Paul, You Forgot Something

Disclaimer: This blog contains some things, you may not like but oh well..."kids"...It's going to get serious.


Today, I gladly accept my lot as being a part of the unhappy minority on the subject of this year's Best Motion Picture category upset winner Crash. I admit that I couldn't stop laughing in the film’s beginning because it seemed to me that, Paul Haggis had written down every racial slur and epithet he had heard in his whole life and put it into this film.

Gee, Ma...I wish I could do that...and sell it.

Ever since seeing the film I have been drawn to talk to others about what made “Crash” so wonderful to them or possibly to find some lone spirit like myself that felt the same as I did; shamefully most often I kept my true feelings to myself because of the reaction that I would get when I expressed my opinion.

Oddly enough with all the “Crash” lovers out there, no one ever told me exactly why he or she loved the film sooooooooo much. Instead whenever I raised any issue that I had with the film, its supporters were quick to rally its cause. As a matter of fact, a “Crash” enthusiast told me, quite angrily yesterday that, I didn’t understand because it (the film) was meant to be an exercise. An exercise in what I asked but he never said. I couldn’t help but exclaim to myself, Bullshit!

I guess admitting that the film made you feel like a better person because your buttons got pushed and that caused you to question your morals can be a hard thing to acknowledge.

Ahhhh, I now understand why the "Crash" lovers are foaming at the mouth when challenged.

Since, Oscar Sunday I have been more baffled than ever as to why a film like this one would win Best Picture. Clearly, I was rooting for Brokeback Mountain, which to me was a beautiful film that told a better story of the human condition and was more ground braking than this race mockumentary.

The bases of “Crash” fell short on me and for months I was willing to run the risk that I could have been wrong about this but in the back of my mind I kept coming to my same standing issues with the film.

The thing that I disliked most about the film was the way the women were written. I had a hard time believing Jennifer Esposito’s character Ria, taking shit from a little man like Don Cheadle, a man she not only seem to outsize in stature but seemed to outwit as well. I couldn't quite wrap my mind around what would make a woman as Thandie Newton's character Christine withstand a humiliating molestation by a male officer played by Matt Dillon in the presence of her husband played by Terrance Howard and for nothing to be done about it afterwards makes me sick.

I know and understand the difficulties with taking on the authorities and the song and dance about minorities are still making strides and have so much further to go, blah, blah, blah. Actually I believe that “Every Man For Himself” is the real name of the game but it is always talked about using the divisive communal word "We" instead of me, as to keep it a secret. But to me that scene superseded the issue of race; it set, All Womankind Back To The Dark Ages.

Sadly, I never heard anyone talk about that problem concerning the film because it was probably shrugged off as a black issue and not an issue for none black women to discuss because it happened to a black woman; a definite barrier that blacks have had a hand in setting up.

Listen, women are women no matter what skin you’re in and what happens to one potentially happens to us all. The issue of what Ms. Newton’s character was feeling as a woman was never formally addressed. Instead it came in the form of a fight with her husband about who was whiter; a real insult because both are very light skinned blacks. She later apologized to her husband for her hurtful words. The writer made that scene about the husband’s pangs of racial inferiority. The emotional pain of the husband when his wife has been hurt is not the most pressing issue. My sentiment is... Sorry, Bro... I don't want to hear it.

Some people in the business make a pretty good living peddling the race issue. When race is talked about in America people do pep up and listen. Paul Haggis won an Oscar and made a sizable amount of cash, although Cathy Schulman (Crash's Co-Producer) is broke due to some nasty lawsuit. The proof still remains in the pudding.

Hollywood is perhaps more sexist than racist and no one ever seems to mention that. It is an old boys club where, yes, whites are preferred but… No Girls Allowed!

There are plenty of black and latino men working out there. Ever watch The Shield? Count the ethnic men and that is only one show there are numerous more not to mention the numbers are growing for writers, producers, directors, camera operators, and etc. I often wondered, how many women does Spike Lee employ, when you look at his crew it is full of minority men.

To quote Penelope Cruz’s character in Gothika, “Open Your Eyes” (say it in an annoying rat voice, it's funnier). Imagine being an actress or a woman in the business, trying to get one of your projects made with out a Front Man/Partner Speak Piece. It’s a hard life.

The one bright spot in the film was Sandra Bullock's character Jean that I thought was excellently played and unfortunately I felt she was overlooked by the academy but yet again, the writer made her apologize for the things she had done and said, as if to admit that she had some how brought her current misfortune on herself.

Her maid in the end was a paid employee not a friend and therefore obliged to take care of her and give her a hug. Perhaps, if the maid had more camera time I’m sure we would have heard the truth about what she thought and felt but then again given the record of this film, maybe not.

Paul Haggis created a false world because in the real world thank G-D, women don’t have to apologize for existing and in the real world some Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Muslims, and Whites, have a common fiber when it comes to hating the Jews. They say awful things about Jews and Jews in turn say awful things about them. It's nice to know that all races and ethnic groups do manage to come together on some things.

His fictitious world portrayal under its guise of being “real” was ultimately the biggest problem that I had with the film. The film caused me to ponder, not my feeling about race but what was he really trying to say and how much did he know and love his mother.

I felt that a lot of the characters made stupid choices. It could have been a better movie if the Persian shop owner Farhad had just been written out completely. Let's face it he wasn't a smart man to begin with, surely his daughter with her big scary all-seeing eyes, did know that. Then why did she buy a gun?

Mr. Haggis forgot to put in a very real deep-rooted hatred that seems to go back since the dawn of time or at least to when Christ was killed called anti-Semitism. Perhaps he didn't because this is Hollywood and he does want to work again. Besides “The Passion” has been done already.

Which leads to my conclusion that Paul Haggis made a film that was not only myopic in its views, he made a spurious world in which every person said to each others face what most people say behind each others back. That's not brilliant filmmaking that's irresponsible and again you forgot the Jews.