To what extent do you agree that films offer an insight into society (past or present)? Respond to this question with close reference to a film or films you have studied.
This essay requires you to discuss theme. However, a good film essay should include some reference to the features that make film different form a novel or other type of text. I have tried to include some references to film techniques here. I've indicated this in blue. ESSAY Good literature always offers insight into society and films are no exception. In fact, Paul Haggis’ 2004 film, Crash could almost be accused of trying too hard to preach to us about the dangers of racism. However, this does not prevent it from making us think about the way we interrelate with other cultures. He paints a powerful picture of stereotyping, ignorance and fear in the multiracial city of LA.
One of the film’s gentler characters, Daniel, a Mexican locksmith, is twice the victim of stereotyping. Jean Cabot the wealthy wife of a Los Angeles District Attorney lashes out at her husband about Daniel because of his obvious Mexican appearance, his tattoos and low slung jeans, referring to him and his associates as “homeys” and “gangbangers”. She has just been car jacked by two black youths and seems to be fearful of all non-whites. Later Daniel tries to repair the door lock of a Persian shop-owner who accuses him of ripping him off when Daniel says the whole door has to be replaced. This eventually leads to Farhad the shop owner almost killing Daniel after another break in which he thinks Daniel must have engineered. Haggis shows how wrong Farhad and Jean are in their stereotyping of Daniel by techniques such as the “invisible cloak” this loving father gives to his little daughter and the religious aura of the scene where Daniel and his wife clasp the little girl after she and he miraculously escape death at Farhad’s hand.
Related to stereotyping is cultural ignorance and misunderstanding. Los Angeles is one of the most racially mixed cities in the Western world but people show surprising lack of knowledge about other races. Anyone Hispanic is referred to as Mexican with all the connotations of illegal immigration and poverty that the word gives rise to. Even black LAPD officer Graham Waters calls his partner Mexican when in fact her parents are from Guatemala and El Salvador. Antony, a black car-jacker who is redeemed somewhat by freeing some Thai slaves, calls every Asian person a “Chinaman”. When he frees the slaves he gives them money for chop suey and when they look at him uncomprehendingly, he mutters, “fucking Chinanmen!” People who attacked the Persian shopkeeper’s gift shop accuse them of being Arabs and when Farhad and his daughter argue and hesitate over buying a gun, the red neck shopkeeper says, “Plan the jihad in your own time.” This motif of stereotyping is repeated in many of the ten or eleven storylines and is linked effectively by editing so that the tension-filled scenes segue seamlessly into each other. Haggis is trying very hard to make us see the results of racism in society.
While stereotyping and ignorance go hand in hand, they also give rise to worse manifestations of racism: fear and frustration. In Crash, this results in a near murder and an actual murder. The one kind and neutral police officer in the LAPD, Tommy Hanson, tries throughout the film to rein in his bigoted partner, Ryan, who harasses an innocent black couple, Christine and Cameron. When he informs his superior of Ryan’s behaviour, he receives no sympathy. However, he is able to assist Cameron in a later incident, assistance for which a now embittered Cameron is not grateful. Finally he picks up a black hitchhiker, Peter, and in spite of all his good intentions, he too falls victim to racial fear and shoots Peter when he reaches for a St Christopher statuette, thinking it is a gun. This might sound incredible but in the overall context of the film where one racial incident is piled on another, Tommy’s actions give us an insight into how stereotyping and fear inform attitudes to other races in virtually all of us. The wide camera shots of the barren roadside where Tommy throws Peter’s body, sum up the sense of desolation that such division in society can give rise to.
In the post 9/11 world, cultural tensions are high, not just in America but throughout the world. Detective Graham Waters’ words at the start of the film tell us that LA is a city where different races make contact only when they ‘crash’ into each other. The car crash of the title therefore becomes a metaphor for racial division and confrontation, a problem that is particularly bad in LA but also a problem in many communities, including those in New Zealand. Haggis therefore offers us vivid insights into society.
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