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| What's your take on 'Crash'? |
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| Total Votes : 39 |
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Tiberious aka Sparkles
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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 Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 7:35 am Post subject: Crash -- Yay or Nay? |
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I just finished viewing Paul Haggis's Crash. Prior to watching it, I had read a lot of reviews of the film, both positive and negative, and was curious what my perspective would be. It definitely seems to be a film which polarizes viewers. On one hand it's a profound look at racial relations (more simply human relations, I feel), and on the other it's pandering and trite; its message better suited for grade school kids living in hermetically-sealed environments.
And maybe it's because I'm a 57-year-old white woman, but I found it a terrific movie. The trifecta of the Matt Dillon/Thandie Newton, Terrence Howard/Ryan Phillepe and Michael Pena/Shaun Toub climaxes, to phrase it colloquially, busted my s#!t (the Pena/Toub confrontation in particular), and solidified the film, to me, as great.
I'm interested in how others perceived it.
Sparkles*_* |
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indytrucks
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: The Shelf
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 9:14 am Post subject: |
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Nay. Pandering and trite sums it up nicely.
Racism = bad. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 9:38 am Post subject: |
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I was almost immediately bored by this movie, and the fact that it won an academy award just damns it as a pretentious attempt at a "serious" movie.
The academy are always 'honouring' these kinds of films that trumpet the social issues that have been argued about and resolved by most people years previously.
Much like the WORLDS WORST MOVIE Philidelphia -
AIDS is a bad thing, Gays are people too....Thanks Tom Hanks! Good thing you're here. Never would have come to that conclusion on our own.
And why do these movies have to be so didactic while they're busy telling us old news? I agree with those who say this movie is suited to home schooled kids in gated communities. Why would we reward or value art that's pandering to ignorance?? |
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TheFonz
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
Location: North Georgia
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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Nay...I stopped watching it half way through it. It was over the top and I got bored with it. It was generated to have that Academy Award feel to it. Sure it covered a controversial subject, but I wouldn't consider it groundbreaking. Plus all the buzz around it made it even less desireable.
Edit: I just read happeningthang's post. I agree 100%.  Dude, your in my brain. |
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Free World
Joined: 01 Apr 2005
Location: Drake Hotel
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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I like it.
I agree with sparkles about Michael Pena/Shaun Toub. Both great characters!
And how cool of a dad is Pena's character! If I ever have kids I am going to use that impenetrable fairy cloak bit. |
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SHANE02
Joined: 04 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Great Movie |
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Doogie
Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Location: Hwaseong City
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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| I gave it thumbs down because I just didn't like the story (stories). I did, however, think the acting performances were really good. Matt Dillon was great in this movie. |
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mmstyle
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: wherever
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Thandie Newton is one of my favorite actresses (loved Beseiged, watched on VOD last night) and I had heard so much, I was looking forward to this movie, even though I expected it to be tough. I was disgusted. I made it maybe half an hour and decided I couldn't stand the characters introduced thus far. I didn't like them, didn't care what happened to them, turned it off. If a filmmaker expects me to watch a tough movie, they have to make me care about what happens. |
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Thunndarr
Joined: 30 Sep 2003
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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| I enjoyed the storylines, but the condescending attitude permeating the film ruined it for me. |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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I thought it had a strong story and spoke well to the problem of racism. I give it thumbs up!
btw my wife felt the same way |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11700333/
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�Crash� thinks it�s important. �Crash� thinks it�s saying something bold about racism in America.
But what is it saying?
That we all bear some form of racism. That we all �stereotype� other races. That, when pressured, racist sentiments spill out of us as easily as escaped air.
Here�s my take. Yes, we all bear some form of racism � that�s obvious. Yes, we all �stereotype� other races in some fashion � that�s obvious. (Particularly obvious in the Los Angeles of �Crash,� where so many characters are stereotypes.) But, no, we don�t easily give voice to our racist sentiments. And that�s why �Crash� rings so false.
...
You�ve just been told by your hot, hot girlfriend, with whom you�re lucky to be sleeping in the first place, that she is not Mexican as you presumed; that her mother is from Puerto Rico and her father is from El Salvador. What do you say?
1. �I�m sorry, honey. I�m surprised I didn�t know that. Now come back to bed.�
2. �Really? How did they meet?�
3. �Who took [all Latinos] and taught them to park their cars on their lawns?�
And on and on and on. Every scene. Put a little pressure on somebody and they blurt simplistic racist sentiments. Right in the face of someone of that race.
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A few readers objected to my column last month � and will no doubt object to this one. They felt �Crash� taught them something important about race. More�s the pity. They said they learned that even good people do bad things, and even bad people have moments of compassion. Sorry they didn�t already know this. They felt like �Crash� was a movie the average person could support. �Average,� I guess, is the key word here. |
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archives/2006/03/the_problem_wit.html
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The movie has won deserved kudos for how it shows different facets of white, black, mideastern and Latino characters. Many of the characters in the film move from one set of attitudes to another, during the course of the film�s limited timeline. All except the two principal East Asian characters, who by the way are minor players compared with Matt Dillon�s racist cop and Terrence Howard�s uptight junior executive.
Granted, one of the East Asian characters goes through a transformation of sorts, but his denouement is anything but flattering. The East Asian woman is shrewish throughout.
Not that there isn�t truth to the characterizations of these particular East Asian stereotypes. We know of shrewish Asian and Asian American women. We know of criminally inclined Asian and Asian American men.
But if Crash�s director and screenwriters want to explore the depths of how people of varied racial and ethnic heritages behave toward one another, how come they didn�t add an East Asian or Asian American character that showed a modicum of humanity beyond the bitchy and evil? |
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Ron Stevens
Joined: 10 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 3:25 am Post subject: |
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i saw it b4 the oscars or hearing anything about it at all so had no expectations
i liked it a lot, there's some good performances and some interesting dimensions to the film some aspects might have been a bit simplistic but for a hollywood movie its a pretty decent flick |
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KumaraKitty
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Location: Bucheon
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| Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 3:30 am Post subject: |
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| I loved it, bawled my eyes out repeatedly. The Magic Fairy Cloak blew me away too.*sigh*I still tear up thinking about it. |
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coldcrush
Joined: 02 Apr 2004
Location: melbourne.... Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 3:34 am Post subject: |
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Pena/Toub were great.
The rest of it was contrived BS. |
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Alyallen
Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!
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| Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:53 pm Post subject: |
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Hated it!
I left the movie theatre angry.
Let's do a movie about racism and use every available stereotype...How original 
But the fairy cloak was the only redeeming part of the movie. |
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