We sweep into town and we make visits and we poke our families and often as not, my mom wants me to sit and watch a movie with her. As with most things, I generally don’t want to do what my mom asks me to, but also acknowledge that she tends to be right most of the time, and so, after returning from a long day of mixing in the studio, I sit down to watch the Academy Award-winning “Crash”.
I won’t go into the movie itself too much – you’ve either seen it in which case it would be redundant, or haven’t seen it, and I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you – but the movie centres around race relations, battles in ourselves about stereotypes, thoughts of how we treat one another, etc etc. Yeah, another one of those. I sat through the first half-hour perhaps thinking that…
Yeah, another one of these.
Most movies that focus on race relations seem to throw a number of “ain’t it shit how we can’t Live with one another” situations at the audience, as if the audience doesn’t Live through them every day. The director even states that he wants to make people uncomfortable… make them angry, because when people are angry that makes them talk, and then a conversation can occur.
What kind of bullshit is that? Fortunately, Crash DOESN’T follow that pattern – it provides an uplift, an escape, maybe even some kind of metamorphosis and hope. It’s through moments like THAT that conversations are created. Once you’re angry, you shut everything down. You don’t want to listen anymore. Maybe motion is engendered, but not communication… not dialogue. Debaters and protesters often feel that anger is the beginning of some sort of meaningful conversation…
It can’t be. It can’t ever be. Unless you have some sort of rational open line of communication, nothing can be transported from one person’s brain to another.
I’m tired, I’m ranting.
Crash – great movie. Fails to make the failings of so many similar movies. I’m going to have to watch it again. And that says a lot – movies for me are generally escapist devices. You want to make a point to me about race? About heartbreak? Cancer? Violence? Nuclear war? I’m sorry… I get it already. I fear it and am angry about it. It’s been called to my attention and thank you, the moment someone gives me the power to stop any of the above on any greater level, I’m on it.
All I can do is talk to other people and let them understand that I too am human, equal as they are in my capacity to feel. Empathy really is the only solution, and lack of it is the source of almost every problem there is.
Stereotypes and cliches exist for a reason, and statistically, we have to respond to them as our training and previous experiences have taught us to or we reap the consequences. But there are a thousand safe opportunities to challenge them everyday. You don’t have to walk down North Ave at 3am to prove to yourself that black people are kind and a gay couple doesn’t have to make out in a redneck bar to show themselves that that hick stereotype just isn’t so… You’ll get badly beaten for your trouble and stupidity. But you can smile at people in the supermarket, apologize and make small talk and give compliments where they’re due. There are a thousand opportunities to be human in the eyes of one another every day.
And I’m not making very good use of my time.
