People are seldom hopeful about those well-known films as they have been disappointing for so many times more or less because of commercial speculation. However, defeated Brokeback Mountain, Crash is certain to have its shinning points. At least, I myself am moved by it.
The enchantment of Crash roots in its multi-topic which is able to arouse psychological resonance of audiences with different experiences and varying understanding about life. Maybe it is the smart technique used by the director, but through which the profundity of the film is also shown.
A black bludger robbed a couple’s car with his gun. However, it was also him that freed dozens of poor Asians from a human trafficker and gave them his own money to buy food; a man humiliated a lady severely which even set her life and love into the edge of collapse. However, it was also him that pulled her back from death without considering his own safety. How to judge their character or quality? As we know, human-beings are too complicated to be judged just with those simple and plain words as good and evil. Psychologically, the word “humanity” is created to explain these unexplainable phenomena. Kindness and viciousness are twins, although they don’t look like each other, they are still the babies of humanity. It is just what they inherited from their mother’s body separately that leads them to totally different paths. Nevertheless, the boundary of them is so vague that sometimes it’s hard to judge one’s behavior belongs to which one after all. As a result, reading into one another’s heart becomes harder and harder, so that the wall of detachment stands out between individual and individual gradually.
“You brush past people. People bump into you. In Los Angeles, nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something.” These are several lines at the beginning of the film which is a proper explanation of “crash”, that is the eagerness of communication. “Crash” is the unstable bridge that strides over detachment—people never know what consequences it will take—maybe understanding, maybe serious hurt. As people are afraid of being hurt, inevitably, some of them give up the possibility of understanding. Being protected by metal and glass of the city, what people can see is just the superficial factors of a person instead of stepping into his heart and knowing about his real feeling. You just know that he insulted you badly, but you have no idea about his sick father who leads to his worry and angriness. Everyone has his own stories. Maybe he just wears a mask of smiling in order to hide the wounds deeply carved into his face by his past, which he doesn’t want to mention again.
Some people say that this film is just a revelation on racism. However, I regarded that just as a supportive evidence of the theme, because racism is also an indication of indifference between people. The director spends much effort on revealing it, therefore we can see that this problem is still serious in America, not only discrimination on blacks, but also Asians. Yet, just defining this film as an anti-racism one is somehow too narrow, for discovering modern people’s psychology stands higher compared with it. Besides, the intelligent combination of these two aspects provides audiences broader awareness of the society, which widened the theme of the film.
As a film, inevitably, coincidences fill in Crash. Although not real, still effective enough for audiences to feel different kinds of problems we may encounter with in life. Obviously, the atmosphere of this film is depressive. However, the “angel” girl gives us a shining light in the heavy and dark mood. Every main character in the film has shown two opposite sides except the locksmith’s daughter. With the invisible protective clothes which his father gave her, she tried her best to protect his father from being shot by the Persian shopkeeper. Kids are as pure and kind as angels, because they haven’t taste the complex personal relation. Actually, there is no angel in the real world, but all of us bear one in our heart, that is dream and the hope for humanity. Depend on them, we have the courage to live on and hold on in order to face the life we have to accomplish.
世界警察的自我反思
