Crash is a 2004 American drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles, California. A self-described passion piece for Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real life incident in which his Porsche was carjacked outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard in 1991. It won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing in 2005 at the 78th Academy Awards.
Several characters stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles; a black LAPD detective estranged1 from his mother, his criminal younger brother and gang associate, the white District Attorney and his irritated and pampered2 wife, a racist3 white police officer who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, an African American Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the officer, a Persian-immigrant father who is wary4 of others, and a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter.
Roger Ebert gave the film 4/4 stars and described it as a movie of intense fascination, listing it as the best film of 2005. The film also ranks at number 460 in Empire magazines 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.
Some critics assert that Asians are portrayed5 in an overwhelmingly negative light with few, if any, redeeming6 qualities. The film has been criticized for reinforcing Asian stereotypes7 and lacking any manner of significant development of its Asian characters. From an alternative perspective, the film has been critiqued forlaying bare the racialized fantasy of the American dream and Hollywood narrative8 aesthetics9 and for depicting10 the Persian shopkeeper as a deranged11, paranoid inpidual who is only redeemed12 by what he believes is a mystical act of God. The film has also been criticised for using multicultural13 and sentimental14 imagery to cover over material and historically sedimented inequalities that continue to affect different racial groups in Los Angeles.
