Crash was a good film no doubt. But did it really deserve the Oscar award for the best picture? Everyone was expecting Brokeback Mountain to be the winner of the best picture, Crash made its way...
Crash has some really emotional and thought provoking moments. It talks about racial discrimination in America. But something was lacking...
The craftsmanship (including the acting) in making this film is first-rate, and this is part of what gives it so much impact. And I believe we all have a moral duty to look at things that discomfort and disturb us. There can even be a subtle epicurean pleasure in doing so. Crash draws you in, makes you think, and leaves an enduring impression. These are the hallmarks of an excellent film, for me.
At the same time, the film is extremely bleak. It offers scant hope, and almost no sympathetic characters. Even that subtle epicurean pleasure I spoke of was missing for me, and that’s why I deny it the fifth star.
There are a few things that bother me (aside from the film’s message that we are enmeshed in a web of bigotry and violence).
The film hangs together only because a matrix of not-truly-believable coincidences. The attempts at closure near the end also are not truly believable for me. And there are events in the film (I won’t say which, for those who have yet to see it) that wrench the emotions yet fail to carry through to the outcome we know would ensue in real life. These Hollywood touches don’t ring true. All the same, I acknowledge that this is a motion picture, a work of fiction, and not a documentary. And to be fair, not everything in Brokeback Mountain rang completely true for me, either.
Of the five Best Picture nominees, I have seen only Crash. My friend has seen the others, so I know of them, though only second-hand. Having admitted that, I’m puzzled why the Academy members chose this film not only over Brokeback Mountain, but the other nominees.
My suspicion -- and it cannot be more than this -- is that Crash portrays the reality that Academy members fear exists outside the walls of their compounds. If this is the case, then not the film itself, but the Academy’s anointing of it, would represent a kind of subtle racism.
I might be wrong, but if I am right, this too should be faced and acknowledged.
Crash is a quality film. Was it the Best Picture of the year? I don’t know...maybe yes, maybe no.
Rating : three and a half stars