Was Crash Worthy of the Best Picture of the Year Award?

The Facts
Synopsis: Crash is a movie about how people from all races deal with bigotry and racial stereotypes, whether it's overt or institutional, on a daily basis. A cop tries to get medical help for his father, but he is having problems with a black HMO clerk who won't give his father permission to see another doctor. He in turn takes out his frustration on a black couple during a traffic stop. A socialite and District Attorney are carjacked at gunpoint by two black teenagers. Sandra takes out her anger on a Mexican locksmith who is changing the door locks to their home. Later that night, the locksmith is again robbed of his dignity by a Persian store-owner. The movie attempts to manipulate the viewers pre-conceived notions of what a "bad guy" or "good guy" is based on first appearances by adding twists to nearly every character at some point in the film (a synopsis assist from the Movie Guy at IMDB.com)

Rated: R

Running Time: 112 minutes

Release Date: May, 2005

Written and Directed by: Paul Haggis

Starring: Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, Michael Pena and many, many others

Popularity: Grossed over $50 million domestically

Oscars: Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Editing. Beat out Best Picture nominated films Capote, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, and Good Night, and Good Luck, as well as notable non-nominated movies Syriana, King Kong, Cinderella Man, Batman Begins, The Constant Gardener, Hustle & Flow, Sin City, The Squid and the Whale, Walk the Line, Memoirs of a Geisha, North Country, Kung Fu Hustle and Grizzly Man (documentary). [editor's note: to be fair, these were 2005 releases, but some of the non-nominated movies might not have qualified for the 2006 Academy Awards because of release dates or other rule stipulations.]

The Rep

• A self-described "passion piece" for director Paul Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real life incident in which he was carjacked outside a video store in L.A.
• Rottentomatoes.com gives it a 75% fresh rating (fresh = good)
• Metacritic gives it a consensus score of 69 out of 100
• Critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and his nod for best picture of the year
• UK's Empire Magazine, mostly readers poll, ranks it at 460 out of the top 500 movies of all time (as of 9/08)
• Shined a light on the preconceived racist tendencies that many, if not all of us, share no matter what color our skin or income status level might be

The Rap

• Some critics asserted that Asians were portrayed in an overwhelmingly negative light with few, if any, redeeming qualities and Arabs were portrayed in stereotypical overly religious way.
• Dialog was often heavy-handed and "on-the-nose" (see examples here)
• Ended up on some critics "worst movie of the year" lists at the time and has seemed to have grown in unpopularity as time goes by.
• Is practically devoid of any memorable lines, characters, plot elements or other "classic" moments found in most favorite films.

The Analysis
Admittedly, Crash was never one of this site's favorite movies. It was viewed long before any ideas of it getting nominated for Best Picture were even being considered, so there was not a preconceived notion going in that this thing better be one of the best ever made. In fact, little was known about the film beforehand, so no pre-opinions were present. When it was actually nominated, it was somewhat of a surprise. When it won, it was a shock.

But, this site isn't solely about one person's opinion. It's about hearing the arguments for and against the topic and weighing the facts and evidence provided by other sources to make a judgment.

Crash beat out hyped up favorite Brokeback Mountain and the somewhat controversial Munich. Good Night, and Good Luck and Capote, while good movies, were not considered real contenders for the title. There was some speculation after the results were revealed that Crash, a story with the nearly universal appeal of "racism = bad," was the safe pick over more controversial stories about homosexuals, Jews, smoking black & white people and whatever Truman Capote was. Certainly debateable, but impossible to really know due to the secrecy of the voting results.

Crash is certainly not a badly made movie and it does score some points by being successful despite a relatively shoestring budget. It is heavy-handed though in how many of the characters deal with the racism they encounter and harbor inside themselves. It's talky. Too talky (like this blog, but worse) and what the character's often say is preachy and unrealistic. But writer/director Paul Haggis has proven his worth before and since in such movies as Shaggy Dog Returns. Well, he did do that, but he also was instrumental in the re-birth of James Bond's popularity and won an Oscar the previous year for scribing Million Dollar Baby. So, the guy can definitely write and craft a good tale (although we're still confused on what the heck happened at the end of Casino Royale).

Most annoyingly, Crash is one of those movies, like the near Best Picture Traffic (2000), that hammers its story home over and over and over again. For those of us in the audience that are smart enough and already cognizant of the fact that we may hold some ingrained racist or stereotypical views that we need to work on, or, in the case of Traffic, that doing or dealing drugs is a bad thing for you and your family, you get the point 15 minutes in. The other hour and 45 minutes is a preachy, repetitive waste of your life.

The Judgment
It's a close call. And it's never easy to say after the fact that something isn't deserving especially when there's a lot of people voting for the results. More than likely this was an extremely close race and votes were split all around. When that happens, the safer, middle-er of the road choice almost always comes out on top.

It's this site's opinion that the main things to look at when discerning the value of things like best movies is relevance over time. After all, once you get past the technical aspects of making a good movie, isn't staying power and lasting effect on society the most important thing? In that case, Brokeback Mountain is the runaway winner, but probably a somewhat surprising very close second, if not topping it, is Walk the Line. Those two movies are still in the collective consciences of our society. Others that have certainly influenced current movie-fare that deserve this kind relevance over time type of consideration (although admittedly laughable if they were actually nominated for the prestigious Academy Awards) were Sin City, Batman Begins and even Kung Fu Hustle.

Crash is notable for a cool trick though and that is its manipulation of the audience. Characters are shown in a certain light or fashion that plays on preconceived notions of good and bad. But, is that truly shining a light on our inner racist, or just shining a light on our inner laziness in movie watching? Maybe the true stereotypes that we all share is that well-lit characters accompanied by lifting music = good; while darkly lit characters with ominous tones = bad.

So, final judgment? Roger Ebert is hands down the best film critic that has ever lived and 99.5% of the time this site would just agree with any of his assessments and move on. But, we just can't do it with this one. While Crash probably deserved to be nominated, Brokeback Mountain deserved to win. And, as a footnote, Walk the Line deserved a nod as well, probably ahead of Capote or Munich.

Is Crash the worst Best Motion Picture of all time? Arguably, no. We'll assume the Academy got it right up to 1950 things like lack of competition and a difficulty of knowing now the general temperament of the times back then. An American in Paris over Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, Greatest Show on Earth over High Noon, Ivanhoe, Moulin Rouge in 1952, Out of Africa over The Color Purple in 1985, Dances With Wolves over Goodfellas in 1990 are clear oversights after the fact.

But, probably the worst offense based on the selections it beat out was in 2007 when The Departed (a flawed, predictable mess) won out over Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, and The Queen. Of course, The Departed more than likely won as a make good for Goodfellas slight a few years earlier (a movie in many critics top 1o0 or even top 10 of all time).

The X Factor
Not much of an X Factor possible here. Movies that peak for Best Picture or that are even nominated are very seldom looked at in a new, positive light later on.

Its only hope is that many, many years from now, racism is non-existant and historians trace the turning point all the way back to 2006's Best Motion Picture.