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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 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

Moments after being in an auto accident, a black detective, Graham Waters (Don Cheadle), speaks dazedly about the nature of Los Angeles and how he believes people need to crash into each other to compensate for how separated they are by daily life. The driver of the car Waters is in, Ria (Jennifer Esposito), gets out of the car and starts to argue with the Asian woman driving the other car, exchanging racial insults.

Waters gets out of the car and investigates the crime scene which had indirectly caused the accident after identifying himself as a detective to the officer in charge. The officer tells Waters of the body that was found, Waters sees the victim's shoe lying on the ground and then stares at something off screen which horrifies him. The story then goes back to 36 hours before this scene.

At a gun shop, an Iranian man, Farhad (Shaun Toub), and his daughter Dorri (Bahar Soomekh) are buying a gun. The shop's owner, angered by the two speaking in their native language begins insulting Farhad, by calling him Osama and making other references to 9/11. Ultimately, an infuriated Farhad is escorted outside. Dorri continues to purchase the gun and bullets after the shop owner harasses her with sexually charged comments.

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). Anthony and Peter then carjack the couple. 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, believing the current one to be a gang member. The locksmith, Daniel Ruiz, hears this and leaves insulted but without commenting. Meanwhile, Rick makes plans to use the carjacking to help him win re-election.

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

As Ryan leaves, a white van containing the Asians passes by. Ryan and his partner, Tom Hansen (Ryan Phillipe) begin their evening patrol and notice a black Navigator that looks like the one reported carjacked by Peter and Anthony. Ignoring Hansen's protests that the plates don't match, Ryan pulls the car over because the passenger appears to be giving 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 is a little drunk and argues with the cops. An angry Ryan sexually molests Christine under the pretense of administering a pat-down. Intimidated, Cameron says nothing. When Ryan finishes, the couple is released without a ticket.

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

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

In the SUV, Anthony and Peter continue talking about racism. As they talk, they pass the white van and hit something. Getting out, they see that they hit one of the Asian men from the diner. 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 charge of Ryan as a racist could cost both Hansen and Dixon their jobs. Dixon suggests a transfer to a one-man car and tells Hansen that he should justify it by claiming to have uncontrollable flatulence.

At Farhad's shop, Daniel replaces a lock on the shop's back door that Farhad's wife earlier discovered wouldn't close properly but tells Farhad he needs a new door. Farhad doesn't listen, accuses Daniel of cheating him, and refuses to pay. Daniel crumples up his work order and throws it away, leaving irritated.

Anthony and Peter bring the Lincoln Navigator to a chop shop where the owner, Lucien (Dato Bakhtadze), refuses to take it due to the bloodstains.

Waters and Ria are making love when the phone rings. Waters answers the call from his mother, says he can't talk because he's in bed with a white woman, and eventually hangs up on her. Upset at this disrespect to his mother and other comments he makes, Ria angrily leaves.

The next morning, Farhad discovers that his store has been wrecked and tagged with racist graffiti. His wife tries to clean the mess and wonders when Iranians became Arabs.

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

Waters goes to visit his mother who lives in a small apartment and is high on cocaine and worried about Waters's younger brother who is missing. Waters promises to find him, and notices the lack of food in the apartment before leaving. Outside, he lies to Ria and tells her his mother wasn't home.

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 arrives and wants to talk about the previous evening, saying that she resented the loss of his dignity the night before. Cameron is livid and leaves her in tears.

An insurance man tells Farhad that his insurance won't cover the damage, calling it a case of negligence on Farhad’s behalf as he had been advised to replace the door. Farhad vows revenge, but the locksmith company won't tell him Daniel’s name. Farhad later discovers Daniel’s address through the tossed away work order.

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 about Hansen's flatulence problem.

At the scene of an accident, Ryan runs to an overturned car to find Christine Thayer trapped inside. Upon recognizing Ryan, Christine 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 the D.A.'s Office. Waters refuses but as an incentive, Flanagan offers to expunge Waters's missing brother’s criminal record. Waters eventually agrees.

Driving alone in his Navigator, Cameron comes to a stop sign. Anthony and Peter try to carjack him, realizing too late that he is black. (Anthony had previously stated that he would never rob a black person.) 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. 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 over the phone that she wakes up angry everyday, Jean slips and falls down some stairs.

Later that evening, while hitch-hiking, Peter is picked up by Hansen, who is off-duty. They chat, but then start to argue. Peter laughs at the statue of Saint Christopher on Hansen's dashboard and tries to get his own out of his pocket. Thinking the worst, Hansen shoots and kills him. Horrified when he sees Peter's statue, Hansen dumps the body.

The narrative then returns to the movie's opening scene with Waters at the accident scene and Peter is revealed to be Waters' missing brother.

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

When Mrs. Waters sees Peter's dead body at a morgue, she breaks down in tears. Waters promises to find who is responsible for Peter's death, but his mother tells him she already knows Waters is responsible. She tells Waters he is to blame because she asked him to find his missing brother and he didn't 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. 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 Dorri it's going to be 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. None of Jean's friends would come to help her and she had been taken to the emergency room by Maria. Tearfully, she hugs her housekeeper and says that Maria is her closest friend.

Hansen abandons his car and sets it on fire. Cameron later finds it when a few locals are treating it as a bonfire and throws a block of wood into the blaze. Christine 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 involving Shaniqua Johnson and another foreign-born driver. They start yelling at each other as the snow falls. Shaniqua tells the other driver not to talk to her unless he can "speak American".

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.
• Sandra Bullock as Jean Cabot, Rick's wife.
• Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Anthony, an African American who steals vehicles for a chop shop owner.
• Larenz Tate as Peter Waters, Anthony's friend and car-jacking partner. He is also Detective Waters's younger brother.
• Don Cheadle as Detective Graham Waters, an African-American detective in the Los Angeles Police Department.
• 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 and Officer John Ryan's partner.
• Matt Dillon as Officer John Ryan, a bigoted white police officer.
• Terrence Howard as Cameron Thayer, a black television director.
• Thandie Newton as Christine Thayer, Cameron's wife.
• Michael Peña as Daniel Ruiz, a Mexican-American locksmith who faces discrimination from Jean and others.
• Shaun Toub as Farhad, a Persian store owner who is afraid for his safety.

Supporting Cast

• Keith David as Lieutenant Dixon, Officers Ryan and Hansen's shift Lieutenant.
• William Fichtner as Jake Flanagan, an aide to the D.A.
• Bahar Soomekh as Dorri, Farhad's daughter, and is more acclimated than her father to American culture.
• Loretta Devine as Shaniqua Johnson, the HMO representative for the insurance company used by Officer Ryan's father.
• Greg Juong Paik as Choi Jin Gui, a Korean man who gets run over by Anthony and Peter.
• Alexis Rhee as Kim Lee, the wife of Choi Jin Gui.
• Dato Bakhtadze as Lucien, a chop shop owner in which Anthony and Peter try to sell cars.

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 148 out of the 196 reviews they tallied were positive for a score of 76% 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 three 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. "Crash Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
3. "Crash reviews at". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
4. "Crash :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
5. "Empire Features". Empireonline.com. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
6. ""Crash" ultimately upholds stereotypes about Asian-Americans". Mixedmediawatch.com. 1999-02-22. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
7. "darkmatter » Crash and the City". Darkmatter101.org. 2007-05-07. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
8. "Film Criticism Current Issue". Filmcriticism.allegheny.edu. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
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". Bluray.highdefdigest.com. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
12. "Netflix Top 100". Netflix. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
13. "Crash: A Starz Original Series". Starz.com. Retrieved 2010-04-30.

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