Film Analyses

Crash

            Society sees race as an indicator of ones identity and ability.  Instead of getting to know an individual, we see color or ethnicity first and assume that we already know them.  This considerably problematic issue affects us all in some way or another.  Racism is a very sensitive topic, but it cannot be ignored.  America is an amalgam of cultures and we must find a way to see past our misconceptions of one another.  I am an optimist, and believe that we can come together and work in a productive synergic manner.  The film Crash suggests that these epiphanies can only be reached through personal experience as subverted or overt racism crashes into a likewise progressive shared sense of humanity.
Crash takes place over a thirty-six hour period in one of the biggest cities in America, greater Los Angeles.  We immediately understand that racial tension and displaced racial frustration are the dominant social problems plaguing most of the characters.  By the end of the film, we realize that we have been taken on a convoluted crossing of the contemptuous psyche of society.  And we are privy to the many realizations that most of the major characters have about their own mentalities.  One of John Ryan’s lines sums up the theme:  “you think you know who you are, but you have no idea.’  Many of the characters’ self-concepts are exchanged for new ones or interchanged with other characters’ by the end of this dramatic ensemble piece. 
The tension begins with the quest for a black Lincoln Navigator by carjackers, Anthony and Peter, per the request of a chop shop owner and begins a domino effect of confrontation and self-revelation.  Anthony’s paranoid and hollow revolutionary dialogue completes him as a character that is frustrated with society in general and whoever talks to him specifically. His tainted perspective of the world compels him to terrorize others seemingly because that is what they expect him to do.  Anthony has a change of perception after he saves a truck full of Cambodian refugees from being sold into modern-day slavery.  Anthony suddenly realized that he was perched into a position that gave him the keys to the liberty of human lives.  He understood that if he were to sell these people, that he would be no better than the slave owners who sold his ancestors into slavery.  This action was Anthony’s transformation from a villain to a hero.
Cameron’s final words to Anthony (“you embarrass me…you embarrass yourself”) were the initial push that propelled Anthony to his realization.  In turn, Anthony’s actions toward Cameron (calling him a niggah and trying to rob him) represented a final push that drove Cameron to his epiphanies.  He had been emasculated by so many people, but this interaction was the last straw, Cameron was going to either continue “selling out, or he was going to stand up and become a “real man.”  Cameron decided that he was a “real man, and released his frustrations.  His illusion that race does not matter was also shattered.
Hansen also helped Cameron.  This happened after the chase when Hansen brought Cameron back down to reality: he was a Black man displaying all of his built-up rage in front of armed and ready-to-shoot LAPD.  Hansen may have felt that he owed Cameron something because of how he (Hansen) stood there like a paralyzed voyeur while Ryan molested Christina.  So his redemption came in the form of saving a life, however, his epiphany surfaced after taking a life.  After killing Peter and destroying the evidence of his crime, Hansen’s blind-self emerged; he realized something that Ryan so adamantly asserted that he would, he was actually an unaware racist.  Although racially disparate, we saw a similarity in Hansen and Peter earlier when we noticed that they espoused similar views of racism.  They were more accepting of others, while their partners were respective polar opposites.  Their parallelism is confirmed when we see that Hansen also travels around with St. Christopher just as Peter.  Ironically, Peter’s reaching for the patron Saint of safe travel is the triggered behavior that causes his death.   This scene was very poignant because by killing Peter, Hansen kills off his old self-concept, and we thought he was the good guy.
