Posted September 22, 200618 yr I finally got around to seeing this one recently. I was APPALLED. This film was absolutely terrible. How could anyone FALL for this manipulative bull$h!t?!?! I can't even BELIEVE it won the Best Motion Picture Oscar - honestly this might be the worst Best Picture ever. This wretched, oversimplified piece of c**p makes Titanic look brave and daring. I guess I should warn that I'll include spoilers, but I'd rather warn people to simply avoid this film. It's basically an incredibly unrealistic account of a bunch of assholes of various races making ethnic slurs and shooting each other. And then at the end, a ridiculous "tragic" ending, coupled with a sappy song of course, reveals to us the true moral of the story: racism is bad. OF COURSE!!!! OF COURSE IT'S BAD! if ONLY racism was as simple as a bunch of bigots yelling at each other, shooting each other, and realizing the error of their ways at the end. if ONLY every racist on this earth learned his lesson because his own friend/relative was shot by another racist, who in turn learned his lesson. I grew a little annoyed when by the 15th minute of the film, Asians were yelling at Mexicans, in turn insulting Persians who were cursed at by white people who were lambasted by blacks. Don't forget the blacks insulted the Asians too, and the Persian hated the Mexican BLAH BLAH BLAH ETC. What complete and utter bull$h!t! And what's worse - they all got guns and SHOT each other at the end. Lovely. If ONLY racism were that simple, if ONLY racism was so blatant. Then they'd all shoot each other and be dead. Racism is MUCH more subtle, much more complex, much deeper and more political. This film is insulting. Anyone could make a film about a child molester and show many weeping children and sappy music and any dumb idiot by the end would be crying and saying "child molestation is so wrong." This was no better. Manipulative c**p that a bunch of simple-minded people bought and felt guilty about and LAUDED for telling them what they already knew. Yet the makers of this movie thought it was so GROUNDBREAKING, so goddamn important. Ugh. HORRIBLE film.
September 22, 200618 yr i've added the "oscar winning one not the pervy one" just in case there's fans of a history of violence, scanners etc etc :lol:
September 22, 200618 yr I think this movie is amazing! So touching and timeless! Great Acting! :o :D i'm hoping to get the directors edition at some point. much prefered it to brokeback mountain.
September 22, 200618 yr Sorry, I dont believe that the overly-simplistic picture you are painting is a description of this film at all. Of course it has its flaws and it does rely a bit too much on coincidences, but "Crash" is an utterly compelling film; obviously it has to exaggerate certain aspects for cinematic reasons, but I believe the intentions of the film-makers are ultimately honourable....
September 22, 200618 yr I really enjoyed Crash ( the Oscar winning one not the pervy one). I didn't think I was going to enjoy it but I found it quite absorbing. And thought provoking. And I wasn't expecting that ending. :huh:
September 23, 200618 yr Author I expected to be in the minority... but this film just really bothered me. I don't think it did a thing to explain why racism exists, how it can affect peoples lives, how it can affect broader trends, and how to solve it. It presented the simplest and rarest form of racism: violence. I still contend that anyone can make a movie about racists shooting each other and get an audience to react. In the end, the Persian lamented because he almost shot a little girl (but why would that make him less racist toward grown Mexicans?), Sandra Bullock realized all her white girlfriends were bithces so she suddenly trusts the Latino nanny despite having been vocally racist? The pivotal car crash scene didn't make any sense to me and just made for some showy overdramatic visual of a racist carrying a black woman away from a car which conveniently explodes moments later. I will agree that it was absorbing and the storyline was interesting. But I don't think it achieved anything except shocking and guilting people into a conclusion they doubtlessly already accepted: racism is bad. I have a real problem with films that present themselves as "important" or "necessary" but only manipulate audiences.
