girlfriend. The two have an intimate, but conflicted, relationship. When a phone call from Graham's mother interrupts his sexual romp with Ria, Ria becomes upset that Graham 1) stopped having sex to answer the phone, 2) was disrespectful to his mother on the phone, and 3) called Ria "white" and later "Mexican." According to Ria, she is not Mexican: because her mother is from El Salvador and her father is from Puerto Rico. Later in the day, she and Graham are rear-ended by an Asian driver, and Ria exhibits some racist remarks toward the Asian woman.
Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) is a white police officer who molests Christine, a black woman, during a traffic stop. This causes his partner, Officer Hansen, to believe his partner has racist tendencies. Meanwhile, Ryan is trying to get help for his father, who may have prostate cancer but seems to have been misdiagnosed with a bladder infection. Ryan's racist remarks to a black insurance representative makes her assure him she will not help his father get the treatment he needs. His racial prejudices seem to stem in part from the negative impact that local affirmative action-style policies that favored minority businesses had on his father's business, family, and life. Ryan later relieves the viewers of his racist tendencies when he is seen working with a newly-assigned, Hispanic-American partner toward whom he seems to show no signs of prejudice — especially when he puts his own life on the line to save Christine from certain death in a fiery car wreck.
Officer Tom Hansen (Ryan Phillippe) is Officer Ryan's partner who is disgusted by his partner's racism and the city's inaction. When he fails to get another partner, Hansen accepts a solo patrol vehicle. Hansen saves Cameron during his confrontation with the police. However, he later picks up a hitchhiker who turns out to be Peter. When Peter reaches for what Hansen suspects is a weapon, Hansen overreacts, draws his gun, and shoots Peter. Hansen hastily dumps the body and burns his car in an attempt to hide evidence. One of the most surprising developments in the film occurs because Officer Hansen, despite his initial integrity and resistance to racist ideas, takes to heart Officer Ryan's last words to him (telling him he too will develop racist instincts with more experience on the force).
Lieutenant Dixon (Keith David) is Officer Ryan and Hansen's shift Lieutenant who is African American. When Hansen requests to change partners, Dixon states that doing so for reasons of Officer Ryan's racism will reflect poorly upon their unit, Dixon in particular for commanding him. Furthermore, Dixon explains that all the work he did to get a ranking position in an environment as racist as the LAPD will backfire on him personally for filing such a reason for changing partners. He suggests Hansen ride in a solo car for reasons of "uncontrollable flatulance" as a means of getting away from Officer Ryan and not making Dixon look bad for supervising Ryan.
Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) is a black television director who becomes distraught after witnessing Officer Ryan molest his wife and realizing that the very show he produces is propagating racist stereotypes about black people. In an emotional moment, he fights off Anthony and Peter when they try to steal his car, takes away Anthony's gun, and gets himself into a harsh argument with armed white police officers. Just when it is very likely that he will be shot to death, Officer Hansen intervenes on his behalf and prevents any outbreak of violence.
Christine Thayer (Thandie Newton) is Cameron's wife. She is molested by Officer Ryan after she and Cameron are pulled over. She becomes furious with her husband because he does not act to defend her. The two argue insult each other over their upbringings as both Cameron and Christine have grown up in a more privileged environment than other African Americans (Cameron insults her for being on her high school's exclusively white and privileged equestrian team). The next day she is trapped in an overturned car due to a highway accident and, by an exquisite twist of fate, Officer Ryan is the man who willingly endangers himself to save her life. File:Matt dillon5.jpgThandie Newton (Christine) and Matt Dillon (Sergeant Ryan) in a dramatic scene of Crash.
Daniel (Michael Peña) is a Mexican-American locksmith who faces discrimination from Jean and others because he looks like a "gangbanger" (has tattoos, shaved head, baggy jeans) to them, when he is actually a devoted family man. He is seeking a safe environment for his young daughter, Lara, who had a bullet go through her window in their previous home. That is why he moved to a safe neighborhood and enrolled her in a private school. He and his daughter are shot at by Farhad but are not harmed due to a surprising twist of fate.
Farhad (Shaun Toub) is a Persian store owner who is afraid for his safety. He is depicted as a man frustrated by the racial harassment he experiences in the United States, as well as deterred by difficulties with speaking English (despite being an Americancitizen). To protect his store — the only thing his family has — he goes to a gun shop and attempts to buy a gun. The gun store owner quickly becomes frustrated with Farhad's conversation with his daughter in Persian, leading to racist remarks and his refusal to sell Farhad a gun. He sells the gun to Farhad's daughter after being cryptic and lecherous about which bullets she needs. Farhad's suspicion of others is compounded by his difficulty speaking English: he does not heed Daniel's warning that his shop door needs replacing, believing Daniel intends to "cheat" him, and as a result suffers a break-in. Blaming Daniel for the invasion and racially-motivated destruction of his store, he confronts him at his house and is about to fire the gun at him. Daniel's daughter Lara rushes to her father's aid; she believes herself to be wearing a "special" cloak that, her father has told her, is impenetrable and thus will protect them both. Farhad fires at Daniel but accidentally shoots his daughter, to the horror of both Daniel and Farhad. However, unknown to Farhad and Daniel, the gun is loaded with blanks. The fact that the daughter is not hurt is a great relief to Farhad, who believes an angel intervened, and he leaves without further incident.
