Crash: Movie Review Essay, Free Example for You

Thinking of the number of the great movie released over the years, I always wondered about the possibility of filmmakers surprising me as a cinema viewer in the current entertainment industry. This uncertainty stopped when I watched Crash. With its modern setting and relatable themes, it satisfies all my qualities of a great movie especially to drama fans like me. Crash, a drama movie created in the United States and premiered on tenth September 2004 at the Toronto Global Festival. The film portrays familiar themes like prejudice, discrimination and racial stereotyping which people presently face in the current American community. Directed and produced by Paul Haggis, the movie depicts a personal carjacking realistic involvement of the producer outside a film store in 1991. In this movies, Paul Haggis brings together a celebrity lead cast consisting of, Sandra Bullock, Terrence Howard, Ryan Phillippe, Matt Dillon, Brandon Fraser, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Jennifer Esposito, Michael Pena together with other talented actors and actresses to make the movie a success.

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Like many other Hollywood stories, this occurs in Los Angeles California where stories development happens on a daily basis throughout the year. The stories illustrate the life of an Iranian immigrant struggling to keep his small business, a small movie store from intruders. A Hollywood director and his wife enduring sexual harassment by a racially discriminative police officer; a poor Spanish locksmith living in unsafe residence returns home to discover his young daughter hiding from gunshots outside the house; an attorney and his wife carjacked by two teenagers, in addition to other interconnected stories.

The film shows an unfamiliar plot slightly since it conveys information about different characters that unconnected in any way. Nevertheless, this unfamiliarity disappears in the next part of the movie when the audience starts to connect the stories and understanding the writer more to picture the whole image displayed in the film. Generally, all the stories in this movie have a common subject, racial and social pressures in Loss Angeles. Furthermore, every story in the movie reveals particular subtopics like racism, violence, deprivation, immigration, social inequality, criminal situations among other social issues in the city.

The producer uses impeccable suspense in the movie. For the most of the film, the audience remained in suspense and tensed as they listen to the conversations between the characters characterized by aggression, nervousness and direct violence. The cast members in this film manage to professionally portray the inner personal struggles and conflicts of their personalities that vary from social humiliations to beliefs. Even though some characters in the film expresses a lot of anger and racism, unfortunately, the audience finds it extremely difficult to categorize them as wicked or evil. The viewers find it hard to judge the characters because of the perfect depiction by the cast that makes them forget about their social morals for a minute. Besides, the plot leaves the characters in positions they either risk their lives preserving their inner believes or trust their perception despite the fears.

For example, the story of the police officer played by Ryan Phillippe strikes me the most. Earlier in the film, we see the young officer with a definite character and who opposes the racist principles applied by his older buddies. Then one day on his way from work, he picks a rambler and surprisingly, the two starts a friendly conversation but with some level of tension between them. Here we see a socially sensitive police officer with reasonable morals battling with his inner fears as he talks to the young African American. The officer suspects the young man to be a gang member. Finding himself in a difficult situation, the officer fails to uphold his free from prejudice character. Fearful and unable to take the risk, the officer withdraws his gun and shoots the young man thinking that he is dangerous and a threat to his life. Regrettably, he later finds out about the young man's harmlessness after shooting him. In this situation, the unpleasant irony about the officer's character accelerated from bad to worse when he dumps the body in a nearby trench and drives away despite being embarrassed by his own indecent and cowardly act (Haggis). Individual and the general performances of the celebrity cast in these movies reflect on its greatness. Every actor gives the very best. For instance, comparing the role played by Ryan Phillippe in the film "cruel intentions" where he played a stepbrother to Kathryn, he outperformed that great performance in the "Crash" by exceeding viewers' expectations. Similarly, Matt Dillion plays almost a similar role in the movie "Wild things" where he plays Sam Lombardo, accused of raping two school girls. Matt played the role diligently but still his performance in the "Crash" outlives the other movie. The depiction of his cruelty and compassion amazes viewers.

