Crash Analysis the Movie \"Crash\"

Crash Analysis

The movie "Crash" (2004), directed by Paul Haggis, depicts the interaction between a variety of characters that are all intertwined with each other in one way or another. The intertwinement of the cultural and racial clash all conclude their interactions by one act of Angel Guardianship leading to the rest of them. Had one character not done something to help the other, the entire drama would have turned out differently.

The concept of the "Guardian Angel" is one that comes with mixed relations to the race and culture clash in this movie. Despite the outright racism that is displayed by these characters, the act of saving someone else's life or coming to someone else's well-being seems to be race and color blind. Officer John Ryan had a very inappropriate interaction with the character Christine Thayer while he was searching her after unfairly stopping her and her husband in their car. He stopped them knowing that they had done nothing wrong, but only because they were Black. In order to show his authority over them, he touched Mrs. Thayer inappropriately because he knew that he had the power of getting away with it, but in the end, regardless of his racist and chauvinistic attitude, he ended up saving her life when he assisted her in getting out of a car that had been in an accident and was about to blow up. He put his opinions aside showing that in the end he valued life over unfair thoughts about a certain individual. He offered his help to someone in need, something that one would not think would happen.

Knowing how badly Officer Ryan treated Mrs. Thayer, when the opportunity arose to help out Mr. Thayer, Officer Tom came to his rescue. During a police chase that was caused by Anthony, but inadvertently taken out of control by Cameron, Officer Tom refused to punish Mr. Thayer, although he clearly broke the law and could have easily been arrested. Knowing how troubled Mr. Thayer was after the incident that his partner Officer Ryan had caused, he let him go, and in a way asking for forgiveness for not acting upon the previous incident when his partner was clearly out of line. The previous situation was out of his control, but he knew that he could do something about the current one, and therefore chose to do what he thought was the right thing.

Because Officer Tom never arrested Mr. Thayer who was hiding the real criminal Anthony in the car with him, Anthony then got the opportunity to sell some Asian immigrants that were in a van that he stole. However, instead of getting the money in return for these people, he let them go. He was truly a savior, a guardian angel for these people who were destined for a life of slavery and misery, and instead of going along with what was bound to happen to them anyway, he chose a different path and gave them a second chance at life.

The "Guardian Angel" concept was truly valued by the character Farhad who was about to commit a crime that he did not truly want to commit, but was just fed up with the way he was treated and the way things were going. He purchased a gun and bullets that his daughter picked out. When he shot at Daniel, the locksmith, Daniel's little daughter jumped in the way and would have been the victim of the crime, had the bullets not been blank bullets. Farhad however, did not realize that the purchased bullets were indeed not real and interpreted the situation as the little girl being his savior since he would have gone to jail for a long time and committed murder, which he was not really wanting to do.