Crash

—Overview
—Photos
—About this Film pdf
—Spiritual Connections

"Moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other." And we do. Sometimes our collisions bring out the best in us. Sometimes they bring out the worst. Either way, they shake us, they slap us in the face, and they wake us up to the reality that our world is much bigger than just ourselves and our lives.

In the movie Crash, these collisions are what construct its story. It isn’t a narrative that invites us to get to know a few characters as if they were our next door neighbors. It isn’t a story built around structured plot points, climaxes, and resolutions. Instead, its story is about different people leading very different lives who collide.

From the beginning of the movie, distance is almost a character in and of itself. We meet characters for the first time in sets of opposites—two young African American men carjacking a wealthy white couple, a white police officer and his white partner pulling over an African American couple, a white gun salesman reluctantly selling a gun to a Persian man. They are set up as separate—different people, leading different lives, best left staying on different paths.

More than just different people, however, the characters of Crash become enemies, their disconnection amplified into hate as many of them reveal the stereotypes they hold about so many people around them. Racism shows itself as the pervasive evil it too often is, not just something foreign, not just attitudes between one group of people and another, but mindsets within and between almost every person and race represented among the characters on screen.

As these different people with preconceived notions of each other collide, things are not pretty. People assume the worst about each other and treat each other poorly. Even people angered by the prejudices of others find themselves acting out and being controlled by prejudices of their own.

As people collide and lives intersect, the characters in the movie show us a harsh reality—no matter how good we see ourselves to be, we all have it in us to behave badly, to let anger, fear, or misunderstanding take control over us, and to treat others in ways no one deserves to be treated. As the movie’s characters continue to collide, however, they also reveal a much more reassuring truth—we all also have it in us to do good, to overcome anger, fear, and misunderstanding, and to live lives of friendship instead of opposition.

From one scene to the next, characters act both their worst and their best. In one scene they are a villain, another a victim, another a hero. As we get to know some characters better, we see the pain that rests behind their anger. For a few, we see that some of their actions are actually fueled by love for someone they hold dear.

Through several characters, we see that even anger and distance can be overcome with love. We watch a police officer risk his life to save the same woman he treated so poorly just a few hours before. We smile as a thief gives up money in order to save the lives of people he has repetitively insulted. We feel for the LAPD detective going out of his way to bring fresh groceries to his addict mother.

Although the end of Crash would probably not be characterized as a happy one, most of the second half of the movie points to the reality of the connections we share with everyone around us and the similarities that exist between all of us. Whatever race, whatever amount of money in their pockets, every character is shown as valuable, as a person who is loved by others and a person who needs to be loved by others.

While the beginning of the movie Crash focuses on the distorted ways people too often perceive and treat each other, the end of the movie gives us a glimpse, however limited, of the way God see us. While we are flawed, He does not focus on our flaws but desires to free us from them. Although we do things to separate ourselves from Him and others, He desires to love us, heal us, and fill our lives with friendship and connections. In a world that too often makes us feel like we are alone and untouchable, He lets us know that He is here, watching over us, working around us, and always loving us.

—Overview
—Photos
—About this Film pdf
—Spiritual Connections