Crash, my ass!
Look, I’m a fan of Paul Haggis. He created an unforgettably poignant screenplay for last year’s Oscar Best Picture Million Dollar Baby, and I consider him to be one of my favorite Hollywood writers, right up there with Quentin Tarantino, Sophia Coppola, the Cohen Brothers, and Charlie Kaufman. But Crash should not have won Best Picture.
Why people all of a sudden seem to be in love with this movie, I don’t know. Like everyone else, I was fooled last summer by the film’s trailer. The trailer revealed an ensemble cast — which usually indicates that the film will follow a nonlinear format of three stories which criss-cross and ultimately all come together at the end, which people these days are suckers for — and in the background it played Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (which might sound familiar if you hear it because it was played over and over throughout Platoon) to chilling effect.
After weeks of anticipation, I finally saw the movie on its opening night. And like everyone else, I was totally stimulated by Don Cheadle’s opening lines:
It’s the sense of touch. In 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.
OoOoOoOoh. The sense of touch. A statement on our society’s inner-directed, aloof tendencies. Okay. So far so good... And we quickly learn that the movie tackles racism. Not bad.
Fifteen minutes into the movie I was treated to a touching, well-written scene involving a Hispanic man and his five-year-old daughter. She asks him if bullets go forever and he in turn gives her an “invisible cape” that will protect her from harm. Cute.
I sat back in my seat in the dark movie theater, nodding my head in approval because I knew this movie was going to be special.
It was not.
To call the movie a disappointment is an understatement. Haggis fails to really unify what he started in the beginning of the movie. It’s almost as if he had a great opening dialogue sequence and a couple brilliant scenes laid out in his head and thought he could build a great movie off of just that. Good movie, yes. But it could have been a GREAT movie, a no-questions-asked Oscar winning movie, if it were not for Haggis’ lazy writing at the end.
I mean, come on, in the last minutes of the movie people get out of their cars and look towards the sky in wonderment as it snows for the first time in years in Los Angeles? Cue cheesy overhead shot of Don Cheadle touching the falling snowflakes. Cue sappy music that sounds like something Dido would sing. Fade to black. Could you get any more cliche than that?
Not only that, but Jennifer Esposito’s boobs were a little sick. Her nipples had nipples on them. They looked more like stalactites from an ancient asteroid in space. See for yourself (this link is NSFW).
Anyway, back to movies. As a formulaic highbrow wannabe, Crash was a poor man’s Magnolia. As a racial drama, Crash wasn’t even a tenth as powerful or as thought-provoking as American History X.
So why do people think this movie is so good?
I’ll bring back what I said before: people think they’re watching highbrow cinema. These are the people that always put the same three movies — Lost in Translation, Garden State, Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind — as their favorites on their MySpace profiles. Give or take an I Heart Huckabees. Now, I’m sure that the Academy’s 6,000 members aren’t exclusively the twenty-something, pseudo-intellectual, Che Guevara t-shirt wearing demographic, but you have to be just a little bit messed up in the head to not know that King Kong was 2005’s best movie.
Just kidding. I would have personally voted for Brokeback Mountain.
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I didn't think crash was all that great... but looking back on the year... I can't really think of any great movie I saw.
Brokeback was too gay and boring, Walk the Line dragged on too much..sorry to say but Crash was the best movie.
people who think that Crash "really made you think" should be laughed at.
yeah man.. i remember that nipple shot and it freaked me out.
i liked crash when i first saw it. but then the more i thought about the movie, the more it pissed me off because it had so must potential and i was dissatisfied. i was also disappointed at how haggis couldn't finish as strong as he started, although cheadle's performance at the end compensated for it. it was formulaic, and the coincidences werent convincing enough. haggis tried to make a bold statement by throwing racism in our faces and making obvious connections, but i think u can be subtle and still make bold statements. if it werent for cheadle and the hispanic family's story-line, the movie would've been completely average. i would say it's comparable to an 8 Mile. great movie, but not worthy of an oscar.
I was about to comment that Crash was a shitty version of Magnolia before you mentioned it.
The best movie of 2005 was by far Munich.
FYI, it wasn't snowing at the end, I don't think. I think those were ashes from the burning car.
And you would have personally voted for Brokeback Mountain because deep down you wish you were more Chinese like Ang Lee. ;~)
Lastly, on a serious note... I respect differing opinions, but I thought Crash was thought-provoking (I think I hear Tom laughing) and I think that people who did not come away with a similar message, didn't fully understand it.
I don't often agree with Ebert... but I do on this:
http://tinyurl.com/dpqor
You coming on Friday??
