Crash was really great IMO. I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain, though.

Fair enough. I should probably watch it at some point to "compare"...

I found Crash pretentious and artificial. Let's not even go into the Go-like, awfully convenient plot. I think the after-school "lessons" it teaches are pretty demeaning: It's ok to be racist against black people provided you would risk your life to save a black person's life. Everyone's a little bit racist. Some thieves won't stoop to murder or slavery. Even horrible people can love someone.

I think the fact that everything in the entire movie was all about race and how we are all racist in some form or fashion really bothered me. I think the movie just tried too hard to be "nuanced" and show the grey areas of life.

I can see it scoring really well at the Oscars. It avoids the unpleasant gay-factor but still seems 'different', 'edgy' and 'race-conscious'.

See I didn't get the "It's ok to be racist against black people provided you would risk your life to save a black person's life." lesson. When I saw it, when it first came out, I was struck by the question of "am I racist"? It seems to me that it did a really good job of showing how things that seem so slight, can be taken the wrong way as a racial slight. My chief complaint, besides the whole everything is a big connected web cliche, was that it failed to provide any solutions. It isn't like racism is a new problem, and just because you make a movie showing that racism exists isn't oscar worthy unless you go one step further and start showing how we could possiblyheal those divides. But that is just me.

Perhaps it merits a re-watch?

It's been a while since I saw Crash, but I don't think it tried to teach any lessons, and definitely not 'after-school' ones. Rather I thought the movie set out specifically to *avoid* teaching any lesson but rather to just force you to confront yourself and make you think about what you think about the issues. I know it made me introspect.

I liked how confrontational some of the scenes were and how uncomfortable it made me, and I found some of the scenes gripping BUT I was annoyed and insulted that its depiction of Asian people was limited to boat people. As always, it's "black and white, with a little bit of brown," not "black, white, brown, pink, and yellow." Either do what you usually do and leave Asians out of it or include us and actually say something interesting about the issues we face.

First, the movie was ok. Im' not saying it was terrible - I just don't think it deserved an Oscar. Sadly, upon watching it however, my first impulse was "Someone really wanted an Oscar so they sat down and tried to write something that woudl win" and it did.

I didn't really find it made me introspective (not in a good way). The cases were too stereotypical. The little bit of background they tried to give wasn't enough (and was too stereotypical itself). In fact, for a movie about racism, I found the stereotypes and movie itself rather racist.

I agree with you a lot fanboi. It just showed some complex examples of racism without showing any charater advancement or resolvement. I didn't identify with or attach myself to any character. I didnt feel like any of them were real people and I had little sympathy for them (which is saying a lot for me - I always identify with movie characters).