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Crash
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Paul Haggis
Written by	Screenplay: Paul Haggis Bobby Moresco Story: Paul Haggis
Produced by	Paul Haggis Don Cheadle Bob Yari Cathy Schulman
Starring	Brendan Fraser Don Cheadle Sandra Bullock Chris "Ludacris" Bridges Larenz Tate Jennifer Esposito Ryan Philippe Matt Dillon Terrence Howard Thandie Newton Michael Peña Shaun Toub William Fichtner Keith David
Cinematography	J. Michael Muro
Edited by	Hughes Winborne
Music by	Mark Isham
Production company	Yari Film Group
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment in co-operation with Yari Film Group and DEJ Productions
Release dates	September 10, 2004 (Toronto International Film Festival) May 6, 2005 (US)
Running time	Theatrical cut 112 minutes Director's cut 115 minutes
Countries	United States Germany
Languages	English Spanish Persian Mandarin Chinese Korean
Budget	$6,500,000
Box office	$98,410,016

Crash is a 2004 American/German drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles. 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 for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing of 2005 at the 78th Academy Awards.

Plot

A black detective, Graham Waters (Don Cheadle), speaks dazedly about the nature of L.A. and the need for people to crash into each other. A Latina woman driving the car Waters is in, Ria (Jennifer Esposito), mentions that they were hit from behind. She starts to argue with the other driver as Waters gets out of the car.

Walking to a nearby crime scene, the police officer there informs Waters of a newly discovered body. A shoe is seen, while Waters stares at something off screen on the ground. He is horrified by the latter. The story then goes back to 36 hours before this scene.

At a gun shop, Iranian Farhad (Shaun Toub) and his daughter Dorri (Bahar Soomekh) are buying a gun. The shop's owner, angered by the two speaking Persian, tells them to leave his shop, ending in an infuriated Farhad being escorted outside. After being harassed with sexually charged comments from the shop owner, Dorri hurriedly purchases the gun and buys a box of bullets.

Two young black men, Anthony (Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate), leave a restaurant. Anthony is lecturing Peter on racism when they walk past Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser), the local D.A., and his wife, Jean (Sandra Bullock). The two men then promptly carjack them. Inside Rick's Navigator, Peter puts a St. Christopher statue on the dashboard.

At the Cabot house, Jean is upset. A locksmith (Michael Pena) is changing the locks, and overhears her telling Rick to hire another locksmith in the morning, labelling the current one as a gang member. The locksmith, Daniel Ruiz, hears this and leaves insulted. Meanwhile, Rick makes plans to use the carjacking to help him win the next D.A. election.

In a diner, two Asian men talk about a pickup of items. Nearby, LAPD Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) speaks with an HMO administrator (Loretta Devine) about his father's medical ailment. When a racist comment is made by Ryan because Shaniqua refuses to help, she hangs up.

As Ryan leaves, a white van containing the Asians passes by. He and his partner, Tom Hansen (Ryan Phillipe) begin their evening patrol and notice a black Navigator. Ignoring Hansen's protests, Ryan pulls the car over because one of the occupants appears to be giving the other (the driver) fellatio. The cops order the couple, director Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) and his wife Christine (Thandie Newton) to exit. Cameron is polite, but Christine, who's a little drunk, taunts the cops. An angry Ryan makes an example of the woman by "frisking" her, which in reality is sexually molesting her. Thayer says nothing. When Ryan finishes, the couple is released without a ticket.

At Farhad's shop, his wife Shereen (Marina Sirtis) notes that the door doesn't close properly. Dorri loads the gun with the bullets.

At the Thayers' house, Christine is enraged that Cameron did nothing. Cameron insists what he did was correct, and the argument ends with Christine storming out.

At his home, Daniel talks to his daughter, Lara, who is hiding under her bed after hearing a gun shot. To "protect" her from bullets, Daniel gives her an "invisible impenetrable cloak". He then lovingly puts her to bed, only to get a page for another locksmith job.

In the SUV, Anthony and Peter continue talking about racism, and country music. As they talk, they pass a van and hit something. Getting out, they see that they hit an Asian man (one of the two from earlier). Unsure as to what to do, they eventually pull him out from under the car and dump him in front of a hospital.

