1. What is your view about the characters who are connected with each other within the 24 hours of the film? Are there any 'good' characters?
2. What do you think is the social impact generated by this film? Will that impact be same as the original intention of the director?
3. After seeing this film, what do you think about racism in America? Are there other places you want to discuss in relation to racism?
Please feel free to share your views with others about the movie.
8 comments:
I don't think anyone is all good or all bad in the movie. Every character I think has a good side, but also a bad side - but this is a good thing about the movie as it reflects what is true in real life. People are complicated beings!
Racism limits people. People who have limited experiences are more likely to believing stereotypes.
I liked the movie but english was difficult for me understand. Lucky there was subtitles to help.
Thanks for your comments. They are well written and interesting.And we agree, watching movies is a good way to learn a language and about a different culture.
When I saw the magical moment for the little girl, I was really impacted. The inexpressible feeling is full filled in my heart. Can you say that the black stripling is bad since he always want to steal a car? When he released the Chinese stowaways, you can also feel what's the meaning for his smile!
You can not always believe and you can not always disbelieve. But if you try to believe more, less misapprehension will happen.
I think most of the characters were either racist to begin with, or resorted to racial stereotyping when they were irritated or provoked. The Persian doctor-daughter and the young white cop were perhaps the only good characters. She did not treat anybody unfairly according to the person’s ethnicity. (I think she would have demanded her money back or the gun and bullets even if the gunshop owner was not white. The owner was just plain rude and offensive.) The cop made conscious efforts (in the carjacking and the hitchhiking scenes) to counter the negative stereotype of blacks he saw previously, and shot the young black thief only in self-defence. (The thief’s jibes and behaviour would have been perceived as threatening to any driver even if the thief wasn’t black, because the thief was a stranger who was acting in a strange way.) The film illustrates how racial differences between people can easily become convenient racial stereotypes for people to hide behind or use as a weapon, because resorting to blanket judgements is much easier than trying to work things out rationally. The film also shows how gun culture in the U.S. has had a worsening effect on different racial interactions and stereotypes. The effect of how violence can affect racial stereotyping can be seen in the U.K. Before the London bombings more than a year ago, the stereotype of anybody of South Asian descent (Indian subcontinent) included his or her being harmless. After the bombings, that part of the stereotype changed to his or her being a potential Islamic extremist or terrorist, like the Persian shop owner.
The media has a large inpact on the minds of people who are numb enough to listen to it. The comment on The London Bombings was right. News broadcasts and in the news papers point out the fact that the bombers were or Asian origin, therefore, people will have a general negative view on all asian citizens.
Crash shows us that racism and stereotyping still exists, and especially in the people we would least expect to think that way.
The film was very enjoyable, and each character was portrayed in delicate detail.
Some interesting posts here. Thanks to all of you.
I think the movie also showed that any nationality can be guilty of racism. I think all the characters in the film, whether they be Black, White, Asian or Latino, were at some point racist.
By coincidence in today's SCMP Magazine in the 'origins' article, the phrase 非我族類 其心必異 (those not of my race must be different) was explained. Perhaps Hong Kong and China has something to learn from America in this regard.
While I have no doubt there is racism in America, the advantage the US has over other societies in fighting racism is that it is openly discussed in movies such as this.
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