Review: "Crash"

After hearing all of the hype about the movie "Crash," I decided to give it a try. Frankly, I didn't expect much. Even though the movie won 3 Oscars, and tons of other awards, I've had some strange bias towards the movie since I heard about it.

Wow, was I surprised. The cast list alone is impressive enough. Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Matt Dillon, Ludacris, and Ryan Phillipe all make appearances in the film.

The camera angles, lighting, and focus were great. I remember thinking that the movie seemed like great photographs blended into a movie. It seemed like the film could have been stopped at any time, any frame, and you would end up with a perfect photograph. Truly a work of art.

In terms of what the movie is about, it focuses heavily on racism. It follows a few different actors: a Hispanic man with a young daughter, the white district attorney of LA and his racist wife, a wealthy African-American couple, 2 African-American friends, and some others. Each has something to learn about their views on race and equality.

This movie has a few of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen. For those who have seen the movie, the scene where the woman's car catches fire, and the scene where the little girl gets "shot." At the climax of both scenes, all voices fade out, and a beautiful foreign song plays as the events play out. It's amazing to watch.

Although the movie has a thousand pros, I did have a few complaints. There was a brief scene of nudity, which I felt was unnecessary. The same effect could have been achieved, just by covering up certain points. Also, the cursing in the movie was a bit over the top. I'm normally not a stickler, I can tune certain words out, but this was ridiculous. According to numerous websites, there are around 82-98 uses of the "f-word." To me, that's just a bit much.

In all, Crash was a beautiful movie, and would have been perfect for most ages had the cursing been toned down a bit.