Dorri (Bahar Soomekh) is Farhad's daughter, and is more acclimated than her father to American culture. She is constantly trying to calm her father down during his emotional temper outbursts. She is also a doctor at the morgue; she escorts Graham and his mother to Peter's body after it is discovered in a field.
Jake Flanagan (William Fichtner) is an aide to Rick who talks Graham into accepting a corrupt deal, by arguing in strong favor of affirmative action. The corrupt deal outlined to Graham by Flanagan was that of furthering his career, and clearing his brother's charges. Although the deal is corrupt, Flanagan plays a small but incredibly important role in the discussion on positive discrimination, and takes a moral highground to justify his actions. In the end he leaves the decision up to Graham by suggesting that "you're the closest to all of this, you tell us (what needs to be done)." (paraphrased), to suggest that maybe enough substantive inequality in a systematically equal society, is justification for the actions taken.
Crash opened in wide release on 6 May2005, and was a box-office success in the late spring of 2005. The film had a budget of $6.5 million (plus $1 million in financing). Because of the financial constraints, director Haggis filmed in his own house, borrowed a set from the TV show Monk, used his car in parts of the film, and even used cars from other staff members. It grossed $53.4 million domestically, making back more than three times its budget (roughly 60% of the box office takings of a movie do not return to the financiers but instead pay for distribution costs). Despite its success in relation to its cost, Crash was the least successful film, at the domestic box office, to win Best Picture since The Last Emperor in 1987.
Critical reception
The film received generally positive reviews with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 135 out of the 180 reviews they tallied were positive for a score of 75% and a certification of "fresh".[1] Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and described it as, " a movie of intense fascination"[2] listing it as the best film of 2005. It is currently ranked number 114 in Imdb's Top 250 films as voted by its thousands of users.
It has been criticized for being extremely heavy handed, manipulative and unrealistic.[citation needed]
Los Angeles film critic Scott Foundas described the film as "the worst movie of the year", while others have called it one of "the worst Oscar winners of all time".[citation needed]Roger Ebert has vehemently opposed Foundas' viewpoint.[3] Some critics have claimed that the film is, ironically, highly ignorant and bigoted in its portrayal of its racially diverse set of characters.[who?]
The film has been criticized by some commentators who feel the movie is not an accurate reflection of race relations in contemporary Los Angeles, particularly with regards to the film's portrayal of police and racial tension.[4]
The film has been criticized by liberal commentators who feel that institutionalized forms of white supremacy and white racism are far more destructive than individual prejudices, and feel that the movie is "self-indulgent" for white Americans who "want to feel victimized too".[5]
In addition, some critics assert that Asians are portrayed in an overwhelmingly negative light with little, if any redeeming qualities. The film has been criticized for reinforcing Asian stereotypes and lacking any manner of significant character development of its Asian characters.[6]
There has been much criticism over Crash winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, as an underdog over front-runner Brokeback Mountain. The day after the awards, some journalists wrote articles expressing their dislike over what, in their opinion, was one of the biggest shockers in Oscar history. Brokeback Mountain led the pre-Oscar award season by winning most of the key precursor awards, particularly the Golden Globes as well as earning the most Academy Award nominations (8), and its place on 314 critics top ten lists - more than any other film in 2005. Crash, although critically acclaimed, was less so, with Roger Ebert and several other critics calling it "The Best Movie of 2005". In fact, Ebert himself predicted that Crash would win the Oscar for Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain on the grounds that it was "a better film."
MSNBC journalist Erik Lundegaard criticized the AMPAS by stating that "The Academy is 78 years old and acting every bit of it, and last night they took another doddering step towards irrelevancy" and "This is the worst best picture winner since The Greatest Show on Earth in 1952."[7]
Crash was released on DVD on September 6, 2005 as Widescreen and Fullscreen one-Disc versions, with a handful of bonus features that includes a music video by KansasCali for the song "If I..." off of the "Inspired By Soundtrack to Crash". The Director's Cut of the film was released in a 2 Disc Special Edition DVD on April 4, 2006, with more bonus content than the one-disc set which includes the music video for Bird York and her Academy nominated song "In The Deep".
Crash contains more profanity than any other film nominated for the best picture Oscar over the prior five years with 182 expletives, 99 of which are "fuck," according to a report by Family Media Guide.[8] The only Best Pictures with more expletives are Platoon, Deer Hunter, and The Departed.
Director Paul Haggis has mentioned work on a sequel to the film, involving the continued story of Anthony — Chris "Ludacris" Bridges' character.[1]
Before Ryan Phillippe signed on, Heath Ledger was in talks for the role of Hanson. Ledger's film Brokeback Mountain would go on to compete as the favorite for the title of Best Picture against Crash. Other first choices included John Cusack as Rick Cabot and Forest Whitaker as Cameron.
The California Vehicle Code requires Authorized Emergency Vehicles to have a steady-burning red lamp visible for 1,000 feet to the front of the vehicle. In scene 4, Matt Dillon's character does a car stop on Terence's character. The patrol car has the right kind of California light bar but the light bar is mounted backward with the steady burning red to the rear. The patrol car in this scene appears in several others with the backward light bar. [citation needed]
References
^rottentomatoes.com, Crash entry, accessed January 8, 2007
^rogerebert.com, Crash review, accessed January 8, 2007
September 10, 2004 (premiere at TIFF) 
May 6, 2005
12 May, 2005 
12 August, 2005
June 22, 2006
