2005--Crash, Paul Haggis

2005--Crash, Paul Haggis

Nominated: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich

Should have won: King Kong

Be sure to see: The Devil's Rejects, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, A History of Violence, Sin City, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,Walk the Line

“I guess the big mystery is who gathered all those remarkably different cultures together and taught them all how to park their cars on their lawns.”--Det. Graham Waters

     I'm not typically one to go with the masses. I like to think outside the box and if something is a shoe-in for “the best” or “the worst” of something, I tend to take a step back and see if I agree. Usually I don't. Crash is generally considered the worst movie to win best picture and in this case, I'll go with the masses.

     Hate is a strong word and I would use that word over “dislike” for only eight of the best picture winners. When I saw Midnight Cowboy a while back I didn't think any best picture winner would rank below it but in this case, Crash bumps it to the second spot. Funny because I have seen two movies called Crash and neither were any good. The other was a surprisingly bad movie from a good director, David Cronenberg, from 1996. Cronenberg directed The Fly and Videodrome, so an NC-17 movie from that mind sounded good to me. It was pretty horrible but at least it wasn't up for an Oscar. 2005's movie of the same title nabbed the award. My guess is it won via affirmative action; if it didn't win, people would be mad. Critics seem to like it but most people don't. It gets blasted on imdb regularly. The misguided message is one thing but some of the technical aspects were distracting, too. The weird music toward the beginning makes it difficult to hear the dialogue.

     We aren't supposed to stereotype but the movie doesn't help our cause to stray from doing so. There are even two car thieves who talk about blacks being typed as criminals moments before they carjack a couple. Was this supposed to be irony? Ludicris, a real life rapper, plays one of these characters, Anthony. . He talks about how bad black music is today but good yesterday. I totally agree with that; been preaching it for years. But I found it odd they gave him this dialogue. I hope he took it to heart for his next album. 

     Almost every character in this movie is unlikable, but most do find an arc. Officer Hanson, a good cop, does bad; Officer Ryan, a bad cop, does good; Jean, a rich white woman who is afraid of all other races, reconciles with her Hispanic housekeeper; an angry Middle Eastern storekeeper changes his heart after a confusing scene. Keith David, my favorite actor, plays the police captain and ignores Hanson's concerns of his racist partner. And on, and on. I might have spoiled some stuff in that paragraph but consider it a favor. It means you don't have to sit through the terrible movie.

     Usually, I say the score is any movie's best supporting character, but in the case of the big car crash (I guess the main scene in the movie because of the title), it was virtually impossible to hear the dialogue. The music was distracting. I suppose this is the main scene but it happened halfway through. It is one of those scenes where two characters who met under disheartening circumstances early on meet again under different ones.

     The only likeable character is Daniel, a locksmith who is Hispanic and a family man. When he tries to warn a shopkeeper about how to keep his store safe, the shopkeeper doesn't listen and faces dire consequences. Even though it was his own fault, he blames the locksmith and confronts him in an emotional scene. The payoff is a little confusing but I guess satisfying when we find out why it happened later. I'm torn on this scene. At first I think it was fate that circumstances turned out how they did but later we find out why it happened and I felt cheated. Further more, the father should have wailed on the guy for what potentially could have happened.

     The most confusing scene to me I'll try not to spoil. Anthony runs over a Chinese man on the street then later goes back to the crime and steals his van when he remembers the keys were in the door. In the back there is a surprise so when Anthony goes to sell the van to other thieves they want what is in the van too. This is when Anthony has his arc but I was confused why this “cargo” was in the van. Was the Chinese guy a bad guy after all? But later in the hospital he is set up as a nice guy. Either he is bad and part of an odd business of sale/trade or he is good and the “cargo” was just in there for no reason. We feel bad for him, then we are supposed to dislike him, and then we are supposed to feel for him again in the hospital. Someone needs to explain this to me.

     The timing is weird. Many times I wondered if it was the same night as another incidence. Along with the main crash the movie ends with another crash and a character involved is someone I think the filmmakers might have wanted us to like, but she was probably my least favorite in the movie. In fact, a scene between her and Officer Ryan sets up, I think, for the audience to be on her side but I sure wasn't. Ryan makes a 100% true speech about affirmative action that people don't want to admit is true these days. As the scene ends we are supposed to hate Ryan even more than we already do (after a disgusting incident he was a part of earlier) but I didn't. I saw him as someone with a heart after all, and she is offended when he sheds some truth on her. Maybe a lot of the audience sees her side of it but I saw his. I tried to notice in her crash at the end if the taillights worked. It might be key in who is at fault here but even in frame by frame I couldn't tell. It seemed to be important but the director didn't want us to know. Is that smart? I don't think so. If we are supposed to like this lady I figure Haggis would let us see her tail lights were working so we would see it wasn't her fault. That way she would be yet another character we have changed our minds about. I disliked her so I figured her lights were out so she'd be at fault. I hoped anyway. 

     In all, the film's message is muddled and simply wrong. Is it a wake up call to the real world? It didn't make me want to accept people's differences and destroy fear, it made me think all people are generally bad. And in the movie's case, this is true except for Daniel, the only redeeming and likeable person involved. It is simply a very bad movie, the worst to ever win best picture.

*Note: My bottom five winners are Crash (2005), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Tom Jones (1963), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Around the World in 80 Days (1956). 

Also, it is only the second movie with one syllable to win best picture after Wings, the first winner. Not that that is important but I figured I'd throw it out there.