Randy, I'm pretty sure it was snowing at the end, although I'll have to check out the DVD to make sure. The reason I'm sure is because at the beginning of the movie one of the cops complains that it's chilly outside, and then the other cop replies that the weatherman says there's a chance of snow later in the night... and I remember kind of rolling my eyes at the movie's inevitable ending.
But if you remember it being ashes from a burning car, then I think I may have to give the movie a second viewing. In fact, I most likely will have to watch it again anyway, because I (unlike you) happen to hold Roger Ebert's opinions in high regard, and if he thinks Crash was 2005's best film, well then doggone it, maybe it really is!
Don't forget that I did say that Crash was a good movie -- just not a bonafide Academy Best Picture. Obviously, others agree with me, which is why there has been such an uproar on the Academy's selection.
Crash was just too flawed for me to love it. One thing that quickly comes to mind is when Terrence Howard's character -- an "emasculated African-American yuppie" as Scott Foundas puts it in the Ebert article -- gets pulled over by two white cops and suddenly turns into a jive-talkin' street hustla. I know, I know, he's angry about what happened to him earlier in the movie, but that doesn't mean he should have BROKEN CHARACTER SO DRAMATICALLY. Someone should've told poor Terrence that he was still shooting a scene for Crash, not Hustle and Flow.
Simply put, the scene was either lazily written or poorly directed, and there are many more scenes in the movie that annoyed me because of their lack of polish. I'll agree that Crash is indeed thought-provoking, but not the multi-layered masterpiece that Magnolia is.
And that is what pisses me off about the movie. It should have and could have been a masterpiece, but what we got instead was disposable mediocrity.
And Randi, sorry I keep skipping on you guys on poker night, but I may have to stay in this weekend because I'm behind on school stuff. But if you guys are desperate for a fourth or fifth player, let me know and I'll see what I can swing. :)
Revenge of the Sith was the best movie of 2005. Anyway, Pete, you need to just put your "movie review" section up on your site, and not just as a category for your posts.
What are your opinions on PTA's movies? I'm asking because of the frog scene in Magnolia, of course. I haven't seen Crash, so I can't say what I thought of it. But it sounds Magnolia-esque, except it took the easy way out a few times (snow instead of frogs). Have you seen "Hard Eight?" You should.
Haven't seen Hard Eight, and haven't seen Cigarettes & Coffee either, although I intend to whenever I get my Netflix subscription.
I think Paul Thomas Anderson is awesome. Not a huge fan of Punch-Drunk Love though, although honestly I can't say I vividly remember most of it. I just remember that Adam Sandler kept trying to get into Emily Watson's pants and that he bought a shitload of Healthy Choice chocolate pudding. I loved Magnolia and the raining frogs, and I loved Boogie Nights and its last scene in particular, which pretty much redeemed the movie for its otherwise slow and pointless third act.
shit you know a lot about movies. maybe too much.
Dan has a point about you opening a movie section, or even better an entire website devoted to movies.
I only like blogging about big "event" type movies -- movies that come along every couple of months that lots of people are talking about -- so I don't blog enough about movies in general to warrant me doing something like that.
Well, I respect Ebert's opinion (he is where he is for a reason!) -I just don't always agree with it. ;~) And I own Crash if you would like to borrow it or come over for popcorn and rum and watch it sometime to check out the ashes. :~)
I've watched black people go from talking "white" around white people to talking "black" around black people like a switch they turn off and on. I also know that my southern comes out a lot stronger when I'm pissed. ;~) Maybe with black people, their jive comes out stronger? :~P It sounds goofy, but it could explain why he started getting all jivey.
I need to watch Magnolia, believe it or not.
And damnit, it's RANDI with an "I." hehe.
I've been through grad school, so I respect your schedule, Pete. Whenever you can come out, you're always welcome. :~)
Well. I just woke up, so this might be a little incomprehensive.
Yes, it's true that original screenplays are hard to come by. Yes, Magnolia came before it. Yes, there were other good movies this year. However when it comes down to it, the Oscars were for this year, and in this year, Crash was the best movie, espescially amongst the other nominees.
I'd also like to point out that Terrence Howard didn't break his character that suddenly. After his wife's sexual assault, in front of his eyes, we're exposed to what he puts up with daily, just as he is. Obviously a man's got to crack at some point and when he is affronted by black men he has a much easier time standing up for himself and once the walls come down, we see what people can be reduced to. The whole scene was portraying how black men, even educated ones, are driven to violence sometimes by the constant derision they face, and are therefore more than often victims of their social situations.
As far as the hispanic guy goes, while I was able to predict what would happen to his daughter accurately, by the reaction of the people all around me, I think Paul Haggis achieved what he wanted. The Persian's story was my favorite arc.
