the movie "Crash"

I just watched the movie "Crash" last night [10/22/07]. I was on FX network, and it won the Oscar for best picture, in 2005, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, I can see that it could have. Wow! What a film! I had previously avoided watching it because I often shrink away from anything 'controversial' like 'racial tension,' as was the description on DISH Network's fabulous info button [I love that thing]. But, for one, this dealt with many races, not just two [like black/white, Korean/black, or Hispanic/white or Hispanic/black], as have many previous movies. Those stories certainly need telling, also, but they HAVE been told many times, and this film provided something new. the idea of MANY races living amongst each other in present America. It also implied a couple of points:

1. The idea, I believe, is that people living in a common world are going to interact with each other, and this is not always planned, but very often circumstanstial. The subtitle on the film's website, http://www.crashfilm.com/ is "Moving at the speed of light, we are bound to collide with each other." {I would recommend reading the 'synopsis' on the website also.} It is very much like 'crashing' into one another. And it puts racial strife into this context. I came away thinking very much that it was not 'scolding' one group or another, or certain individuals from certain groups for bad behavior. On the contrary, I believe the film may have been intentionally trying to rise above the all too common 'Who can I blame?' paradigm of the recent and distant past. This movie, I think, asks us to consider that we have to make decisions based on the circumstances in which we find ourselves. And one idea I take from this [granted, based on my own preconceptions coming into the film] is that simply finding a person to blame might not be the most helpful solution.

2. If life is somewhat random, then all 'violence' cannot be avoided. Is this even a good goal? And yet, we strive towards peaceful, good living. But, as I hinted at the end of point one, the solution perhaps lies more in system-wide responses than in just legalistic blame-throwing at one or two people. Sociology and psychology combine here. Certainly, love and basic respect for all people are a prerequisite. Because it is this love for someone just because he or she is, in fact, a human person, created by the same God that created me, that leads me to find out what this person truly needs, and then work to bring it to him or her. I understand Bill Cosby has recently come out with a book that emphasizes the idea the people who are hurt will go on to hurt others: not really such a novel idea, yet we often act like we don't believe it, that is, unless it be ourselves. We're often quick to excuse ourselves from responsibility because we're so 'busy' or we 'had a bad day.' Yet when other people misbehave, they must be hooligans or godless or self-absorbed. In John Grisham's book, The Chamber, he speaks about a former Klansman on death row for the killing of two Jewish boys. This is a fictional story, of course, but the points made are relevant. At one point, Grisham writes from the mouth of his main character [the attorney and grandson of Sam, the convicted murderer], that he could see how, growing up in the part of Mississippi in which Sam grew up, that it was only likely that Sam would grow up the way he did, to see black people and Jews the way he did; it had been schooled into him. I don't know that Grisham is 'excusing' such actions; I doubt it, and if he is, I'm not suggesting the same. There is something to taking responsibility for your actions, but I think Grisham is reminding us of something the Bible also reminds us of, to 'bear one another's burdens.' {Galatians 6, verse 2} If Sam was guilty of murder, in many ways, so are any of us who have ever been quietists when it came to racial issues [and who hasn't been at some time or other?], or who directly contributed to racial tension [sadly, this is probably true of us, too, and I certainly would have to plead guilty also]. This film brings out the idea of 'shared guilt,' I believe. Or at least, it seems that way to a person like me who has already been focusing on this idea for awhile. When we address racism in America or the world, we have to be thinking both sociologically and psycholgically, and we have to constantly consider our 'own' fears and hurts even as we consider those of others.

These are just my thoughts; I welcome anyone else's reactions the film.