At the police station, Hansen talks to his superior, Lt. Dixon (Keith David) about switching partners. Dixon, a black man, claims that Hansen's "Ryan's racist" claim could cost them (Hansen and Dixon) both their jobs. Dixon suggests a transfer to a one-man car, due to him (Hansen) having uncontrollable flatulence.

Daniel replaces the lock, but tells Farhad he needs a new door. Farhad doesn't listen and, thinking he is being cheated, refusing to pay. Daniel crumples up his workorder and throws it away, leaving irritated.

At a chop shop, the owner, Lucien (Dato Bakhtadze), tells Anthony and Peter that he can't take the car due to the bloodstains.

Waters and Ria are making love when the phone rings. Upset that Waters answered, and that he says he's with a white woman to annoy his mother, Ria angrily leaves.

The next morning, Farhad discovers that his shop has been wrecked and tagged with racist graffitti.

Jean angrily berates her Mexican maid, Maria, for the lack of clean dishes.

Anthony refuses to take the bus and claims that he'd never rob a black person.

Ryan visits Shaniqua in person. Apologizing, Ryan says his father, who has a bladder infection, but fears it may be prostate cancer, has an incompetent HMO. He wants a transfer, but is told that their health plan won't cover it. Furious, Ryan tells of his father's acts on behalf of blacks and how he lost everything due to Affirmative Action. He begs her to help, and she says that if his father had come, she would have.

Shereen tries to clean the mess, wondering when Persians became Arabs.

Waters goes to visit his mother. She lives in a small apartment and is high on cocaine, worried about his little brother who is missing. Waters promises to find him, noticing before leaving the lack of food. Outside, Ria has no clue what is actually happening.

In the studio, where Cameron works, a white producer says a black actor isn't acting ‘black’ enough. Cameron thinks he's kidding, but is made to re-shoot the scene. Christine then appears and wants to talk about the previous evening, saying that he lost his dignity. Cameron is livid and leaves her in tears.

An insurance man tells the Persians that their insurance won't cover the damage, calling it a case of negligence on Farhad’s behalf. Farhad vows revenge, but the locksmith company won't tell him Daniel’s name.

Going out on shift, Ryan says goodbye to Hansen, claiming that Hansen doesn't know himself as well as he thinks. Meanwhile, a dispatcher makes a joke at Hansen's flatulence problem.

Farhad discovers Daniel’s address through his tossed away work order.

At the scene of an accident, Ryan runs to an overturned car, where a woman is trapped inside. The woman is revealed to be Christine Thayer, who, upon recognizing Ryan, screams for him to leave. He points out to her that gas is pouring from her car and flowing towards a nearby flaming wreck. With the assistance of his partner and spectators, Ryan manages to pull Christine out just as the car explodes. A grateful but confused Christine looks back at Ryan as she is taken away.

Jake Flanagan (William Fichtner), Rick's campaign manager, offers Waters a position in Office. Waters refuses, but as an incentive, Flanagan offers to acquit his missing brother’s criminal record. Waters eventually agrees.

Driving alone in his Navigator, Cameron comes to a stop sign. Suddenly, Anthony and Peter appear to carjack him, realizing too late that he is black. A fight ensues when Cameron fights back, which is seen by some nearby cops. Peter leaves as Cameron and Anthony take off in the car. After a chase, the car is cornered. Cameron gets out and threatens the cops, while Anthony hides in the passenger seat. Hansen, who responded to the call, recognizes Cameron and talks him down. When they are released, Cameron calls Anthony an embarrassment and sends him away.

Farhad confronts Daniel when he returns home and points his gun at him, demanding money. Seeing this, Lara runs out to protect him with her "cloak", just as the shot is fired. For a moment, it looks bad, but miraculously, the little girl is okay. Daniel carries his daughter away, crying along with his wife, as Farhad leaves, confused.

As his mother sleeps, Waters returns with fresh groceries and places them in her fridge.

After telling a friend that she wakes up angry everyday, Jean slips and falls down some stairs.

