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A “Crash” Course in American Racial Ethics: Paul Haggis Didactic Film in a Humanities Context

Year 2008, Issue: 28, 63 - 86, 01.10.2008

Abstract

Crash is a film for anyone who has ever introduced a thought or statement with the phrase, “I’m not a racist, but . . .” The “but” is usually followed by the thinker or speaker’s latest observations of other people behaving badly in some thoroughly stereotypical way. This film, using intertwining narratives, follows for thirtysix hours, much of it in flashback, a pair of thirty-something L.A. detectives a black man and Latina woman and a pair of thirty-something married couples: one the yuppie District Attorney of L.A. and his bitchy wife both white and the other a buppie T.V. director and his bitchy wife both light-skinned black . We also follow a pair of young black carjackers one an Angry Young Black Man, the other more easy-going ; a Hispanic locksmith and his five-year old daughter; plus an Iranian man, his wife and their grown daughter. Peripheral characters—whites, blacks, Asians and Asian Americans— abound, and there are suffering older people, too: the white father of the racist white policeman and the black mother of the black detective. The elderly father has painful prostate problems while the elderly mother is a heroin addict who cannot locate her younger ne’er-do-well son. The rainbow cast interacts with one another as their individual plotlines intersect—sometimes violently.

References

  • Aristotle. The Basic Works of Aristotle. Ed. Richard McKeon. New York: Modern Library, 2001.
  • Bamboozled. Dir. Spike Lee. Forty Acres and a Mule, 2000.
  • Boyz N the Hood. Dir. John Singleton. Columbia Pictures, 1991.
  • Crash. Dir. Paul Haggis. Lions Gate, 2004.
  • Crowdus, Gary and Dan Georgakas, eds. “Thinking About the Power of Images: An Interview with Spike Lee.” Cinéaste 26: 12 (Spring 2001): 4. Infotrac OneFile.
  • ---. “Our Film is Only a Starting Point” [Interview with Spike Lee] The Cinéaste Interviews 2 on the Art and Politics of the Cinema. Chicago: Lake View Press, 2002.
  • Do the Right Thing. Dir. Spike Lee. Forty Acres and a Mule, 1989.
  • Dyson, Michael Eric. “Between Apocalypse and Redemption: John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood,” Cultural Critique 21 (Spring 1992): 121-141.
  • Ebert, Roger. Crash [Review]. 5 May 2005. .
  • Edelstein, David. “Crash and Fizzle: Good Intentions, Lousy Delivery in Crash and Kingdom of Heaven.” Slate. 5 May 2005. .
  • Hanson, Philip. “The Politics of Inner City Identity in Do the Right Thing.” South Central Review 20: 2-4. (Summer-Winter 2003): 47-66.
  • Harmon, A.G. “Ordered Chaos: Three Films by Paul Thomas Anderson.” Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion. 27 (Summer 2000): 107-116.
  • Jones, Kent. “P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia,” Film Comment. 36: 1. (Jan.-Feb. 2000): 38-39.
  • Kass, Leon R. Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity. San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2002.
  • Kellner, Douglas. “Aesthetics, Ethics, and Politics in the Films of Spike Lee.” Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. Ed. Mark A. Reid. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. 73-106.
  • King, Lovalerie. “Counter-discourses on the Racialization of Theft and Ethics in Douglass’s Narrative and Jacobs’s Incidents.” Melus. 28: 4. (Winter 2003): 55 (29) Infotrac OneFile.
  • Lucia, Cynthia. “Race, Media and Money: A Critical Symposium on Spike Lee’s Bamboozled.” Cinéaste. 26. (Spring. 2001): 10. Infotrac OneFile.
  • Magnolia. Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. New Line Cinema, 1999.
  • Massood, Paula. “Mapping the Hood: the Genealogy of City Space in Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society.” Cinema Journal. 35: 2. (Winter 1996): 85-97.
  • McWilliams, Dean. “Bakhtin in Brooklyn: Language in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.” Carnivalizing Difference: Bakhtin and the Other. Eds. Peter I. Barta et al. London: Routledge, 2001. 247-262.
  • Mittleman, Alan. “Pluralism: Identity, Civility, and the Common Good. “ Modern Judaism. 21: 2 (2001): 125-145.
  • Musser, Charles. “What is the Right Thing? A Critical Symposium on Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.” Cinéaste 17: 4 (1990): 32-39.
  • Newman, Bruce. “Haggis Showcases Crash at San Francisco International Film Festival.” San Jose Mercury News (via Knight-Ridder / Tribune New Service). 4 May 2005. Infotrac OneFile.
  • Plato. Gorgias. Trans. James H. Nichols Hr. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998.
  • Schwarzbaum, Lisa. “Crash: A Stellar Multicultural Cast Takes a Collision Course.” Entertainment Weekly. 13 May 2005: 65.
  • Scott, A. O. “Bigotry as the Outer Side of Inner Angst.” The New York Times on the Web. May 6, 2005. .
  • Stadler, Jane. “Intersubjective, Embodied, Evaluative Perception: A Phenomenological Approach to the Ethics of Film.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 19 (2002): 237- 248.
  • Sun, Andrew. “Crash” [Review] 15 Sept. 2004. .
Year 2008, Issue: 28, 63 - 86, 01.10.2008

