Crash
Quite easily one of the best movies I have seen in the past few years. I haven't gotten so *cough* emotional *end cough* over a movie in a while. A flick to redeem the travesty that was Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. I can't believe they even let Lucas release that. All copies of that movie should be thrown into a cellar and drowned in acid. Okay, maybe they should keep one copy around just to remind themselves of what never to do again.
Anyway, I digress.
There were two main opinions that people had expressed to me about Crash before I watched it:
1. It was really good, but
2. they played way too much on racial stereotypes.
To the people who thought the second, I would like to say the following:
That was the whole damn point of the movie!!
Crash exposes the superficiality of social tolerance in our country today. It's interesting because when I lived in Asia, I was extremely put off by the whole idea of "saving face". Everyone was doing things just for show. As long as they looked good, it didn't matter what was going on underneath.
I've recently come to realize that this mentality is really a part of human nature that exists to the same degree everywhere in the world. It's often expressed differently and, as is the case in places like the US, hidden under layers of cool, composed facades (which probably makes the problem even worse). In this country, we concentrate so much of our energies into convincing each other of how accepting we are, that we leave no time or emotional energy to invest in the understanding required for true acceptance.
Our constant states of defensiveness only serve to keep those around us at the ends of 10-foot poles. The primary result of maintaining this attitude is the creation and maintenance of stereotypes. Peering over the handles of our silly little poles, we are satisfied with mere glimpses of those we say we respect. Worse than that, we make boundary-crossing assessments that we have no place making because the evidence behind the conclusions is garnered from emotionally detached interactions with one another.
In the end, I don't even know why "tolerance" is considered a good thing. Why do we strive merely to tolerate each other, when the true value lies in comprehension and love?
Anyway, I digress.
There were two main opinions that people had expressed to me about Crash before I watched it:
1. It was really good, but
2. they played way too much on racial stereotypes.
To the people who thought the second, I would like to say the following:
That was the whole damn point of the movie!!
Crash exposes the superficiality of social tolerance in our country today. It's interesting because when I lived in Asia, I was extremely put off by the whole idea of "saving face". Everyone was doing things just for show. As long as they looked good, it didn't matter what was going on underneath.
I've recently come to realize that this mentality is really a part of human nature that exists to the same degree everywhere in the world. It's often expressed differently and, as is the case in places like the US, hidden under layers of cool, composed facades (which probably makes the problem even worse). In this country, we concentrate so much of our energies into convincing each other of how accepting we are, that we leave no time or emotional energy to invest in the understanding required for true acceptance.
Our constant states of defensiveness only serve to keep those around us at the ends of 10-foot poles. The primary result of maintaining this attitude is the creation and maintenance of stereotypes. Peering over the handles of our silly little poles, we are satisfied with mere glimpses of those we say we respect. Worse than that, we make boundary-crossing assessments that we have no place making because the evidence behind the conclusions is garnered from emotionally detached interactions with one another.
In the end, I don't even know why "tolerance" is considered a good thing. Why do we strive merely to tolerate each other, when the true value lies in comprehension and love?
posted by Daniel at 1:45 PM
3 Comments:
hi daniel..guess who ...
Yo yo, nice job Dan. You and I definitely are on the same page when it comes to this movie.
I think in this society, we are too damn scared to look bad in front of people.
But when peeps act like that, nothing really comes about, whether it's change or understanding.
I hope others will stop "frontin" and start being real.
I think Daniel has a great blog! I've been surfing around everywhere and just love to read all this stuff. I don't have a blog to contribute to but found a place where you can get a free target gift card. I think they are limiting it so you may wanna hurry on over. the site is Target Gift Card Keep up the great work, I love Blogger!!!
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