Successful Crash essay by a student

Question. To what extent are production techniques in a single scene effective in conveying a film’s central idea(s)?

In a single scene a film’s themes can be brought to the fore through the use of production techniques. In Paul Haggis’ Crash such a scene is when a Mexican locksmith’s daughter is nearly killed by an angry, frustrated Persian shopkeeper, laying bare to us the theme of racism.

One technique that Haggis uses is filming into the light such as the tracking shot of Farhad , the shopkeeper, as he approaches the locksmith Daniel’s house. This breaks up the frame of the shot, giving a jarring effect, and also ties in with the collision theme. This means not only physical collisions like the car crashes that open and close the film, but also the clash of many different races and cultures in modern Los Angeles. This particular tracking shot is also a close up of the gun in Farhad’s hand. This shows the extent to which racism can twist a person: at the start of the film Farhad is a victim of the gun store man’s abuse, and while he isn’t presented to us as lovable, he is certainly not contemptible and we do feel sorry for him. However, Farhad had become bitter from all the prejudice facing him and is now prepared to shoot a completely innocent person over one misunderstanding

Sound and music are also used in this scene to increase drama and tension which in turn helps present the theme of racism better. The music as Farhad approaches Daniel is soft, gentle and dreamy, rather out of place against the harsh images of a gun that we see. When Farhad starts shouting at and threatening Daniel, the music acquires a more urgent pulsating chordal background, the volume rising to a crescendo which reaches its peak when Farhad fires his gun. At this point the sound of the actors is muted, and the noise of the gunshot dominates. The silent screams of Daniel and his wife somehow have more power than an ordinary scream and the anguish caused by this racially inspired event is very clear. The almost angelic tone of the music after Farhad has shot his blank gives the scene a sense of redemption: Daniel’s daughter’s life has been saved and so has Farhad’s conscience by the intervention of people who can transcend racism, people like Dori who loaded her father’s gun with the fake bullets.

Even Haggis careful attention to mise-en-scene helps contribute to the film’s ideas. Various Christmas objects such as a Christmas tree and the wreath of Daniel’s door give the scene a certain grim irony. Christmas is meant to be a time of peace and love, yet here there is an attempted murder in revenge for loss of material wealth – hardly the spirit of Christmas. Again, this shows the twisting, warping effect of racism, that a time like this can be turned into a near death experience. Another example is the American flag flying behind Farhad, creating black humour. It comments on today’s American society – the flag symbolises America but the America shown in this scene is one of violence and misunderstanding. As Paul Haggis mentions in his commentary on the film, the flag was placed there deliberately to say “this is what our country is really all about”.

Paul Haggis’ use of cinematography, sound and music, and mise-en-scene in Crash is effective in conveying the effects of racism but as this theme is conveyed so bluntly in almost every scene, it loses a bit of its impact.

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