Abstract

References

  • Aristotle. The Basic Works of Aristotle. Ed. Richard McKeon. New York: Modern Library, 2001.
  • Bamboozled. Dir. Spike Lee. Forty Acres and a Mule, 2000.
  • Boyz N the Hood. Dir. John Singleton. Columbia Pictures, 1991.
  • Crash. Dir. Paul Haggis. Lions Gate, 2004.
  • Crowdus, Gary and Dan Georgakas, eds. “Thinking About the Power of Images: An Interview with Spike Lee.” Cinéaste 26: 12 (Spring 2001): 4. Infotrac OneFile.
  • ---. “Our Film is Only a Starting Point” [Interview with Spike Lee] The Cinéaste Interviews 2 on the Art and Politics of the Cinema. Chicago: Lake View Press, 2002.
  • Do the Right Thing. Dir. Spike Lee. Forty Acres and a Mule, 1989.
  • Dyson, Michael Eric. “Between Apocalypse and Redemption: John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood,” Cultural Critique 21 (Spring 1992): 121-141.
  • Ebert, Roger. Crash [Review]. 5 May 2005. .
  • Edelstein, David. “Crash and Fizzle: Good Intentions, Lousy Delivery in Crash and Kingdom of Heaven.” Slate. 5 May 2005. .
  • Hanson, Philip. “The Politics of Inner City Identity in Do the Right Thing.” South Central Review 20: 2-4. (Summer-Winter 2003): 47-66.
  • Harmon, A.G. “Ordered Chaos: Three Films by Paul Thomas Anderson.” Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion. 27 (Summer 2000): 107-116.
  • Jones, Kent. “P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia,” Film Comment. 36: 1. (Jan.-Feb. 2000): 38-39.
  • Kass, Leon R. Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity. San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2002.
  • Kellner, Douglas. “Aesthetics, Ethics, and Politics in the Films of Spike Lee.” Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. Ed. Mark A. Reid. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. 73-106.
  • King, Lovalerie. “Counter-discourses on the Racialization of Theft and Ethics in Douglass’s Narrative and Jacobs’s Incidents.” Melus. 28: 4. (Winter 2003): 55 (29) Infotrac OneFile.
  • Lucia, Cynthia. “Race, Media and Money: A Critical Symposium on Spike Lee’s Bamboozled.” Cinéaste. 26. (Spring. 2001): 10. Infotrac OneFile.
  • Magnolia. Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. New Line Cinema, 1999.
  • Massood, Paula. “Mapping the Hood: the Genealogy of City Space in Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society.” Cinema Journal. 35: 2. (Winter 1996): 85-97.
  • McWilliams, Dean. “Bakhtin in Brooklyn: Language in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.” Carnivalizing Difference: Bakhtin and the Other. Eds. Peter I. Barta et al. London: Routledge, 2001. 247-262.
  • Mittleman, Alan. “Pluralism: Identity, Civility, and the Common Good. “ Modern Judaism. 21: 2 (2001): 125-145.
  • Musser, Charles. “What is the Right Thing? A Critical Symposium on Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.” Cinéaste 17: 4 (1990): 32-39.
  • Newman, Bruce. “Haggis Showcases Crash at San Francisco International Film Festival.” San Jose Mercury News (via Knight-Ridder / Tribune New Service). 4 May 2005. Infotrac OneFile.
  • Plato. Gorgias. Trans. James H. Nichols Hr. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998.
  • Schwarzbaum, Lisa. “Crash: A Stellar Multicultural Cast Takes a Collision Course.” Entertainment Weekly. 13 May 2005: 65.
  • Scott, A. O. “Bigotry as the Outer Side of Inner Angst.” The New York Times on the Web. May 6, 2005. .
  • Stadler, Jane. “Intersubjective, Embodied, Evaluative Perception: A Phenomenological Approach to the Ethics of Film.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 19 (2002): 237- 248.
  • Sun, Andrew. “Crash” [Review] 15 Sept. 2004. .
There are 28 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Page Laws This is me

Publication Date October 1, 2008
Published in Issue Year 2008 Issue: 28

Cite

MLA Laws, Page. “A ‘Crash’ Course in American Racial Ethics: Paul Haggis Didactic Film in a Humanities Context”. Journal of American Studies of Turkey, no. 28, 2008, pp. 63-86.

JAST - Journal of American Studies of Turkey