Crash is a 2004 American drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Haggis. The film is about racial and social tensions in Los Angeles, California. A self-described "passion piece" for Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real life incident in which his Porsche was carjacked outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard in 1991. It won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing in 2005 at the 78th Academy Awards.

 

Several characters' stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles; a black LAPD detective estranged¹ from his mother, his criminal younger brother and gang associate, the white District Attorney and his irritated and pampered² wife, a racist³ white police officer who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, an African American Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the officer, a Persian-immigrant father who is wary⁴ of others, and a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter.

 

Roger Ebert gave the film 4/4 stars and described it as "a movie of intense fascination," listing it as the best film of 2005. The film also ranks at number 460 in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.

 

Some critics assert that Asians are portrayed⁵ in an overwhelmingly negative light with few, if any, redeeming⁶ qualities. The film has been criticized for reinforcing Asian stereotypes⁷ and lacking any manner of significant development of its Asian characters. From an alternative perspective, the film has been critiqued for"laying bare the racialized fantasy of the American dream and Hollywood narrative⁸ aesthetics⁹" and for depicting¹⁰ the Persian shopkeeper as a "deranged¹¹, paranoid individual who is only redeemed¹² by what he believes is a mystical act of God." The film has also been criticised for using multicultural¹³ and sentimental¹⁴ imagery to cover over material and "historically sedimented inequalities" that continue to affect different racial groups in Los Angeles.

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