How to put an essay together:
Crash
Planning and Writing Essays

Essay writing is a complex task. For less able students, break it down into smaller
bites. A series of paragraphs is a less daunting prospect than a long essay.

Explain to students that it is like arguing a case in court, in which evidence must be
presented in support of or in defence of an argument, an opinion. Debaters will find it
easier.

A good first step is to hold an "Irish debate", in which each student has to stand and
make a statement about the topic, with evidence from the film in support. This is more
effective if the topic has two sides, e.g. 'There are far too many coincidences for
credibility.'
or 'These characters are just caricatures.'
Suggested approach to writing an essay:
Step 1: Underline key words. Use them in the introduction to your essay.
Step 2: Plan your answer.

Impress on students the importance of planning. Avoid the term 'brainstorm', which is
more correctly used for gathering random thoughts. Planning involves the pulling
together of learned and understood material into a coherent and logical order so that a
question is answered.
Step 3: Answer the question in properly structured paragraphs. Aim for five paragraphs: an
introduction, three containing the substance, and a conclusion. Use at least one
relevant quotation or reference in each main paragraph; aim for two or three.
Question:
Discuss the effectiveness of the techniques used to connect different storylines in a
film you have studied.
(Note: Techniques may include narrative, structural and/or filmic techniques.)
Step 1: Discuss the effectiveness of the techniques used to connect different storylines.
The essay will need to clarify the various storylines, identify specific techniques, show HOW
they link the various plots and comment on how successful they are. These things do not
need to be dealt with separately: what, how and evaluation can be integrated into the same
paragraph; indeed, it is better if they are.
Step 2: Plan. (In an exam, keep this to a few brief notes.)
Intro
Explain the intertwining plot threads
list the techniques to be discussed
paragraph 2
paragraph 3
paragraph 4
characters
parallels in action and
camerawork
motifs
conclusion
comment on effectiveness; pull argument together
Step 3: Write an answer
Ensure that specific details and references are included; in film answers, descriptions
of shots etc are the equivalent of quotations in literature answers.
Discuss the effectiveness of the techniques used to connect different storylines in
a film you have studied.
When writer-director Paul Haggis and his co-writer Bobby Moresco set out to write Crash,
they did not intend to write about racism, though that is what the film ended up being about.
Their original idea was to follow a series of characters through Los Angeles and see what
happened when they 'collided' with strangers. The result is a film with multiple storylines –
five to start with and 11 by the time these have split into different strands – which is more like
a tapestry of life in L.A. than a conventionally plotted story. The techniques used to link these
numerous plots are, among others, the characters themselves, plot and cinematic parallels
and echoes, and the traditional unifying device of motifs.
The characters in this film are in a way like snooker balls on a table; hit one into a group
and they each knock into others. The film opens with the arrival of Detective Graham Waters
and his partner Ria at a crime scene, where Graham finds the body of his brother Peter –
though this last fact is not revealed until later. The film then jumps back 24 hours to show the
chain of events that lead to Peter's death. During those 24 hours, Graham investigates the
shooting of a black police officer, which leads to a meeting at the DA's office where Peter's
arrest warrant is used as a lever to have Graham support a prosecution. Peter is in trouble
because of a car-jacking – an event that triggers a chain of events. The Navigator belongs to
the DA Rick Cabot himself. This vehicle knocks over Choi, who is the protagonist of a third
plot-line (the smuggling of illegal Asian workers). The SUV rejected as unsafe, Peter and his
partner Anthony attempt to steal another Navigator, thus linking another plot, that of a
successful black couple Cameron and Christine Thayer. They have previously been the
victims of an assault by a racist police officer, Ryan, whose behaviour has so disgusted his
partner Hanson that he asks for a new partner. Hanson later saves Cameron from a police
confrontation, a direct result of the attempted theft and an indirect result of Ryan's behaviour;
Ryan turns our judgements upside down when he risks his own life to rescue Christine from a
car fire. And then Hanson is responsible for the death of Peter. The effectiveness of this
structure has been questioned as too coincidental, as suggesting the city has only a handful
of people in it, but this is to miss the point. The film needs to be seen for what it is - a
parable, an allegory of human behaviour, in which coincidences and juxtapositions like these
are acceptable, useful and telling.
Haggis is not content to have just his characters link the many storylines; he also uses
cinematographical echoes and parallels, repeating shots and angles. Scenes in one plot are
echoed in another. High angle shots suggest that these characters are not in control of their
own fates: the film opens and closes with them, and with a car crash – a rear-ending – that
emphasises the parallel. After the first, Ria, who is mistaken for a Mexican, mocks the poor
English of the other driver, Korean Kim Lee: "I 'blake' too fast? I'm sorry you no see my
'blake' lights." At the end, Shaniqua, who has been on the receiving end of Ryan's racism,
echoes Ria: "Don't talk to me unless you speak English." Scenes from different plots echo
the other: two cars burn; two wives call their husbands from bed after accidents; children
comfort their parents. The most obvious links between plots are through the transitions from
scene to scene: through doors and vehicles particularly. Several scenes are linked by
vehicles passing the camera and revealing a new scene – Anthony drives the Navigator
away, and when he has gone, the crime scene of the shooting is revealed. Later locksmith
Daniel, on his way to fix Farhad's door, backs his white van out of the drive, and it turns into
the black Navigator. Doors are effective links: Farhad's daughter Dorri pushes open the door
of the gun shop, and the scene cuts to Anthony and Peter walking out of the door of a
restaurant. As Ryan leaves Shaniqua's office (in the sub-plot of his father's medical
condition) he reaches to open a door; a cut to the next scene has a messenger opening the
door into the locksmiths where Daniel works and from whom Farhad is trying to get his name
– in another plot line involving doors, keys and locks.
Keys and locks are among a number of motifs that are effective in providing links
between plots. After the car-jacking, Daniel is called to change the locks in the Cabot house.
Perhaps because Jean Cabot offensively assumes from his tattoos that he is a gang
member, Daniel, one of the few characters who does not demonstrate racism, is less than
patient when Farhad accuses him of trying to cheat him. This failure of lock and key is a
direct cause of Farhad's confronting Daniel with a gun – another of the motifs that unify the
film. Guns are indeed ubiquitous in Crash – from the purchase by Farhad in an early scene;
to Anthony's reference to the "trigger-happy LAPD"; to Cameron's fear of Ryan's gun; to the
guns that Anthony and Peter use to steal vehicles, one of which Cameron has tucked in his
belt when Hanson assures his fellow police officers that "this man is unarmed." There is "a
nice gun" in the car of shot officer Lewis; and it is a police gun that shoots Peter. Other
motifs that link plots are the repetition of the lines "Look at me", used by both Ryan and
Cameron; the crosses that are often in the background of scenes, and the ubiquitous
Christmas decorations. Stop signs are significant in the Hanson-Peter plot and in the
Cameron plot, where they climax with a huge Father Christmas with his hand up like a stop
sign.
The effectiveness of these methods of connecting the many plot lines in this film is shown
by the fact that the stories are never confusing, that each flows seamlessly into the next. One
of the main points of the film is to demonstrate the 'connectedness' of people, the way they all
touch and affect other people. In the end, the plots are all integrated into one large tapestry
of 36 hours of life in a big city.
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