I didn’t stay up to watch it (SarahK did; one of the few nights when went to bed at different times) but Crash won best picture. It was the only movie nominated for Best Picture that I saw, but it was actually an entertaining film – not some boring and depressing flick that all the critics think is so great. I recommend everyone rent it (or put it on your Netflix queue if you’re like me). Some people thought it was schlock, but Sarah and I both really liked it. As soon as we finished, we said, “Now that film deserves to win some Academy Awards.” Didn’t expect Best Picture, but even the stopped clocks at Hollywood can getting something right every so often.
I saw “Crash” on pay-per-view at home, and I thought it wasn’t very good, despite the great cast. About one-third of the way through it, I said to my wife, “Why did they make this movie?!” About two-thirds of the way through it, I said, “This is the most depressing movie I’ve seen since ‘The Color Purple!!'”
“Crash” says everybody in America is racist, prejudiced, rotten, immoral, etc. Everybody! Even the nice-guy cop from the beginning of the movie ends up doing something horrible in the end!
I do not recommend this film. Really poor crop of movies this year.
one of the few nights when went to bed at different times
Sounds like the honeymoon is over. Next come the complaints about not rinsing your whiskers out of the sink after you shave.
I thought Crash was a great movie. It was depressing but hey, that’s life sometimes. I’m glad it won (it’s the only one I’ve seen also).
Crash was a great movie, because it straight up points out that EVERYBODY’s got flaws, everyone has preconceptions, everyone does something bad in their lives. EVERYONE. Thus I am VERY surprised this actually came from Hollywood, and that the academy elite snobs were willing to give it some credit. Maybe Xenu liked it and did a secret brain warp thing to the academy while they sleeping in their sensory deprivation chambers or something.
Shimauma … not everyone kills a black guy, not everyone gropes a black woman, not everyone assumes every Latino is a gang member, etc.
I’d say the movie’s theme was “this is a terrible, racist country … therefore we need more government enforcement of NICENESS laws. Until everybody loves everybody, we need quotas, set-asides, sanctions, politically correct speech laws, etc.”
This is a much, MUCH nicer country than this miserable movies portrays.
To me, the theme was everyone is dumb about something, but that doesn’t make a person irredeemable.
And I didn’t find it depressing.
Put it on your netflix queue …
And you might receive it by next year’s Oscars.
I think Crash was just about the only movie in the running last night which I was able to make it to.
eric90230, I disagree with your point that “‘Crash’ says everybody in America is racist, prejudiced, rotten, immoral, etc. Everybody!…” As I remember the movie, the theme was that racism is everywhere, which is different than saying that everyone is, in one way or another, a racist. For far too long in too many venues (especially Hollywood), it’s been assumed that only White America could be racist, and Crash, in my opinion, showed that racism and discrimination exists among all races. Further, I don’t at all recollect that the movie included the idea that “…we need more government enforcement of NICENESS laws…. As I recall (I saw the movie when it came out, so my memory isn’t exactly fresh), there were characters who expressed frustration at being the victims of racism, but that’s different from supporting laws which might somehow enforce “Niceness”.
It was a good movie. Dark. Widely disparate sub-plots which come together to form the main theme (as I saw it) that racism is not limited to one race.
[Somewhat off topic: I thought it was interesting that Reese Witherspoon is married to a guy who played one of the main characters in Crash.]
You guys should watch Munich and Walk The Line too, though.
Sugarplum,
I’m curious enought to watch Munich, and Walk the Line should be here via Netflix tomorrow (it wasn’t nominated best picture, though). We tried to see Walk the Line in the theaters, but never had the time.
Who doesn’t love Johnny Cash? Commies, that’s who.
The problem with the way racism is treated in our society today is that you’ll NEVER be able to prove you’re not a racist. All anyone has to do is make the charge. And the charge can be based on something, or nothing.
If you don’t actually DO anything racist, the race-baiters will just say, “Yeah, but you benefited from a racist system.”
Its a no-win situation. Its not worth arguing about, or even trying to address. Just by entering this post, I’m setting myself up for the charge. But if I ignored the topic, I’m setting myself up too.
People who cry racism at every turn have brought us to a point where, if EVERYTHING is racist, then NOTHING is. But that’s their fault, not mine (system or no system).
I am not a racist.
And now, I probably won’t see this movie, because the whole topic just makes me sick.
//And now, I probably won’t see this movie, because the whole topic just makes me sick.//
Then don’t watch it because it protrays everybody as racist, watch it because it shows how everyone’s preconceptions could turn out wrong, like the fact that Sandra Bullock’s rich snotty white lady character realizes that her closed and most trusted friend is her Hispanic maid, or the tattoo’d Latino locksmith that’s just trying to make a better life for his little girl, or the racist cop who remembers his job is more important than his prejudices. This movie will wrap your mind around the idea that you may have heard or seen something that makes you think a certain way, but it doesn’t always turn out that way.
Sorry if I’m sounding airheaded movie critic, but this was a good movie. I’m glad it beat “Bareback Mounting” just on principle.
The racism on this post’s comments is making me feel colorful.