Product Description

They all live in Los Angeles. And in the next 36 hours, they will collide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16494 in DVD
• Brand: DILLON,MATT
• Released on: 2005-09-06
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Korean, Persian, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.com
Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a detective (Don Cheadle) and his Latina partner and lover (Jennifer Esposito) investigate a white cop who shot a black cop--these are only three of the interlocking stories that reach up and down class lines. Writer/director Paul Haggis (who wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby) spins every character in unpredictable directions, refusing to let anyone sink into a stereotype. The cast--ranging from the famous names above to lesser-known but just as capable actors like Michael Pena (Buffalo Soldiers) and Loretta Devine (Woman Thou Art Loosed)--meets the strong script head-on, delivering galvanizing performances in short vignettes, brief glimpses that build with gut-wrenching force. This sort of multi-character mosaic is hard to pull off; Crash rivals such classics as Nashville and Short Cuts. A knockout. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Crash (click for larger image)

From The New Yorker
A brazenly alive and heartbreaking film about the rage and foolishness of intolerance-the mutual abrasions of white, black, Latino, Middle Eastern, and Asian citizens in the great and strange city of Los Angeles. The movie starts off with separate vignettes in which the characters run afoul of each other, say things better left unsaid, and get into terrible trouble. Later, they cross paths again, sometimes in bizarre coincidences that feel exactly right; some of these scenes play out at the edge of insanity, where contentiousness spills over into tragedy or farce. The furiously candid screenplay was written by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco, and the picture was directed by Haggis, who, in his first time out as director, demonstrates an amazing skill with actors. Don Cheadle, as a withdrawn, melancholy police detective, is the star, and the other players include Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton as an upper-class African-American couple, Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock as an L.A. district attorney and his bitchy wife, Chris (Ludacris) Bridges and Larenz Tate as carjackers, Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe as cops, and Shaun Toub as an Iranian shopkeeper who thinks everyone is out to cheat him. The gentle electronic score is by Mark Isham. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Supremely Over-rated
This movie is watch-able and that's the best I can say for it. What does this tell you: When it was nominated for best picture, I forgot I had even seen it. Only after they played the clip during the Oscar show did I realize I had rented & watched it months before. I guess the positive reviewers are half right: It doesn't present the racial issues "in black & white"- but only in the sense that it doesn't make all the white characters sophisticated and the minority characters blackface caricatures. There are negative reviews here which seem to presume that racism is a relic of the past, which is patently absurd. It is a very real issue, one which affects all of us (usually in more subtle ways than Haggis seems to understand) which is not going anywhere soon. At the same time, every character in the movie seems to have an obsessive racial awareness which controls everything they do. The characters have no depth at all outside of their racial attitude. As a result, the theme is so prevalent that the movie plays like an after-school special. If you want to see a candid and thought-provoking movie about racial relations, check out "American History X" with Ed Norton. The racial discussion takes place in a context that actually makes sense. And if you want to see the movie that SHOULD have been best picture, check out "Good Night and Good Luck." "Walk the Line" and "Brokeback Mountain" were also fantastic films.

I expected much more
I bought this film because of the academy and was engaged upon my first viewing but not blown away. It's well acted, well written and very entertaining, but there is nothing absolutely nothing special about it. I have to say that after seeing it on DVD it does NOT hold up to repeat viewings, because of its simple plot and wooden characters.

What?
I rented this movie before it won best picture and turned it off after 30 minutes because I thought is was a ridiculously preachy public service announcement that was ripping off a few dozen movies already made. After it won best picture, I questioned my rush to judgement and rented it again. Much to my dismay, my initial reaction to the flick was not in error. I spent the majority of the time in this move shaking my head in disbelief at occurrences that would never happen. If you are a movie watcher who does not like to be insulted by ridiclous coincidences, this is not your movie. Trust me.