Crash
1
“Crash” (2004): The opposing shades of Officer Ryan
2006
Crash
2
Thesis statement
Officer Ryan of the Los Angeles police has been portrayed in Crash (2004), the Oscar
winning film directed by Paul Haggis, is shown to have manners and stances in striking
contradictions (from being an atrociously racist to a compassionately helpful person). His
personality traits are largely shaped by the circumstances he is in. (Contactmusic.com).
Introduction
Crash examines the exceedingly itinerant people of Los Angeles. The film begins with
the camera coming slowly into focus as if a person is recovering his or her awareness.
Viewers see the aftermath of a killing of a young African-American man by gunfire, the
police, with Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) as the chief investigating officer, collecting
facts about the incident. During the inquiry, the police come across something shocking
that happened on the afternoon of the day before. Two young black men, Anthony (Chris
"Ludacris" Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate) are discussing the conspiracy of the white
citizens against the African-Americans. They catch a wealthy white couple in a speeding
car. They are the Los Angeles district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his prima donna
wife Jean (Sandra Bullock). The film inter-cuts between a number of people from
unconnected lives. One scene demonstrates a thriving black couple Cameron (Terrence
Howard) and Christine (Thandie Newton) steering their car, Christine struggling to come
closer to her husband. Then there is Sergeant Ryan (Matt Dillon), an LA police officer,
who despises other races and jumps over Cameron and Christine. To the dismay of his
colleague, Officer Hanson (Ryan Philippe) Ryan begins to sexually offend Christine on
the plea of searching hidden arms. Ryan’s bias against blacks has just been fortified by
Crash
3
the recent event when a black doctor treated his father, who perhaps has prostate cancer,
for bladder infection (hometheaterinfo.com). Ryan makes nasty comments to a black
insurance agent, whom he had previously sexually harassed. His racial intolerance
originates from his father’s financial crises. His father had employed many AfricanAmerican people in his company and had made no racial discrimination in salaries. Yet,
those who had made personal gains from the company subsequently cheated him. That’s
why Ryan despises the blacks (en.wikipedia.com). Ryan, a brave officer, is also a caring
son and is pitiable when he encounters narrow-mindedness while attempting to change
doctors for his father. Ryan offends a fuming and intolerant social worker (Loretta
Devine) is offended over the phone. She conceals her own racism. However, Ryan comes
forward to save her. However, when Christine faces a car accident, Ryan gives his all-out
help to save her from danger (sover.net).
Ryan: the bigot cop of LAPD
The fact that Ryan is the police officer who emerges at the incident of the traffic
accident is a concurrence of epic dimensions but the fundamental fact remains that an
inhuman brute in one circumstance may be bighearted in another. The same Ryan
endangers his own life to save that of Christine, entrapped in her car as a result of a
serious accident. This is not meant to forgive for the cruelty of power that appears to be a
practice with this cop but the movie acknowledges that human beings are strange,
multifaceted and impulsive such that a particular tag reduces our ability to comprehend.
Another black police investigator, Graham (Don Cheadle), a detective, is compelled to
Crash
4
accommodate with ethnic politics but when he appears excessively righteous, he offends
his partner's Latin American heritage (ruthlessreviews.com).
The police force is presented as Los Angeles’ most organized body. Don Cheadle
and Keith David, another black cop have to work in a continually delicate state of
compromise within a force (LAPD) overflowing with white (Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe)
and Latino (Jennifer Esposito) officers. But as whites are not always brutal, so too are
blacks not angelic forever. Haggis places each character in a range of circumstances to
which he or she responds differently - sometimes in a narrow, chauvinistic way and
sometimes laudably. In his sincere longing to depict that human order is in no way
entirely black or white, Haggis inclines on a great deal on accidents (“crashes”) and on a
sense of balance. If he shows two white police officers in a round, one (Dillon) must be a
nasty racist, while the Officer Hanson (Ryan Phillippe) is nearly flawless in his yearning
to sidestep detrimental handling of blacks. And everyone has a reverse trait also. The
advantaged Blacks are pestered and are also rescued by whites (offoffoff.com). Officer
Hanson is appalled by Ryan’s prejudices and the city's inertness. Finding Ryan assaulting
Christine, Hanson takes a single duty car. Hanson rescues Cameron during his altercation
with the police yet fires Peter when the latter touches a statue of Saint Christopher in his
car. His response is most probably affected by his previous meet with Cameron
(Terrence Howard), the black television director, distressed after Ryan assaults his wife
and realizes the frail aspects of his own personality, unable to resist and protest such a
ghastly action and reduced to feebly showing his dissention more as a symbolic gesture
and thus quite naturally annoys Christine (Thandie Newton), Cameron's wife. He forces
away Anthony and Peter (two black small time felon vending stolen cars) when they
Crash
5
attempt to lift his car, removes Anthony's gun, and quarrels raucously with white armed
police officers, not anymre scared of losing his tolerant and tranquil image - or, his life,
apparently, even when the chance of him being killed by the cops comes. His life is saved
by Officer Hanson (en.wikipedia.org).