Shortly after riding with his new partner, Officer Ryan is faced with crashing into a wall, or running through it.  Christine’s fate is placed in his hands after a potentially deadly roll-over accident.  Ryan tries to save her, but is pulled from the SUV that is about to explode.  Safe from the deadly explosion, this is the point when Ryan is faced with the wall.  He could just let her die, or he could go back in to save her while risking his own life as well in the process.  This is Ryan’s climatic moment.  He crashed into a wall of realization; his racist views are superfluous and helping someone should not be contingent upon their race, because the value of life by far outweighs hate and he risks his life to save her.  Shaniqua helped Ryan with his epiphany because he discovered that she was no better than he was by refusing to help his father due to her spite of Ryan.  This fact leads him to realize that a person should not withhold helping someone despite another or others.
Jean’s displaced anger is hurled at Daniel.  Jean stereotypes Daniel by remarking very loudly, that he is a gang member because he is a Hispanic male with tattoos.  The motif of changing locks, their fear of Daniel and verbal assaults toward him parallels Jean to Farhad.  Ultimately, they both realize that Hispanics do not always fall into that little comfortable all-encompassing stereotype of being gangbangers.  Fate stepped in to assist Jean with her awareness: her Hispanic maid was her only friend, and her high-society friends were not really friends at all, furthermore, she was able to see past ethnicity, and see people.
When Farhad went to throw his displaced anger onto Daniel, he realized that Daniel was just like him, a loving and caring father and husband trying to protect his family.  It is interesting to note that Daniel carried an imaginary protective cloak; while Farhad chose to carry a gun and that the cloak prevailed over Farhad’s harmless gun, giving Farhad a true sense of spiritual equanimity at the close of the confrontation.
Ryan paralleled Anthony because they both held similar views of other races.  They both also made grand transformations by the end of the film due to their epiphanies.  Ryan and Hansen interchanged perspectives, as did Anthony and Peter.  Peter’s situation is a little different being that he died, but the transformation was Anthony became more relaxed in his views of racism, just as his parallel, Ryan, while Peter ended up dead like Hansen, although Hansen’s death was spiritual.    Fantasy was one of the motifs:  Daniel’s “impenetrable cloak,” Farhads angel, and Graham letting his mother believe that Peter bought her some groceries.  Fantasy was therapeutic in all these instances, complicit with family.  For instance, Graham realized that he needed to let his mother believe that Peter brought her some groceries in order to give her some sense of peace or potentially redeeming qualities of her “baby.”
Snow fell upon the city of Los Angeles to help Cameron with yet another epiphany.  He realized that the whole world was not against him, and he did not have to be an “angry Black man.”  The snow signified some sort of a purification of his soul, thereby ridding him of his guilt, and enabling him to reunite with his wife.  Cameron understood that he did not have to be a stereotypical Black man, but that it was okay to be himself.  In comparison to Cameron, Officer Ryan and Anthony understood that their old ways were hindering their growth as men who could possibly contribute to the progression of a just and humane society.  Therefore, their transformations were utterly vital.
In the final scene, Shaniqua is rear-ended by a group of people of another ethnicity.  She says “don’t talk to me unless you speak American.”  Although there were some shifts of perspective in some of the characters, I believe that Haggis ended with this scene to show that racism is still alive and thriving.  But so is the opportunity for individual and joyful revelation about a part of us that shares the human experience, and has nothing to do with racism.

