Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hermionesviolin) wrote2006-02-18 10:26 pm
hermionesviolin) wrote2006-02-18 10:26 pm
Entry tags:
Crash (2005)
[All quotes from IMDb.]
[first lines]
Graham: It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
Best line of the movie. (Okay, maybe "He's Iraqi" is really the best line. But the opener works out of context, too, which the Iraqi line doesn't.) I'm not sure the theme actually gets followed through in the course of the movie. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
The theme seems to be more that making assumptions about people based on race is a bad idea, even though sometimes those assumptions are justified. And also that there are no easy answers.
Peter: We didn't get any coffee that you didn't want and I didn't order, and this is evidence of racial discrimination? Did you happen to notice our waitress was black?
[...]
Anthony: That waitress sized us up in two seconds. We're black and black people don't tip. So she wasn't gonna waste her time. Now somebody like that? Nothing you can do to change their mind.
Peter: So, uh... how much did you leave?
Anthony: You expect me to pay for that kind of service?
[...]
Anthony: Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gangbangers? Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared, it's us: the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the triggerhappy LAPD. So, why aren't we scared?
Peter: Because we have guns?
Anthony: You could be right.
Anthony: It's just black people demeaning other black people, using that word over and over. You ever hear white people callin' each other "honky" all the time? "Hey, honky, how's work?" "Not bad, cracker, we're diversifying!"
Graham: Mom, I can't talk to you right now, OK? I'm having sex with a white woman.
[hangs up, and Ria gets out of bed]
Graham: OK, where were we?
Ria: I was white, and you were about to jerk off in the shower.
After her explanation of her heritage, Graham's line about parking cars on lawns? Felt totally out of left field. Like, you just pissed off your girlfriend so now you're gonna make a lowhanded crack about her heritage? And it is further evidence of my lack of knowledge of racial stereotypes that my first reaction was "parking cars on front lawns? wtf? where did that come from?"
Shereen: They think we're Arab. When did Persian become Arab?
Officer Ryan: You think you know who you are?
[Officer Hanson nods]
Officer Ryan: You have no idea.
When Officer Ryan raced to the overturned car, I thought he recognized the car as belonging to his father or something. I think by the time the woman walked away with the other cops he knew who she was, but I'm unsure as to when the realization occurred. When she first started screaming at him he didn't seem to recognize why she did so, like he was just figuring she was in shock or something. And it would be an interesting commentary on his objectification of her if he really didn't recognize her face.
(Sidenote: Looking at IMDb I see the image of the two of them holding each other is the main cover image. Interesting choice.)
One of the nicest bits of complexity in the movie was Hanson and Ryan's black supervisor talking about how it would reflect poorly on him if it became public knowledge that someone he had personally supervised was a racist prick.
I liked Hanson trying to make up for what had happened to the guy, though I wasn't entirely buying the black guy's near-suicidal-ness.
Nice mirroring -- how both officers end up saving one half of the couple they demeaned the night before.
And then Hanson still trying to make up for it, picking up the hitchhiking kid. I can understand why he didn't say "I know you're lying kid, I was one of the officers you ran away from," but I was still pissed that he was kind of a jerk to the kid (I mean, what's he gonna say? "I've been carjacking this afternoon"?). And okay, you freak out 'cause you think the kid is pulling a piece on you, and you've had a rough day (the whole farting thing was awful) but still.
I can understand rolling the body out the car to the side of the road, but setting the car on fire? How you gonna explain this/buy a new car?
Nice touch with the car fire warming the kids.
Isabel said Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock's characters (Rick and Jean) were flat, and I agree.
And in conclusion: Magic snow!!! *snerk*
[first lines]
Graham: It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
Best line of the movie. (Okay, maybe "He's Iraqi" is really the best line. But the opener works out of context, too, which the Iraqi line doesn't.) I'm not sure the theme actually gets followed through in the course of the movie. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
The theme seems to be more that making assumptions about people based on race is a bad idea, even though sometimes those assumptions are justified. And also that there are no easy answers.
Peter: We didn't get any coffee that you didn't want and I didn't order, and this is evidence of racial discrimination? Did you happen to notice our waitress was black?
[...]
Anthony: That waitress sized us up in two seconds. We're black and black people don't tip. So she wasn't gonna waste her time. Now somebody like that? Nothing you can do to change their mind.
Peter: So, uh... how much did you leave?
Anthony: You expect me to pay for that kind of service?
[...]
Anthony: Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gangbangers? Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared, it's us: the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the triggerhappy LAPD. So, why aren't we scared?
Peter: Because we have guns?
Anthony: You could be right.
Anthony: It's just black people demeaning other black people, using that word over and over. You ever hear white people callin' each other "honky" all the time? "Hey, honky, how's work?" "Not bad, cracker, we're diversifying!"
