OPPapers.com

Crash

Crash, as a film, is structured to be a huge coincidence. Throughout the 24 hours the film is set, the characters overlap, "crash", into each other in scenarios that always play on the theme of racism. And, from this racism, stems oppression, which is what the ACLE organizers lectured on.

According to the lecture, three levels of oppression exist: Gender, race, and class. All three exist in the film, but focus is given to race. For example, when the Persian immigrant Farhad seeks to buy a gun, the seller discriminates him as an Arab immediately after Farhad claims to be an American citizen. While this is outright racism (the seller even goes as far as make references to 9/11 and Iraq), it can be understood where he's coming from. He was, in a way, provoked—although it took very little to provoke him. This ‘provoking' of racism is a common tool throughout the film, as would be cited in other examples.

When we are introduced to them, Farhad misunderstands the seller's bargaining as insult and interprets it as racism. This immediately set up the racist platform for the seller who at the beginning had, although he had discrimination issues, an intention to treat Farhad as a customer.

Although it was Farhad who was wronged here, I personally found it difficult to be compelled to him because he basically asked for it. He sought
for the racism when it wasn't there, so when he did find it, he shouldn't have been as upset. Another incident in which Farhad repeated himself is the case with the Latin locksmith, Daniel. Farhad hired Daniel to fix his door. He is told that, as a locksmith, the door is already beyond repair and that they should get a new door. Farhad again misinterprets this as a deliberate refusal to work because his client is Persian. Daniel is easily one of the most-liked characters in the film (mostly due to his close relationship with his daughter), so this particular scene sealed Farhad's fate for me. Later, thieves break (not really since, as...