Themes: Some Ideas

people's (racist) assumptions stop them seeing who is really there

Graham, Kim Lee both call Ria a Mexican



Farhad is thought to be an Arab

GUN SHOP OWNER: Yo, Osama… Yeah, I'm ignorant? You're
liberating my country. And I'm flying 747s into your mud huts and
incinerating your friends?

SHEREEN: Look what they wrote. They think we're Arab. When
did Persian become Arab?
Choi is a "Chinaman"


JEAN: The guy with the shaved head, the pants around his ass, the
prison tattoo.
RICK: Those are not prison tattoos.
JEAN: Oh, really? And he's not gonna sell our key to one of his
gang-banger friends the moment he is out our door?
plus an ironic example from Anthony


PETER: Man, we done ran over a Chinaman.
Jean mistrusts Daniel because of his appearance


RIA: You want a lesson? I'll give you a lesson. How about a
geography lesson? My father's from Puerto Rico. My mother's from
El Salvador. Neither one of those is Mexico.
Look at us, dawg. Are we dressed like gang-bangers? Huh? No.
Do we look threatening? No. Fact. If anybody should be scared
around here, it's us! We're the only two black faces surrounded by
a sea of over-caffeinated white people patrolled by the trigger-happy
L.A.P.D.
often leads to the grouping together people of different groups and races

all Asians are Chinese; all Hispanics are Mexican; all blacks are criminals; all cops
are racist etc.
Haggis: This was something important I wanted to say – that we tend to lump all
groups together. … everyone from the Middle East is an Arab.


LUCIEN: Don't be ignorant. They're Thai or Cambodian. Entirely
different kind of chinks.

ANTHONY: Dopey Chinaman.
and use of stereotypes

ANTHONY: And black women don't think in stereotypes? You tell
me. When was the last time you met one who didn't think she knew
everything about your lazy ass before you even opened your mouth,
huh?

GRAHAM: Ah. Then I guess the big mystery is who gathered all
those remarkably different cultures together and taught them all how
to park their cars on their lawns.

misuse of power and authority

Ryan misuses his over Cameron and Christine

Dixon and Hanson – Hanson's genuine complaint dismissed in the name of personal
ambition and career


Fred asserts his power over Cameron

Shaniqua misuses hers to pay Ryan back for his racism

Jean uses her position as employer to snap at Maria

Flanagan 'buys' Graham by using his ability to lose an arrest warrant



G: So all, uh... all I need to do to make this disappear is to frame a
potentially innocent man?
power and powerlessness: people explode because they cannot do anything about
their own situation

RYAN: Look, you're not listening to me. This is an emergency. I
keep telling you he's in pain. He can't sleep.

CAMERON: I'm not sitting on no curb, I'm not putting my hands on
my head for nobody. [NB he talks 'black']
fear – people react as they do often out of fear



Just like I'm sure you understand how hard a black man has to work
to get to, say, where I am, in a racist organization like the L.A.P.D.
and how easily that can be taken away.
JEAN: But if a white person sees two black men walking towards
her, and she turns and walks in the other direction, she's a racist,
right?
Hanson over-reacts and shoots Peter
being forced to re-evaluate after first impressions – both characters and audience

Ryan – racist / hero

Anthony – impassioned defender of black rights / thief

Hanson – good guy/ shots Peter

Ria re Graham's behaviour to his mother – she hears only what he says on the phone
without knowing the truth behind it; at the morgue, she sees the love and her bitterly
unfair rejection of Graham and his hurt

Jean sees Maria's care is more than that of a servant

Anthony and Hanson are both forced to revaluate themselves

Cameron has to find himself again – not allow himself to be defined by Ryan and
Fred.

Christine and Ryan
Language

an important issue – people are often mocked for poor English

Ria and Kim Lee


Gun shop owner and Farhad


I am speaking English, you stupid cow! My husband name Choi Jin
Gui!
Shaniqua at end


Am I making insult "at" you? Is that the closest you can come to
English?
The nurse and Kim Lee


RIA: I "blake" too fast? I "blake" too fast. … I'm sorry you no see
my "blake" lights.
Uh-uh! Don't talk to me unless you speak American!
language an issue at other times


CHRISTINE: You're right, Cameron. I got a lot to learn 'cause I
haven't quite learned how to shuck and jive. Let me hear it again.
Thank you, mister policeman. You sure is mighty kind to us poor
black folk.