The snow. It could be snow, or it could be ash. I think it was both because there's that part when he rubs his coat and it smears. Either way, I didn't think the ending was cliche. Far from it. I guess it all comes down to perceptions and they are after all just movies.
So let's look at the total score:
Munich - while a very good movie I don't think it compares to Crash's commentary on the various situations in American societies today.
Capote - saw about 10 mins of it and it was very uninteresting.
Brokeback Mountain - I saw it and just as I thought before that it wasn't going to win the Oscar, I don't see why anyone else is surprised either. If they weren't gay, this title wouldn't be here, but that's what its about isn't it?
Good Night and Good Luck - Out of all the movies I thought this one had the most to say. Writing and performance wise I thought this was Crash's biggest competition, but I didn't think it'd be a popular theme with Hollywood or the Academy so I didn't expect it to win.
And that's why I thought Crash was going to win easily.
So I think it was snow at the end, someone thinks it was ashes, and someone else thinks it was a little of both. I really need to watch this movie again.
David, I'm not sure what you're doing waking up at 12:45 in the afternoon but maybe you should go back to bed (joking joking, I come in peace!) because I really didn't feel that Terrence Howard's slow burn was as convincing and/or effective as it should have been. That's why it felt like he was breaking character. I was totally caught off guard by his explosion of anger, and I'll blame Haggis being a rookie director for that one.
Randi, why couldn't your name be Amber or something? Sigh.
Aww, Pete. You can call me Amber. ;~) But only you.
Since I haven't seen any of the other nominees for best picture, I don't feel like I'm in a position to opine as to which film should have won - but I do think that Crash was a really great movie. I should go rent the others when they come out. I really want to see most of them (except Capote -- no desire whatsoever).
I did see Syriana which was nominated for original screenplay, and I'm fairly pleased that it didn't win. I felt like Syriana was all over the place and really hard to follow. I should probably go see it again at some point just to give it a fair shake.
And what was better?
Brokeback mountain - Hell No
Capote - Why is capote considered relevant
Munich - I did like, but not better than Crash
King Kong - Amazing effects but in the end, the same story..ape likes little white gurl....the ape was really stupid
Since when has an Oscar really been a true measure of what's best out there anyway? Let's do a quick recap, shall we? Citizen Kane, considered by many to be the greatest movie ever made, didn't win the best picture. Titanic beat out a far better LA Confidential. And despite winning Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture, Russel Crowe didn't win for Best Actor for A Beautiful Mind even though the whole movie was basically a one man show. Plus the Academy has this habit of bestowing Oscars to the right people, but for the wrong things.
Let's face it...expecting the Academy to give the Oscar to the most deserving is like expecting the smartest and most ethical man to become the President of the United Staes.
Great point, Tasha. Jon Stewart said it best after Three 6 Mafia accepted the award for Best Original Song: "For those of you at home keeping score -- Martin Scorsese, no Oscars. Three 6 Mafia? Oscar."
Well, I'm sad to say Focus features conned me to go see Crash with their seemingly highbrow, artsy color changing effect they did with crash and the Focus Features logo. They know how to market films to get audiences to go see them.
When I got to the theatre, and then subsequently left, I had realized I just watched a movie. And I personally felt it was lacking. I didn't pick it apart bit by bit, but I just knew it wasn't a great film. It seemed like the author, apparently Paul Haggis, like Pete said, had a good idea or two, but then wasn't sure how to fit it all together. It wasn't a complete work of brilliance. It was perhaps inspired by a couple novel ideas, but the rest of the film lagged and he struggled to add depth and meaning to his piece.
It has been awhile since I saw it, so I wish I could give better examples, but overall there was too much in the movie that was predictable, a lot of it seemed like it was just trying to get a reaction out of "regular joe" (for lack of a more derogatory term) audience members.
While I have seen Magnolia, I left the film feeling I had missed something. The frogs, to me, didn't make sense, and it seemed more random than symbolic.
But honestly, when I heard that Crash won best picture I lost faith in humanity for two reasons; a) that no one made a better film than Crash in 2005 and/or b) that the esteemed Academy could be fooled (or rather look way too deeply) into thinking it was a "hard-hitting drama" that had an original message.
P.S. I highly recommend Coffee & Cigarettes, Pete. Almost as much as I recommend NETFLIX. But I would watch more Jim Jarmusch films prior to seeing Coffee & Cigarettes. That's what I accidentally did and I felt I was able to appreciate it more...?
What are your thoughts on religion? I just discovered that Paul Haggis is a scientologist.