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James M Fisher
10 Feb 2012
Horowitz
Film Analysis – Crash
1. Identify the culture/subcultures that is being portrayed; describe the
intracultural/intercultural issues and conflicts; refer to concepts discussed in the
textbook.
There are several culture/subcultures that are displayed throughout this film. First of
all, the main American culture is predominantly seen by the Caucasian people, such as
the cops, and political figure and his wife (Sandra Bullock). Subcultures were apparent
as well. It was obvious to see that the Persian store owners were Muslim, and the black
film director (Cameron) was a Buddhist. It was very obvious to see that each of the
minority groups had their own subculture. The Asian guy who was hit by the SUV was
clearly in touch with his subculture for he was transporting illegal immigrants. Some
intercultural issues and conflicts were seen numerous times throughout the film. First
of all, at the beginning of the film when the detective and girl were rear-ended by the
Asian lady there was a intercultural conflict… The Asian lady was called out on her
stereotypes by the driver of the other vehicle, whom mocked her for saying “blake light”
(unable to enunciate her “R’s” as well as mocking her ability to drive). Black guys stole a
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car from white people, which allowed Sandra Bullock’s character to justify her
stereotypes in her own mind. Interethnic and interracial communication was an
apparent barrier for the characters within this film. Although the black and white
detectives had a sexual relationship, which in itself is still considered a intercultural
conflict to some in America. White people were displayed as either snobby, arrogant
people who are stuck on themselves or as a crooked policeman… The Hispanic guy was
thought to be a “gangbanger” who sells keys to the locks he installs. It seems to me that
people within this film need some more culture-general information, they need to
understand why cultures acts the way they do in order to fully accept them.
2. In your opinion, what is the main topic/lesson of this movie?
In my opinion, the main topic/lesson of this movie is to shed some light on the still relevant
existence of racism in America today. Our tolerance for ambiguity was displayed during this
film. Although, I feel the director over-did it a bit, but I think he did that to ensure his point
gets across. This film lets its audiences know that there is still an ongoing problem here in the
US and that we need to do something about it now. This film should teach its viewers to be
more accepting, more open minded. I think the idea of racism has slowly been more and more
ignored as time goes on; we seem to ignore the problem now just because it is no longer a
“pressing issue”. This movie revives the issue and makes us take a second to reconsider our
own ways. Ultimately, this film shows that each and every ethnic group, no matter what you
are; white, black or brown you have your own stereotypes that you live up to. Due to the select
few snobby, ignorant white people in the world we are classified in this manner to people of
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different ethnic backgrounds. Due to the select few African Americans that steal and carry
handguns they all are classified to be this way. Due to the select few Hispanic people who are
in gangs and do drugs they are all classified this way… etc… This movie shows us that if we
don’t let go of these stereotypes we will never be able to become a unified nation… “one
nation, under god, indivisible…” indivisible!... until we can live up to that one word in our
pledge of allegiance we will never truly experience “liberty and justice for all”.
3. Analyze some of the cultural patterns that you see in each of the different cultures
portrayed in the movie (beliefs, values, norms, and social practices).
Each of the different races have very different beliefs, values , norms, and social practices- this
is partly due to their origins. History plays a large role in American society, having known
slavery existed just until recently blacks tend to be more hesitant to befriend white people, visa
versa. Let’s start with the two black men; they both clearly believe that all white people are
racist. They both make it very clear that they should be the ones afraid for their lives simply
because they are the “only black men in the town” yet, with that being said they end up living
up to what they think white people think of them. They claim that all the white people there
fear them, yet a few seconds later they run up to a nice black SUV and steal the vehicle from a
couple white people using guns. They then hit an Asian man on the way to drop the SUV off at
a chop shop, one of the two black guys is willing to just ditch the man and leave him under the
SUV, whereas the other man persuades the other to pull him out from under the SUV. One of
the two black guys (detective’s brother) shows a little bit of religious belief when he brings out
his Saint Christopher (the Saint of safe travel). Up next is the Persian family, they show that
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they believe in a close family because they all work and run their small convenient store, they
value hard work and money. They value the safety of their family, so much that they purchase
a gun to ensure the safety of their job-place. The white guys and gals throughout this film are
shown as very snobby, extremely racist and/or crooked. Let’s take the police officer for
instance, through racial profiling he pulled over a black couple. The husband (Cameron) was a
Buddhist, and his black wife looked very white due to her lighter skin tone. So, when the
policeman shined his spotlight in the vehicle it showed the wife pulling her head up from her
husband’s crotch region and being displayed as a Caucasian woman. The officer then pulled
them over and was very rude to the couple and acted with no professionalism. He felt up the
wife right in front of Cameron. The social practices of the white people were very ignorant all
around. The other white couple was exhibited as being extremely wealthy and snobbish, the
wife (Sandra Bullock) hated minorities, especially after being carjacked by a couple black men.