The uncertainty in every character in the movie summarizes the effectiveness and awesomeness of the film. For instance, the hash and older police officer played one of the lead actors, Matt Dillion, shocks the audience massively in this movie doing what nobody expected him to do. The officer shows his cruelty when he disrespectfully humiliates a woman one night and bravely saves the life of the same women the next day (Haggis). This left me wondering and contemplating being some of the characters in my personal life. The intensity and familiarity of the themes in the movie leave the audience thinking of certain circumstances from the movie and applying them in their own lives. On the other hand, the movie leaves the viewers with a lot to ponder socially and morally. Whether they are victims or perpetrators of the social immorality or justices depicted in the film,

Given the unique storyline of the film, the audience might find it a bit challenging changing from one story to another at first, but to me, the effect of the storytelling approach vindicates its uniqueness. Again, the director did an excellent job in connecting the stories in not only a natural way but also in a realistic manner thus making the movie more relatable and easy to understand. Above and beyond, the film structure enables the viewers to be able to review and evaluate the stories individually without forgetting the themes in each in a more comprehensive point of view. Based on its realistic and acceptable complexity, Crash fits all the descriptions of a brilliant movie. Emphasized by its harsh but fascinating dramatic perfections in all the stories, compelling and professionalism of the cast members and strong and relevant stories.

The director uses various film techniques to symbolize different themes in the stories. The sound trucks expressed a current discussion and elevated every scene from a traditional point of view. Different characters used slang words to ensure the ability of the audience to understand and narrate the story. For example, the conversation between the car thieves. They talk to each other offensively uttering words like "nigger" in their expressions while hip-hop music plays in the background. This indicates the influence of music in defining individuals and race. Every soundtrack links a scene to a specific theme or topic. The cinematography of movies usually provides firmness in the plot of a film; the director correctly depicted the essentials scenes for action. For example the carjacking scene of Terence Howard's character and the subsequent police chase around the city. The plot of the movie depends on such essential views. Other film techniques in the film include costumes that the producer uses to reduce the gap between the characters and the audience the movie targets. Other than the exceptional storyline, the central themes in the movie, excellent acting and the cinematography which I take to be primary, the editing of the film is so decorative that makes the video even more impactful as the scenes jump from one story to another. Over the years cinematography adds credibility to character development, plot and making the movie have a glowing construction and physical details. In Crash, the director portrays a different situation with lack of special effects or elaborate lighting designs that change the visual appearance of the scenes. Although, some scenes in the movie provides evidence the use of low essential lighting.

The film received a positive reception and reviews making it of the box office successful movies produced by Paul Haggis. In 2006 the movie received six Academy Award nominations and won three of the six nominations later that year. Viewers loved the cinema. Hence they voted it for the best original screenplay, best picture, and best editing. Currently, the film still claims positive reviews on various websites. Rated 8.0 on Internet Movie Database and 76 percent score on the Rotten Tomatoes website; Crash exceeds every expectation of a viewer from the beginning to the end.

In conclusion, Crash unquestionably meet the requirements of a great movie worth watching either individually or together with family and friends. In my opinion, the importance of knowing and being able to acknowledge various social problems we face every day is priceless and encouraging. Such social issues make the focus of the film. Despite the fact that other viewers may not agree with the director's view regarding social and cultural problems people face in the modern American cities, I am reasonably confident that most people among the audience group see some of the factors depicted in the movies to be significant problems in America today. Also, stereotypes exist everywhere, and the cinema avails a reasoning opportunity to viewers to countercheck their stereotypes and personal believes the same way some characters did in the movie to make the society a better place. Paul Haggis in his use and mastery of unusual plot organization, narrative skills, and filming techniques ascertains opinion in the movie Crush. He uses hyperlink cinema to display breaks with the organization of the plot. With the knowledge and awareness, Crush continues to change lives of those that care to learn. The general point I learned from the movies suggests that our lack of sympathy and understanding for others in the in the current modern society results into limited interactions and unwilling to associate with other people's situations in our classification of events.

Work cited

Haggis, Paul, and Robert Moresco. Crash. Universum Film, 2004.

Haggis, Paul. "Crash (2004)." DVD. Lions Gate (2006).

Haggis, Paul. "On the Origins of Crash." Landmark Theatres website. http://www. Landmark theatres. com/mn/crash. HTML (2006).