'crash'

there are many things i liked about crash- with the intertwining storylines about people from different classes and races and the inevitable violence that erupts when they crash into each other... so many stories that meet - sandra bullock and brendan fraser as the district attorney of los angeles and his wife who get car jacked in a busy street; thandie newton as the wife of a rich black man who is humiliated by a racist police officer in the form of matt dillon; don cheadle as a black police officer whose brother has gone missing.

some sequences were absolutely stunning- the car crash rescue for one- where dillon helps thandie newton escape in spite of her protests. and there are angels on the dashboard of stolen cars- and angels that wear impenetrable cloaks and save their fathers from death. who are these angels of los angeles? certainly not the ones in the nicholas cage film.

it was good to a see a film that was trying to talk about these, more alive aspects of racism, rather than the usual mississippi burning sort of historical drama.

it is a frightening vision, this los angeles- a version that i was acutely familiar with as i sat through the film. i remember the extreme self consciousness about my color that i could not forget while i was walking the streets of all the cities i visited in the us. the feeling that i was being sized up based upon the way my body looked- and my own fear as i walked pretending to be fearless down the streets of south central los angeles- alone.. what in the world was i trying to prove? and to whom? it is also amazing to think about the variety of communities that one city in the us can be home to- iraqis, whites, chinese, mexican, cambodian.. and here we have ‘vegetarian only’ buildings being built.

its frightening what kind of insularity the fear of the other breeds and what strange ideas of the other develop.