Crash

Crash is a film about many different characters and their troubles which all seem to evolve around race and their stereotypical behaviour. In the key scene ‘miscommunication’ an excellent example of that behaviour is shown and therefore the two characters involved in the scene, a rookie cop and a young black man, miscommunicate hence the name of the scene.

The director does a lot to build the tension in the scene from background music to the lighting; from the silences to the character reactions. The tension becomes so great that even the viewer doesn’t want anything to happen to the characters as the film ties a sort of bond between them.

In ‘miscommunication’ the young black man gets a ride from the rookie officer (who isn’t in uniform so the black man doesn’t know that he is a cop). At first the cop and the black man get along fine but later on the cop thinks that the young man is a stereotypical black man. As the cop asks the man where he has been, he notices mud on his shoes and a tear in his jacket. As soon as the cop sees this he assumes that the black man was up to no good which unfortunately he was although the man had no right to assume that. The black man starts talking about country music which is playing on the radio, saying how he bought himself one.

The rookie thinks that the man is ‘having fun’ with him believing that black man don’t listen to music like country music. Tension starts to fill the scene as both of the characters enter a stony silence until the black man notices the St Michaels figure on the cop’s dashboard and starts to laugh. The officer immediately assumes that he is laughing at him, begins to get annoyed and tells him to get out of the car. The background music stops playing, which is a clever way to help build the tension as it helps watchers to focus on the actors and the situation. As the black man started to reach in his pocket to try and show the police man what he was laughing about, the officer assumes that...