Later that evening, while hitchhiking, Peter is picked up by Hansen, who is off-duty. They chat, but problems soon arise. Peter laughs at the statue of St Christopher on Hansen's dashboard and tries to get his out of his pocket. Thinking the worst, Hansen shoots him dead. Horrified when he sees Peter's statue, Hansen dumps the body.

Back to the opening scene, Peter is revealed to be Waters' missing brother, which explains his look of horror.

Anthony rides a bus and, while observing the other passengers, notices the white van from earlier, still parked and with its keys dangling from the lock. He gets off the bus and drives the van away.

The Asian woman from the crash at the film's opening arrives at a hospital for her husband, the man Anthony and Peter hit. Still coherent, he tells her to cash a check that he has.

Anthony takes the van to the chop shop, where a bunch of illegal immigrants are found locked up in the back. Lucien offers $500 for each.

When Mrs. Waters sees Peter's dead body at a morgue, she breaks down in tears. Waters promises his mother to find who is responsible for Peter's death, however, she tells him she already knows who is responsible – Waters. She tells him he is to blame because she asked him to find his missing brother and he failed to do so because he was "too busy with other things." She claims she and Peter are not a priority to Waters anymore. She also tells Waters that Peter must have come home when she was sleeping, because he filled her refrigerator with groceries. Waters stares at his mother with resignation and sadness and lets her believe the best about Peter, while Ria looks on, unaware of the significance of the exchange.

Dorri comes to see Farhad, who explains what happened. He thinks that the little girl was his angel and tells her its okay. As Dorri removes the gun and box of bullets, we see that the bullets were actually blanks.

Rick and Jean talk on the phone. Ironically, none of Jean's friends had arrived to help her, and she had been taken to the emergency room by Maria. Miserably, she hugs her housekeeper and tells Maria that she is her closest friend.

Hansen abandons his car and sets it on fire. Cameron later finds it and, as it snows, throws a block of wood into the blaze. Christine then calls him and they forgive each other.

Anthony, having refused the money, drops the immigrants off in Chinatown and gives one of them money to share with the others. He then leaves, feeling redeemed.

Nearby, another minor fender-bender occurs and Shaniqua and another driver start yelling at each other as the snow falls.

Cast

Main Cast

• Brendan Fraser as Rick Cabot, the elected white District Attorney of Los Angeles who manipulates voter opinion through the medium of racial politics in order to further his career. Rick's intention is to create a PR event that will reassure voters that he (Rick) is on the right side of racial issues.
• Sandra Bullock as Jean Cabot, Rick's wife, whose racial prejudices escalate after she and her husband experience the carjacking. Jean's journey through the events of the film result in her finally realizing that she has no true friends except for her Hispanic maid.
• Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Anthony, an African American car thief who steals vehicles for a chop shop owner. Anthony is very vocal about the racist and stereotypical views others hold to blacks despite, in many ways, conforming to these stereotypes. By the end of the film, he is starting to change.
• Larenz Tate as Peter Waters, Anthony's friend and partner-in-crime. He is also Detective Waters' younger brother. Like Anthony, he is a car thief. Peter ran away from home and is later shot to death by Officer Hansen.
• Don Cheadle as Detective Graham Waters, an African-American detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. He is disconnected from his poor family, which consists of his mother, who suffers from a heroin addiction, and criminal younger brother. Graham's detachment from his mother culminates when his mother, having learned of Peter's death, accuses Graham of not caring enough about them to find him when he was missing, leading to his brother's murder. It is shown that she has always favored the younger brother.
• Jennifer Esposito as Ria, a Latina detective, as well as Graham's partner and girlfriend.
• Ryan Philippe as Officer Tommy Hansen, a Los Angeles police officer who, after observing his partner Officer John Ryan pull over Cameron Thayer and Christine Thayer and sexually molests Christine, requests a change of partner. He ultimately reveals his own insecurities with other races (African-Americans in particular) through his treatment of Peter Waters. We later see Tommy walking away from his burning car wearing a pair of latex gloves, thus concealing his involvement in the shooting.
• Matt Dillon as Officer John Ryan, a bigoted white police officer who molests Cameron's wife, Christine, under the pretense of searching for a weapon. Ryan is trying to get help for his father, who has been misdiagnosed with a bladder infection. His anger manifests in prejudice, which stems from the destructive impact that local affirmative action policies had on his father's business. He later saves Christine from a burning car when he had the perfect opportunity to ensure that he left the burning car alive, which leaves Christine stunned.
• Terrence Howard as Cameron Thayer, a black television director. He witnesses Officer Ryan molesting his wife and later realizes that the producers of his television show propagate racist stereotypes about black people. At the scene of Hansen's burning car (to eliminate evidence of a murder), he is able to find contentment and reconnnects with his wife.
• Thandie Newton as Christine Thayer, Cameron's wife. She is molested by Ryan and becomes furious with her husband because he didn't defend her. The two insult each other over their upbringings–as both Cameron and Christine have grown up in more privileged environments than many other African Americans. The next day she is trapped in an overturned car due to a car accident and, by a twist of fate, Officer Ryan is the man who willingly endangers himself to save her life.
• Michael Peña as Daniel Ruiz, a Mexican-American locksmith who faces discrimination from Jean and others because he looks like a gangbanger to them, when he is actually a devoted family man. Daniel seeks a safe environment for his young daughter, Lara, who had a bullet go through her window in their previous home, which is why he moved to a safer neighborhood and enrolled her in a private school.
• Shaun Toub as Farhad, a Persian store owner who is afraid for his safety. He is depicted as frustrated by the racial harassment he experiences in the United States (despite being an American citizen), as well as deterred by difficulties with speaking English. His store is the only thing his family has.

