Film Enrichment; Crash.

 In film enrichment we watched ‘Crash’ (2004) starring..

• Sanda Bullock

• Don Cheadler

• Matt Dillon

• Jennifer Esposito

• Brendan Fraser

• Terrence Howard

• Chris "Ludacris" Bridges

• Thandie Newton

• Ryan Phillippe

• Larenz Tate

• Michael Peña

• Directed by Paul Haggis.

• Crash is a gripping and powerful American Drama film, Crash is based on a true life incident in which the director 'Paul Haggis' had his car 'carjacked' on Wiltshire Boulevard in 1991. Crash is a movie based around racial and social tensions in Los Angeles, California. There are many different people from different social and ethnic groups involved in the movie, there is a racist white police officer, a Persian Immigrant father who is wary of others, a Mexican locksmith, an African-American Hollywood director and his wife who find themselves dealing with the racist white police officer. There is also a black detective who finds himself estranged from his mother and younger brother. The movie is based around a two day time period in which during that time all the characters in the movie, from every background collide.

• Some of the main themes present in the movie are Love and Romance, Violence, Action, Poverty and Family

•  I really liked the character ‘officer John Ryan’ because he was a very mysterious and interesting character, he enforced the meaning behind the racist views within the police force. 

•  My favorite scene in the film was the car fire scene because it was a great cliff hanger, you didn't know if the couple were going to make it out alive, or before the car blew up.

• I enjoyed this film because it was very gripping and interesting, even though the conventions were typical of a drama movie 'crash' had an interesting twist to normal drama movies. I liked the way eventually everyone in the movies lives collide in some way.

Conventions	Scene example from film Crash	Scene example from other films that are similar
Love/Romance	When the district attorney called up his wife after he shot the innocent man and set his car on fire to tell her he loved her. The attorney and his wife seem to have a strained relationship due to her lifestyle and his job.	Titanic, is an example of strained love, an upper class girl falls in love with a lower class boy on a ship, the ship begins to sink, however they do everything in their power to stay together through the tradgedy.
Violence	When the officer assumed the black man had a gun in his pocket when he didn't and shot him as a consequence of his wrong thought.	Freedom Writers, the upper class white teachers who work in the school advise the new teacher not to wear her pearl necklece to school, this suggests that the other teachers have reason to believe the children would rob the teacher due to their social backgrounds.
Ethical/Racial Stereotypes	The white officer assumes the black man was carrying s gun, the people in the movie living in poverty are immigrants to the USA.	Adulthood, the general public feel intimidated by the younger generation due to the way in which they dress and behave. The gangs members tend to all be young, black and a member of a working class family.
Action	Carjacking, car fires, shooting  weapons, chases, explosions.	James Bond. typical action movie involoving the use of weapons such as guns and grenades, car chases, violence, explosions, fires etc.
Family	When the man is being held at gunpoint and his young daughter comes running out to him and is almost shot.	Taken, an action film in which a mans daughter is kidnapped and he is determined to get her back.