Graham: Mom, I can't talk to you right now, OK? I'm having sex with a white woman.
[hangs up, and Ria gets out of bed]
Graham: OK, where were we?
Ria: I was white, and you were about to jerk off in the shower.
After her explanation of her heritage, Graham's line about parking cars on lawns? Felt totally out of left field. Like, you just pissed off your girlfriend so now you're gonna make a lowhanded crack about her heritage? And it is further evidence of my lack of knowledge of racial stereotypes that my first reaction was "parking cars on front lawns? wtf? where did that come from?"
Shereen: They think we're Arab. When did Persian become Arab?
Officer Ryan: You think you know who you are?
[Officer Hanson nods]
Officer Ryan: You have no idea.
When Officer Ryan raced to the overturned car, I thought he recognized the car as belonging to his father or something. I think by the time the woman walked away with the other cops he knew who she was, but I'm unsure as to when the realization occurred. When she first started screaming at him he didn't seem to recognize why she did so, like he was just figuring she was in shock or something. And it would be an interesting commentary on his objectification of her if he really didn't recognize her face.
(Sidenote: Looking at IMDb I see the image of the two of them holding each other is the main cover image. Interesting choice.)
One of the nicest bits of complexity in the movie was Hanson and Ryan's black supervisor talking about how it would reflect poorly on him if it became public knowledge that someone he had personally supervised was a racist prick.
I liked Hanson trying to make up for what had happened to the guy, though I wasn't entirely buying the black guy's near-suicidal-ness.
Nice mirroring -- how both officers end up saving one half of the couple they demeaned the night before.
And then Hanson still trying to make up for it, picking up the hitchhiking kid. I can understand why he didn't say "I know you're lying kid, I was one of the officers you ran away from," but I was still pissed that he was kind of a jerk to the kid (I mean, what's he gonna say? "I've been carjacking this afternoon"?). And okay, you freak out 'cause you think the kid is pulling a piece on you, and you've had a rough day (the whole farting thing was awful) but still.
I can understand rolling the body out the car to the side of the road, but setting the car on fire? How you gonna explain this/buy a new car?
Nice touch with the car fire warming the kids.
Isabel said Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock's characters (Rick and Jean) were flat, and I agree.
And in conclusion: Magic snow!!! *snerk*
no subject
I also really like how each and every character had failings, but they also had redeeming qualities. No one was entirely bad, nor was anyone entirely good.
I loved the ending with Anthony.
Ryan realized while he was trying to pull her out of the car who she was. He saw her face and recognized her because he froze, and then he took all those measures to calm her down and get her out safe because he realized why she was being so hysterical - he had basically molested her the night before. My whole mindset on his character changed after that. Again, never 100% either way. So much gray area with every persona.
So many great quotes as well. Especially the opener.
no subject
I like Sandra Bullock's character hugging the maid ('cause I so have a Thing for that deep need for physical contact) and I liked her realization of the superficiality of all the relationships she has -- Her: "Carol was the only one that was home and she said she couldn't come get me because she was getting a massage." Husband: "That's because she's a bitch." Her: "She's been my friend for ten years."
Oh, yes, Anthony. I meant to mention the disconnect, of how there was the guy who could tell the difference between the nationalities but still saw them as just "different kind of chinks" and was gonna sell them but Anthony who wanted to be rid of the "Chinaman" under his stolen truck as soon as possible shows some human decency, even though $500 apiece must be more money than he's ever seen.
no subject
Once the officer began molesting the woman I'd had enough. I got up and walked out saying "I'm done." Because it was so completely NOT OKAY for him to be doing that. It was so completely NOT OKAY for his partner to just stand there and say nothing. It was so completely NOT OKAY for the supervisor to cover his own ass instead of dealing with the problem like he should have.
And the fact that every other word for a couple of scenes was "f*ck" in a household where swearing is simply not tolerated... *shakes her head* I still don't understand why my brother thought the film was a good idea. And I really don't understand how my father could continue watching it.
So, yeah. Loathing of epic proportions.
no subject
I think we're supposed to think that the molestation and the coverup were very much not okay, but I think the film also does a good show of making us sympathize with the young cop and while it's easy to, from our couches, say he should have stood up, we also see how difficult that is.
The part with the supervisor was possibly my favorite because it was one of the most complex bits; we don't hear about the 11 years he was Ryan's personal supervisor, but I could easily imagine Ryan doing little things and the supervisor rationalizing that they're not big enough to make an issue out of, and then they get bigger, but if you make a fuss then people will ask why you didn't speak up sooner, and it snowballs.
Not that this makes it okay, but I really appreciated that there weren't easy answers.