Supporting Cast

• Keith David as Lieutenant Dixon, Officers Ryan and Hansen's shift Lieutenant. An African American, Dixon believes that the LAPD is a racist organization. When Hansen requests to change partners, Dixon refuses stating that doing so will reflect poorly on their unit.
• William Fichtner as Jake Flanagan, an aide to Rick who tries to talk Graham into accepting a corrupt deal. He holds a complex viewpoint that is not blatantly racist, yet he makes bigoted remarks in a conversation with Detective Waters. He argues that the black community needs to see a deceased black cop as a hero, even if he was corrupt.
• Bahar Soomekh as Dorri, Farhad's daughter, and is more acclimated than her father to American culture. After her father has upset the gun store owner, she purposely purchases blanks so that her father will not harm anyone. She is an employee at the hospital.
• Loretta Devine as Shaniqua Johnson, the HMO representative for the insurance company used by Officer Ryan's father. At the end of the film, her car is rear ended by another and she begins to yell at the other driver about "speaking American."
• Greg Juong Paik as Choi Jin Gui, a Korean man who gets run over by Anthony and Peter. He was selling illegal immigrants to another man at a café where Officer Ryan and Shaniqua were having a phone conversation. Near the end of the film, Anthony finds the illegal immigrants and sets them free.
• Alexis Rhee as Kim Lee, the wife of Choi Jin Gui, who goes to the hospital to see him and gets told to cash the cheque he had right away. Kim Lee, at the start of the film, is involved in a car-crash with Graham's car and has an argument with Ria, who was in the car with Graham.
• Dato Bakhtadze as Lucien, a chop shop owner in which Anthony and Peter try to sell cars. The two thieves first try to sell him the Lincoln Navigator they stole from the Cabots, but he refuses to accept due to blood being on the car mat.

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 145 out of the 192 reviews they tallied were positive for a score of 75% and a certification of "fresh", while metacritic tallied an average score of 69 out of 100 for Crash's critical consensus. 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 magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.

Some critics assert that Asians are portrayed in an overwhelmingly negative light with few, if any, redeeming qualities. The film has been criticized for reinforcing Asian stereotypes and lacking any manner of significant development of its Asian characters. From an alternative perspective, the film has been critiqued for "laying bare the racialised fantasy of the American dream and Hollywood narrative aesthetics" and for depicting the Persian shopkeeper as a "deranged, paranoid individual who is only redeemed by what he believes is a mystical act of God". The film has also been critiqued for using multicultural and sentimental imagery to cover over material and "historically sedimented inequalities" that continue to affect different racial groups in Los Angeles.

