What the Movie Crash Can Teach Us
Even though Crash is a work of fiction, the film can still teach us compassion. One lesson is do not judge a book by its cover. For example, in the movie, Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) is afraid of and distrustful of her Latino locksmith because he is bald and has tattoos. She assumes he is in a gang and will sell copies of her keys to his gang friends so they may come back and rob her. In reality, the locksmith is a peaceful, loving, kind, and gentle father and husband.
Another lesson I learned is you never know what someone is going through. For example, Officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) has an ailing father. Detective Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) has an alcoholic mother because her other son is a criminal. Even though Officer Ryan and Detective Water characters are successful in their careers and appear to have it all, that is simply not true. This lesson may apply to people we know.
You never know when you will run into someone again so be careful how you treat people. Treat everyone with kindness and respect. For example when Officer Ryan pulls over an African American couple, he takes sexual advantage of the wife of the couple. Officer Ryan acts this way becase he never expects to see her again. Well, the very next day, she is caught in a dangerous car wreck. She is hanging upside down in her upside down car which is leaking gasoline and may explode at any moment. Officer Ryan comes upon this scene and he has to save her. At first, she doesn’t want him to touch her. Then he says he has to get her out of there because a fire could start. She calms down enough to let him work on getting her out of the car. His cop friends pull him out of the car before it explodes but he goes back in to save the woman and they both escape in the nick of time before the car explodes.
A final lesson is that people may have reasons for their prejudices. Does this make it right? No, but it makes it understandable. Officer Ryan's father in the movie had a company where he employed several African Americans. Over time, laws were passed favoring minority business owners. Well, since his father is Caucasian, he didn’t qualify for these government contracts or preferences so he lost his business, his wife, and his home. It makes sense that Officer Ryan would blame the African Americans for these losses in his father’s life and therefore treat this population badly as a means of revenge. Should we automatically judge someone who is prejudiced? No. Instead we should try to find out their story and why they feel the way they do. Maybe they have reasons for believing and feeling as they do. Maybe we can talk and come to a new understanding of the situation. There is always more to the story than what meets the eye.
Details
- Crash
- Starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon
- Written by Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco
- Directed by Paul Haggis
- Running time: 112 minutes
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