2005 film "crash" pulls out all the cliches for a feel-good romp that has absolutely nothing to do with L.A., race, or America in general
When I heard that the 2005 film "Crash" was nominated for Best Film, I was curious to see it. My annoyance that they had stolen the title of a fine Cronenberg film starring James Spader was overwhelmed by my admiration for Don Cheadle, who never fails to impress me: not in Devil in a Blue Dress, or Boogie Nights, or Traffic, or Hotel Rwanda.
Alas, it was a terrible picture.
I am FROM Los Angeles. I have been slapped around by cops. I know how macho they are, how quick to violence they are. But feeling up a man's wife, in front of the man? Come on. If that was the sort of thing L. A. cops did, wouldn't the liberal press, such as the L. A. Reader, have swarmed all over that? I don't think this has ever happened. Also, there are plenty of nonwhite L.A. cops. Tons of Hispanic police. The image of the allwhite police force feeling up black wives is out of either the 1950s or, more likely as in victimistic theology, from a sadomasochistic porn novel. I can see L.A. cops beating up a guy. Not feeling up a woman.
Next, the quick-to-racially-denigrate-everyone dialogue. Come on. In L. A., people are careful NOT to talk like that. L. A. is a lot more polite than, say, the Bay Area. Why? Because people are afraid to get shot if they act rude in L.A. This does wonders for maintaining a modicum of civil behavior. I miss it. I have never been in a place with such nasty rude people as the Bay Area. Ever. Los Angeles is much more demographically and politically diverse than the Bay Area. People are used to other people. There isn't the same divide in L.A. between the liberal educated and the people that the liberal educated regard as the Poor Victims, as there is in the Bay Area. It does wonders for communication, to tell you the truth.
All in all, the movie struck me as manipulative and trite. The one really interesting character was the director. If they had made the movie about him, it might have got somewhere. It didn't.
Alas, it was a terrible picture.
I am FROM Los Angeles. I have been slapped around by cops. I know how macho they are, how quick to violence they are. But feeling up a man's wife, in front of the man? Come on. If that was the sort of thing L. A. cops did, wouldn't the liberal press, such as the L. A. Reader, have swarmed all over that? I don't think this has ever happened. Also, there are plenty of nonwhite L.A. cops. Tons of Hispanic police. The image of the allwhite police force feeling up black wives is out of either the 1950s or, more likely as in victimistic theology, from a sadomasochistic porn novel. I can see L.A. cops beating up a guy. Not feeling up a woman.
Next, the quick-to-racially-denigrate-everyone dialogue. Come on. In L. A., people are careful NOT to talk like that. L. A. is a lot more polite than, say, the Bay Area. Why? Because people are afraid to get shot if they act rude in L.A. This does wonders for maintaining a modicum of civil behavior. I miss it. I have never been in a place with such nasty rude people as the Bay Area. Ever. Los Angeles is much more demographically and politically diverse than the Bay Area. People are used to other people. There isn't the same divide in L.A. between the liberal educated and the people that the liberal educated regard as the Poor Victims, as there is in the Bay Area. It does wonders for communication, to tell you the truth.
All in all, the movie struck me as manipulative and trite. The one really interesting character was the director. If they had made the movie about him, it might have got somewhere. It didn't.
posted by Timo-t at 10:18 PM
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