September 23, 200618 yr I expected to be in the minority... but this film just really bothered me. I don't think it did a thing to explain why racism exists, how it can affect peoples lives, how it can affect broader trends, and how to solve it. i think thats asking too much for the time the film ran for and the number of narrative strands that were going on, and i suppose this kind of stuff might be better suited to a documentary (or then again if you to talk in depeth about racism there always this area http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18131
September 23, 200618 yr I expected to be in the minority... but this film just really bothered me. I don't think it did a thing to explain why racism exists, how it can affect peoples lives, how it can affect broader trends, and how to solve it. It presented the simplest and rarest form of racism: violence. I still contend that anyone can make a movie about racists shooting each other and get an audience to react. In the end, the Persian lamented because he almost shot a little girl (but why would that make him less racist toward grown Mexicans?), Sandra Bullock realized all her white girlfriends were bithces so she suddenly trusts the Latino nanny despite having been vocally racist? The pivotal car crash scene didn't make any sense to me and just made for some showy overdramatic visual of a racist carrying a black woman away from a car which conveniently explodes moments later. I will agree that it was absorbing and the storyline was interesting. But I don't think it achieved anything except shocking and guilting people into a conclusion they doubtlessly already accepted: racism is bad. I have a real problem with films that present themselves as "important" or "necessary" but only manipulate audiences. I think you're asking for a bit much from a film with a running time of 101 minutes to be honest. :lol: :lol: And since when did cinema NOT involve a certain amount of audience manipulation - especially Hollywood cinema.... Okay, I agree that you have a good general point about how the film deals with its subject. I refer you to Michael Haneke's fantastic "Hidden" ("Cache") which deals with thorny issues of anti-Arabic racism in France and how the French have swept their colonial past in Arabic North Africa under the carpet... France's "hidden" racism you might posit.... Great film, one of the five best films I've seen this year, check it out....
September 24, 200618 yr Author I will definitely check it out. A taxi driver in Paris told me 2 years ago that "every French man over the age of 40 hates Arabs" and ever since I have been fascinated by the Algerian war. Thanks for the suggestion!
September 24, 200618 yr I will definitely check it out. A taxi driver in Paris told me 2 years ago that "every French man over the age of 40 hates Arabs" and ever since I have been fascinated by the Algerian war. Thanks for the suggestion! Well, if you're interested in that period, there is no better film to watch than Gillo Pontecorvo's fantastic, and VERY controversial at the time, "Battle of Algiers" made in 1961. Powerful stuff indeed. Actually, you should probably watch this first before "Hidden" so you can get some idea of the historical and cultural context, because your interest in films is clearly far more than just a surface interest. I sense you're kinda like me, you wanna get into the whole socio-political contexts...
September 24, 200618 yr I think you're asking for a bit much from a film with a running time of 101 minutes to be honest. :lol: :lol: And since when did cinema NOT involve a certain amount of audience manipulation - especially Hollywood cinema.... Okay, I agree that you have a good general point about how the film deals with its subject. I refer you to Michael Haneke's fantastic "Hidden" ("Cache") which deals with thorny issues of anti-Arabic racism in France and how the French have swept their colonial past in Arabic North Africa under the carpet... France's "hidden" racism you might posit.... Great film, one of the five best films I've seen this year, check it out.... think there's a big thread on it somewhere in this area, however gonna watch c5 now.
September 26, 200618 yr Author Well, if you're interested in that period, there is no better film to watch than Gillo Pontecorvo's fantastic, and VERY controversial at the time, "Battle of Algiers" made in 1961. Powerful stuff indeed. Actually, you should probably watch this first before "Hidden" so you can get some idea of the historical and cultural context, because your interest in films is clearly far more than just a surface interest. I sense you're kinda like me, you wanna get into the whole socio-political contexts... Right, I'm actually going to see Battle of Algiers in october for a screening at a humanities festival... I really want to just netflix it and watch it tomorrow but I paid for the tickets already :lol: I'll be sure to check out Cache afterward... Edited September 26, 200618 yr by Consie
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