Monday, March 06, 2006

Crash the Movie

James Taranto of Best of the Web (you have to scroll to the bottom) feels that Crash may have been a good movie but that it was "manipulative and unrealistic as the day is long."
My wife (the good Democrat) and I watched the movie on Sunday just before the Oscars, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Now, I may be putting too much into this, but it seems to me that what the movie was saying is that racisim is essentially laziness; a sort of shorthand way to react to the frustrations of life over which we have so little control.
It does add in two examples of racisim that show the absolute worst form which is racisim by the authorities. Watching the charachter played by Matt Dillon grope the female passenger in front of her husband after a stop about made me quit the movie right there. Then later, when the LA County District Attorney and his assistants allowed a white detective to be blamed for the death of an off duty black officer, it showed that while our personal racisim is bad, at the institutional level it can destroy our entire civilization.
It is a good movie and shows the corrupting effects of racisim. Go see it if you get the chance.

2 comments:

KarbonKountyMoos said...

I didn't see the movie - haven't seen one in years - until waaay after they're on video or now, those newfangled DVDs.

racism

The Viceroy's Fuguestate said...

You're married to a democrat too? Wow. I liked "Crash" as well, it pointed out (in my mind anyway) that racism isn't a one way street.