While that letter is much deeper than any of the writing that I have done in a long time, if ever, I agree that many of the characters in Crash are ridiculous cariacatures. Their racism is not subtle at all, but beats you over the head blatantly.

I enjoyed much of Crash and thought it had some beautiful scenes, but much of the earlier establishing scenes were too broad.

Also what Matt Dillon's character does to Thandie Newton's goes beyond mere racism and to assault. From then on, nothing that character does can redeem him. When was the last time you heard anyone say, my next door neighbor is a rapist, but he sure puts up a nice Christmas display.

"When was the last time you heard anyone say, my next door neighbor is a rapist, but he sure puts up a nice Christmas display."

Never, but I'd always assumed that was because all the rapists were Jewish.

I really don't understand how someone can think the desire to have sex after an accident is distributed along racial lines.

That other Crash movie was the reason I avoided watching this one for so long. I admit there's no rationality to it, but I had them connected in my head and didn't want to reward the new one after the freakshow that was the last one.

Also, my joke above was funny.

I haven't seen either Crash, but I was reading the JG Ballard book that the freakshow of a movie was based on while there were ads up all over the subway for the new, presumably non-freakshow Crash. The Ballard book was so good, and so far beyond the pale (I'd never so closely associated arousal and queasiness in such a smart context), that I didn't want to debase my experience by associating it with some tepid hollywood everyone-you've-ever-heard-of-is-in-this-movie crap.

i thoroughly enjoyed Crash. it might not make my top 5, but it's probably in the top 10 for the year. i think people who complain about the "racism not being realistic" are missing the point on many, many levels. first, it doesn't have to be realistic. it has to be accurate. it's a film, and aside from constant voice-over, it would be hard to articulate "racism" in people's thoughts. hence sandra bullock's loudmouth bullshit.

but i have no interest in defending whether something is or is not "realistic." what i most enjoyed about the picture is that it attempts to deal with shit that no one wants to deal with. we don't need american history x type discussions about skinheads and neo-nazis, we need candid discussions about we all, every single one of us, black, white, hispanic, asian, arab, persian, jewish and more are fucking racist on some level. then we need to figure out the reasons why and deal with them.

crash doesn't do that. but it does at least hint towards attempting to launch a discussion. and that's why it's great.