She then showed he racist views when the Hispanic locksmith came to her home to change her
locks. The husband was running for some political office, he wanted to award a minority
fireman publically just to show that he wasn’t racist, even after being carjacked by the two
black men and having it published. Their ignorance was very apparent. The last two white
people exhibited crooked-like behaviors; there was the chop shop owner who purchased stolen
vehicles and even offered to buy the Asians within the van at the end, as well as the gun store
owner at the beginning of the film… he was very racist towards the Persian family buying the
gun. All of the characters kept their co-cultures low key.
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4. Use some of the cultural dimensions to explain the differences between the cultures
seen in the movie (high context and low-context cultural taxonomies/Hofstede’s
cultural dimensions).
It was apparent that the black detective and his family had a low-context cultural taxonomy, for
they rarely spoke and when they did it wasn’t much, plainly coding messages and had a low
commitment to his family (he put his work first). The white people of the film had high-context
cultural taxonomies, for they spoke out a lot, had high commitment, time was open and they
were flexible. The Asian and Hispanic families displayed more of a low-context cultural
taxonomy for they showed more reaction on the surface and exhibited a more organized sense
of time. It was apparent that the white people within the film showed a high level of power
distance. They were displayed as a police officer (the Law), a political member (the Voice) and
even the white guy who managed the chop shop showed his power by wanting to purchase
people from the black car thief. It was apparent when the black couple (Cameron) and his wife
both had uncertainty avoidance, where they both thought they were being mistreated by the
white man, but at the same time understood they couldn’t do much about it so they simply
tried to avoid the situations. For example, when they got pulled over, Cameron knew that he
wasn’t in the wrong but he felt pressured into confessing that he was just because he was black
he knew he wasn’t going to get away with stating the truth, he had to cave in. Masculinity
versus femininity was exhibited in the white people as well as the two black car thieves. The
whites showed it in the sense that they needed to be in places of power, whether it was the
police force or politics. The black guys had to steal from others, showing off their strength and
finding their stealing ways as more dominant. The Persian family best displayed the indulgence
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versus restraint dimension because they were all about money, working to keep their shop in
businesses was crucial to their well-being, whereas other people such as Sandra Bullock’s
character took everything for granted, she didn’t care much for her princess-like lifestyle.
5. Do you think the different cultures in the movie are portrayed in a fair and respectful
way? Are there any cultural biases or stereotypes?
I do not think the different cultures in this movie are portrayed in a fair and respectful way.
Social categorizing was displayed throughout the entire film. Each culture was displayed to be
far more extreme than what it really is. For example, this film exhibited all white people to be
crooked or stuck up, all black people were thieves, Hispanic people were portrayed as poor and
gangbangers, Persian people were convenient store owners, Asians smuggled their people into
America illegally and cannot drive, and black guys only want white women. This film showed
that all young black men walking down the street have this peripheral belief that all white
people are racist. Each and every group of people were heavily stereotyped against. All black
guys do is steal, Hispanic people are dumb and cannot speak English, white are rich and snobby,
Iranian people just open their own convenient stores and Asians cannot enunciate their “R’s”
and cannot drive at all. If I didn’t know any better I would have guessed a non-white person
directed this film. It clearly shows that white people are elitist bastards who think of nothing
but themselves, I understand this is a rather bold portrayal of each ethnic group but still… it
makes it look like ALL white people are messed up.
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6. Is there a character in this film with whom it is impossible for us to sympathize? Who?
Why?
As stated in class I feel that the police Chief Lt. Dixon is impossible to sympathize with simply
because he was confronted with the problem, yet he did absolutely nothing to cure the
problem. It is his duty to make sure there are no issues within the force, yet he totally brushes
off this particular problem. I understand he isn’t a “main character” but his poor outlook on
how things should be ran needs to be reevaluated. If I were to select a “main character”, I
would choose the black man played by Ludacris who stole the car with the other black man. It
is quite apparent that the ecology in which Ludacris grew up in was quite different from the
others; maybe with the exception of the Hispanic man (just came out of the bad
neighborhood). Don’t get me wrong, I know what he did a the end of the movie was a
honorable thing, but I just have a hard time sympathizing for a person who ran over another
person, wanted to leave him for dead, stole his van, stole two other vehicles at gun point, and
even after doing his “good deed” he still drove off in the stolen van at the end… I’m sorry but
that behavior cannot go ignored.