Box office

Crash opened in wide release on May 6, 2005, 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 seven times its budget. Despite its success in relation to its cost, Crash was the least grossing film, at the domestic box office, to win Best Picture since The Last Emperor in 1987.

Awards

Best Picture Oscar

In 2006, Crash controversially won the Best Picture Oscar over the critically-favored Brokeback Mountain, making it the fifth film in history to win the Academy Award for Best Picture without even being nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (which went to Brokeback Mountain for Motion Picture – Drama and Walk the Line for Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy). Critic Kenneth Turan suggested that Crash benefited from anti-homosexual discomfort among Academy members.

Crash was nominated for six awards in the 78th Academy Awards (2006), and won three of them, including a win for Best Picture. It was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards: one for Best Supporting Actor (Matt Dillon) and the other for Best Screenplay (Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco).

Other awards include Best Ensemble Cast at the 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards; Best Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild of America Awards 2005; Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Newton) at the BAFTA Awards; Best Writer at the Critics' Choice Awards; Outstanding Motion Picture and Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role (Howard) at the Black Movie Awards; Best First Feature and Best Supporting Male (Dillon) at the Independent Spirit Awards; Best Acting Ensemble and Best Writer at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards; and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Howard) and Outstanding Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards.

Home release

Crash was released on DVD on September 6, 2005 as widescreen and fullscreen one-disc versions, with a number of bonus features, including a music video by KansasCali (now known as The Rocturnals) 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. The director's cut is 3 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. The scene where Daniel is talking with his daughter under her bed is extended and a new scene is added with Officer Hanson in the police station locker room.

The film also was released in a limited-edition VHS version. It was the last Academy Award (Best Picture) winning film to be released in the VHS-tape format. It was also the first Best Picture winner to be released on Blu-ray Disc in the U.S., on June 27, 2006.

Crash is also currently number one in the list of Netflix Top 100, a list compiled of movies most frequently rented on Netflix.com.

Television series

A 13-episode series premiered on the Starz network on October 17, 2008. The series features Dennis Hopper as a record producer in Los Angeles, California, and how his life is connected to other characters in the city, including a police officer (Ross McCall) and his partner, actress-turned-police officer, Arlene Tur. The cast consists of a Brentwood mother (Clare Carey), her real-estate developer husband (D. B. Sweeney), former gang member-turned-EMT (Brian Tee), a street-smart driver (Jocko Sims), an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant (Luis Chavez), and a detective (Nick Tarabay).

References

1. Crash DVD Commentary Track. 2005.
2. rottentomatoes.com, Crash, accessed October 4, 2008
3. metacritic.com, Crash, accessed March 10, 2008
4. rogerebert.com, Crash review, accessed January 8, 2007
5. http://www.empireonline.com/500/8.asp
6. “Crash” ultimately upholds stereotypes about Asian-Americans
7. darkmatter » Crash and the City
9. Turan, Kenneth (March 5, 2006). "Breaking no ground: Why 'Crash' won, why 'Brokeback' lost and how the academy chose to play it safe". The Los Angeles Times.
10. "Maybe Crash's upset at the Oscars shouldn't have been such a surprise?". The Los Angeles Times. April 16, 2009.
11. Historical Blu-ray Release Dates (High Def Digest)
12. http://www.netflix.com/Top100?lnkctr=mhT100&lnkce=sntTpLk
13. Crash: A Starz Original Series

External links

• Official website
• Crash at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• Crash at Box Office Mojo
• Crash at Rotten Tomatoes

• 2005 films
• 2000s drama films
• American crime drama films
• German films
• English-language films
• Spanish-language films
• Persian-language films
• Mandarin-language films
• Korean-language films
• Race-related films
• Gang films
• Best Picture Academy Award winners
• Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award
• Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award
• Films set in Los Angeles, California
• Films set in San Fernando Valley
• Lions Gate films
• Films shot in Los Angeles, California