ANTHONY: Listen to it, man! "Nigger this, nigger that." You think
white people go around calling each other honkies all day, man?
"Hey, honky, how's business?" "Going great, cracker. We're
diversifying." … "Let's give the niggers this music by a bunch of
mumbling idiots and sooner or later, they'll all copy it, and nobody
will be able to understand a fucking word they say."

FRED: Have you noticed, uh... This is weird for a white guy to say,
but have you noticed he's talking a lot less black lately? … Like in
this scene, he was supposed to say, "Don't be talkin' 'bout that."
And he changed it to, "Don't talk to me about that."

DANIEL [to Farhad]: I'd appreciate if you'd stop calling me names.
Anthony uses words like 'brother' and 'their own' to refer to blacks, yet.

CAMERON [to Anthony]: Say it again, huh! Call me a nigger again!

'homey' is used twice, with different connotations.

Jean calls Daniel a homey = gang member:


Your amigo in there is gonna sell our key to one of his homeys.
later Ryan calls Gomez 'homey' = mate, friend; Gomez replies with 'amigo' = friend

RYAN: Yo, Gomez, you ready to roll, homey? GOMEZ: Ready,
amigo
touching
The film starts with a statement about the way people in L.A. do not touch.
It's the sense of touch. … Any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people.
People bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and
glass. I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel
something.

List every instance you can find when people do touch others and comment on
each example.
positive
 Daniel kisses Lara, tucks her in – paternal love [14]
 Ryan helps his father off and then back onto the toilet – caring, supportive [21]
 Graham helps his mother inside – gentle, loving, son to mother cf. Ryan and his
father [31]
 Kim Lee touches Choi's cheek in the tenderest of ways – the only really tender touch
between married couples [48]
 Jean hugs Maria – looking for comfort and affection [52]
 Ryan hugs his father – strong love and support [54]
 Daniel holds Lara in anguish – thinks she has been shot [42]
 Ryan pulls Christine from car; he pulls her skirt down; he is pulled out [38] – reverses
previous touching of her
positive that becomes negative

Rick holds Jean's elbows to calm her; she shrugs him off angrily; she hits him in her
anger [6]

Cameron touches Christine on the shoulder after the assault and she winces away.
[11]

Ria and Graham are making love; she pushes him out of bed [20]

Christine puts her arm through Cameron's and he shakes it off – echoes her shaking
off of his touch [32]

Ryan shakes hands with Hanson – and holds it while he talks to him – the opposite of
'friendly' [34]

Graham holds his mother at the morgue [50] – she rejects him moments later
negative

Farhad is poked by owner, manhandled out of the gun shop [2]

Peter pushes Jean onto the ground: Rick drags her out of the way of the Navigator
[3]

Ryan manhandles Cameron, molests Christine; Hanson frisks Cameron [11]

Anthony knocks over Choi; they drag him out from under the vehicle [15]

Farhad's finger in Daniel's chest – aggressive, demanding [18]

Cameron and Anthony fight [41]

Hanson rolls Peter's body out of the car [45]
neutral

Jean puts her arm through Rick's as security – provokes Anthony to a scathing
criticism [3]
#
Even allowing for a few that may have been missed, how many films would have
people touching one another so few times?
Most of the touching is aggressive and violent, or the result of it; only about a third
can be seen to be positive, gentle, expressing care or concern or comfort. Most of
the positive examples are parent/child. The film's only two sexual episodes both end
badly.
NB: Graham keeps Ria at a distance emotionally; his mother rejects his love; Rick seems
concerned only with politics and image.
Themes in ‘Crash’
We see the causes and effects of racism.
We see different levels of racism from racial stereotyping to racially
motivated sexual violation.
We see racism at all levels of society from the car-jackers to the
D.A.
We see how race is a major factor in the ‘power struggles’ that
define much of life in human society.
The themes listed above could be an effective way that you could
organise your essay with four distinctly different points.
Racism: the causes and effects
Misunderstanding
Verbal insults
Presumptions and
assumptions often
originating from
childhood:
brought up with
negative associations
attached to people
of a different race
Fear
A lack of respect
Intolerance
Racially motivated physical assaults
Fear for the ‘other’
races then results in
people hiding
themselves. They
tend to focus on
keeping large parts
of the world out.
‘We’re always
behind this metal
and glass…’
Hatred
Lethal violence
Individual rights violated
and essential human dignity
is removed. Farhad and
Cameron suffer greatly
because of their loss of
dignity, their loss of a sense
of ‘man-hood’, the belief
that they have enough
‘power’ to protect
themselves and their family
is erased because of racism.
This then spills over into
potentially fatal violence.