7. Do you think that there are communication problems between the different cultures?
If yes, for what reason?
Yes, there are definitely problems in communication between the different cultures. First of all,
each of these different groups of people are in some sort of personal crisis of their own,
whether it’s having a mother whom is a drug addict and misses her sons (one whom roams the
street stealing cars and the other one too busy to see her) or a Persian store keeper who is tired
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of being burglarized and purchases a gun for self defense… All of the different culture groups
are feeling the effects of racism to some extent, so therefore they are all pretty edgy. Due to
their lack of communication they end up in this vicious cycle of events that force them all to be
intertwined. Each of the different cultures (mainly white and black) display a harsh stereotype
for one another, if these barriers could be taken down we would be able to talk things through
and get past all of our mindless opinions about one another. The interpersonal communication
patterns for each set of main characters was quite different, these differences could have
played a minor role in ultimate outcome. Seems to me the whites viewed institutional
networks very differently than the minorities.
8. Do you think this film is an accurate portrayal of American society today?
I do not believe this film is an accurate portrayal of American society today simply because the
racism within this movie is far more extreme than what the reality is on a regular basis. You’re
probably saying to yourself “Micky, you’re a white male living in Ellensburg, Washington what
could you possibly know about racism”… valid point, I don’t. I do know that the portrayals of
racism in this film are true and do happen time to time but for the most part this is not the
reality of American society. I have worked a job where I was one of three white people working
out of 50-60. I was surrounded by African, Asian and Mexican Americans, I experienced a little
bit of prejudice but nowhere near the amount I should have experienced assuming things were
the way this film portrayed. America has suffered with racism since the beginning, it’s been
pretty bad, but as of today I honestly believe that things are much better. We Americans love
categorizing people into groups, we always have, whether it be upper class, middle, lower…
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Black, white, brown, red… democrat, republican, moderate etc… U.S. Americans are very
diverse (melting pot), and because of this we are quick to hate someone dimply because
he/she is different from us… Although we’re getting more and more diverse as time goes on,
we seem to be more and more accepting of one another’s differences; we’re becoming more
accepting in my honest opinion.
9. What might the falling snow in L.A. at the end of the film symbolize?
The falling snow in L.A. at the end of the film could symbolize a couple of things. First of all, it
could stand for a new beginning, that the characters within the film are seeing things in a new
way, seeing things a way they never have before… The snow ties in with that idea in the sense
that it doesn’t snow in L.A…. that the scenery is new for everyone there. Snow in L.A. is a
miracle, and so is the light that each of the characters seen. Also, the falling snow could
symbolize the falling of barriers, characters see who they really are and drop that barrier they
had up. To me, the falling snow in L.A. represents a fresh start.
10. What might the burning car and falling ashes symbolize? Think about what is burning:
think about who witnesses the burning: think about what burning does to an object.
The burning car represents bad memories and regret. The vehicle burning belongs to the cop
who shoots and kills a black man that he picked up on the side of the road. He was under the
impression that he was pulling out a gun instead of a Saint Christopher figurine… The burning of
the car symbolized a few things, for the cop who set it on fire it meant he found out who he
truly was, he tried burning that mistake away, and he wants to eliminate that terrible part of
him within. The other veteran Officer, John Ryan said to him earlier in the film “you think you
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know who you are, you have no idea” this burning of the car symbolized him realizing who he
really was. Cameron (the black director), felt pushed around by white people, with the help of
his wife he was at his breaking point, almost getting himself killed with an encounter with car
thieves and the police. Fortunately for him one of the policemen who stopped him during his
breaking point was the blonde cop who had witnessed Officer John Ryan grope his wife and
belittle him greatly the night before, so he was understanding of this man’s current state of
mind. Cameron pulls over and witnesses the ashes falling and sees the burning vehicle, for him
this symbolized him standing up for himself, it stood for his own revelation. He saw a handful
of people throwing wood and chairs into the raging fire, he too let loose and threw a piece in…
He established who he was.