Analysis Of The Movie Crash

In the Oscar award winning movie Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, a network of characters portray the lifestyles of different races in Los Angeles. In the movie, characters “crash” into one another, similar to pinballs, to spur new emotions and explain their actions. A main character Anthony, an African American male, steadily tries to prove why he does not and will not fall into the black male thug stereotype. He was slightly close minded and repeatedly had a negative outlook towards his environment. Anthony created contradictions between what he said and what his actual intentions were. His actions were guided by his environment and further analysis of them will prove his motivation. Anthony’s life revolved around stealing cars for a chop

Anthony immediately told Peter about the racism ingrained in their society, but to make the situation ironic, they continue to rob the couple at gunpoint. Anthony was too afraid to alter his way of life because he felt that no matter what he does he will continually be seen as a thug. According to the Critical Race Theory, it would be a cultural norm for a white woman to act how she did. The theory states “proponents of this theory believe racism is deeply embedded in our society sometimes to the point where we don’t realize it anymore”(Delgado). If she would have acted as if they were equals, she would be labeled as a deviant. Since a deviant is labeled as being an undesirable activity she chose to stick to the norm. Sadly, because racism has become deep-rooted, no matter how characters tried to disprove their ethnic stereotype, they continue to live it to survive in society. Anthony always based his present actions on his past experiences, fundamentally living in the past, until he experienced a reality check that set him

In the action he tells Peter to shoot him, contradicting when Anthony previously said he would never hurt another African-American. The attempted theft taught Anthony to stop having a narrow-minded viewpoint on life and to stop telling and start listening. Anthony learned all stereotypes are not genuine and the phrases “You embarrass me. You embarrass us”(Crash) uttered by the driver made the once intolerant Anthony take a look back at his life. Shortly after, Anthony took a truck full of illegal immigrants to the chop shop and was offered a deal of $500 for each immigrant and to keep the truck. The old Anthony might’ve sold the immigrants but because he encountered a life-changing experience he decided to set them free. Anthony then rode the bus to symbolize the change in his view on