Conclusion
There was once a cliché in America when whites were racist and blacks were
preys but that classification is outmoded. Every conflict reaches an unforgivably brutal,
noticeable show of racism. Haggis and co-screenwriter, Robert Moresco, have made a
meticulous screenplay that maintains the film's stress near the steaming point with cruel
verbal attacks and ghastly bodily display of hate as shown by Ryan and others. These
people are of little positive worth. Yet they are neither heroic nor villains for that matter.
One moment, Ryan maybe acting in the most despicable manner only to be replaced later,
by an act of compassion one would not think he is capable of. And that's the main point
Haggis asks for to emphasize in Crash. We're all one way or another influenced by our
prejudice of others, and our stances are shaped by the ambience we are surrounded with.
(contactmusic.com). There's awfully clever about Crash - the salvation of Ryan and
others develops in the fashion of intense chances – but the director has deftly suspended
the disbelief about such concurrences in real life in a way that makes Crash simple to
accept (reelfilm.com).
Talking about race, we always stress to be “politically correct”. We indulge in
sweet-talks, idealize, and even disapprove, but we hardly ever say what's in fact lies in
our minds. Perhaps this evasion has its root in the belief that the problem has been long
resolved. We no more lynch a person publicly, we tolerate others point of view, we don
Crash
6
consciously isolate other communities. Yet, as is obvious in Ryan’s intolerance
race
prejudice d has, for the most part, gone secretive, or has become so much established that
it's hard to depict without being frenzied and mistrustful, like Anthony (who thinks that
American society is still prejudiced against blacks. At one point in Crash, he rationalizes
his crimes
by sressing that he would never injure another black person). This
misunderstanding is also seen in films that depict in plain and simple standards of good
and bad types. No, all of us are not secret racists, neither Ryan is. But we are all
prejudiced one way or other. Crash does not discern whites for their bigotry, nor is it
about blaming African Americans, or other communities for their own "issues of color."
Instead, we are brought close to a reality of the melting pot proud of its cultural mix
where every ethnic group has its diehards, but at times a film like Crash reminds that
even the victimized seek to hound for preys to retaliate (ruthlesreviews). Ryan is a
pathological evidence of a racial bias, which he himself is a victim of.
Works Cited
Crash, director/writer: Paul Haggis; screenwriter: story by Paul Haggis/Bobby Moresco;
cinematographer: J. Michael Muro; editor: Hughes Winborne; music: Mark
Isham; cast: Sandra Bullock (Jean Cabot), Don Cheadle (Graham), Matt Dillon
(Officer Ryan), Jennifer Esposito (Ria), Brendan Fraser (Rick Cabot), Terrence
Howard (Cameron), Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges (Anthony), Larenz Tate (Peter),
Thandie Newton (Christine), Michael Pena (Daniel), William Fichtner
(Flanagan), Ryan Phillippe (Officer Hanson), Keith David (Lt. Dixon), Loretta
Devine (Shaniqua), Shaun Toub (Farhad); Runtime: 107; MPAA Rating: R;
Crash
7
producers: Cathy Schulman/Don Cheadle/Bob Yari/Mark R. Harris/Mr.
Moresco/Paul Haggis; Lions Gate Films; 2004
http://www.sover.net/~ozus/crash2004.htm
Review, Crash (2004), http://www.contactmusic.com/new/film.nsf/reviews/crash2004
Crash (2004), http://hometheaterinfo.com/crash_(2004).htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_(2004_film
Matt Cale and the tough questions..., retrieved from
http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/movies/c/crash2005.html
Race case, http://www.offoffoff.com/film/2005/crash.php
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/film.nsf/reviews/crash2004
http://www.reelfilm.com/tiff0410.htm).
Crash
8