 

Voyeurism in Rear Window

Most of the world is infatuated with the lives of others.  Reality television is the perfect example of this fascination.  Many people read the tabloids, spy, eavesdrop, and sometimes take an extralegal interest in the lives of others. People may even watch to try and duplicate the lives of even fictional characters.  With this film, Hitchcock is confronting viewers with the surge of their own voyeurism in a society that is losing more and more space, yet clinging still to disparate, lonely lives in pressure boxes where tragedy and drama is palpable.
In the opening shot Hitchcock cues us to his theory. The blinds are slowly drawn up.  This gives viewers a feeling that they are about to view something that they would not be privy to if the blinds were left closed.  It also gives a feeling of preparing the audience to watch a stage production in a theater; another voyeuristic activity, because the drawing of the blinds mimics the raising of the curtains in a theater, establishing a parallel.  The music is upbeat, but slows to keep with the rhythm of the slow tracking camera movements.  After tracking out of this apartment, the camera tilts up.  Viewers are shown many close-spaced apartments, suggesting the impossibility of not being involved in the private affairs of this community.  The camera pans left, and then tilt slightly down revealing more apartments before panning left to give viewers their first look at the protagonist, L.B. Jeffries in a close-up.  Both the beads of sweat on his forehead, as well as a cut to a thermometer function as an index of the heat.  Jefferies’ fate is tied symbolically not only to the physical heat, but also the symbolic heat of the developing situation.
The camera pans left to reveal a neighbor turning the station of his radio.  What we thought was typical opening non-diegetic music turns out to be diegetic.  The advertisement that follows the song, and prompts the composer to turn the station, has a very familiar ring to it.  Hitchcock was perhaps paying homage to Desilu Productions, or Lucile Ball, because the advertisement is the same as a skit that Ball did on the “I Love Lucy show.”  It is interesting to note that the show was the first sitcom, establishing an entire industry of open living rooms and businesses where people lived and worked, thereby giving us a view of their lives. 
The camera tracks downwards diagonally to reveal another neighbor, a dancer.  The camera repeats the downwards diagonal move back to Jeffries’ apartment.  A track out reveals his broken leg.  With a quick leftwards pan, we are shown a smashed camera.  Hitchcock briefly moves in on the camera, again cueing viewers to the theme of the movie.  A tilt up shows us photographs of a car crash.  Other elements of the mise-en-scene functions to expose Jefferies as a voyeur by trade:  a photographer.  There are more cameras, a framed negative, and a stack of magazines as well.
The initial establishing shots were of a slow rhythmic tempo, particularly the long take in and around Jefferies’ apartment.  The pace is however picked up as Jefferies spies on his neighbors.  Several eye-line matches expose him as being transfixed on their lives.  Jefferies is being shot at a low camera angle, perhaps suggesting reverence as a contrast to his nosy habits. The framing is during his conversation with his editor, who praises Jefferies work.  Jefferies’ expressions and the cross-cutting from his apartment to the dancer’s, suggests that he is highly interested and entertained.  Sounds of children laughing contrast that of a brief spat of another neighbor and Mr. Thorwald, later shown to be a murderer.  They were having a dispute because of neighbors’ nosy suggestions.  This also titillates Jefferies.
All of the episodes are happening as Jefferies watches on; it seemed very reminiscent of watching television.  Visual television and theater references encourage passive voyeurism.  He looks into different apartments for entertainment, and changes (the channel) his line of view when he gets bored.  This creates another parallel to an outside entity, television.  The apartment windows are like TV screens.  Stella enters as the protagonist is peering at the courtyard soap opera.  She reprimands him for being a peeping tom.                                                                  There is a contrast in the pair’s costumes.  While Stella wears a bright outfit, Jefferies pajamas seem to blend in with the drab color of his walls.  This suggests the boredom that he is suffering; therefore it is okay for him to spy on his neighbors as a source of entertainment.  We notice hard shadows, suggesting a strong key-light, which could serve to highlight the darkness of their conversation about voyeurism.  The slanted line of the shadow runs from Jefferies to the door from which Stella enters, the character’s heads remain connected for their shared shots by the line of this shadow, as if their thoughts are hovering slightly within darkness, even as Stella scurries back and forth during their discussion on voyeurism and trouble.  Yet their heads remain brightly lit because the shadow is on the wall, perhaps an indication of their good intentions.
Jeffries turns back to the television/apartment windows after his rubdown.  These final (Jeffries) POV shots show that a new channel has been added to the line up.  A newlywed couple has just moved in across the way.  The scene ends after the bride suggests that they block their station by lowering the shades.
The film stock was a low speed Technicolor stock, making for exquisite viewing.  The majority of the shots were from the point of view of Jeffries, and the narrative was fairly unrestricted.  In viewing this film, we became voyeurs with Jefferies.  This film’s first scene establishes strong yet vague relationships reforming under voyeuristic advances of the characters with each other - overtly and covertly.  The first scene also visually alludes to television and theater, perhaps as outlets or causes for stimulating an innate voyeuristic itch.