ENGB70
February 29, 2012
Crash
A modern day Capra film
o It’s A Wonderful Life playing at one of the theatres in the background
o The snow falling at the end
Haggis creates a different visual event
The mirror scene in Othello pulls us through composition,
o an image in reverse
o Pushes Othello more deeply into that crisis
o Othello is actually disappearing in his crisis
o He has no place to inhabit that scene
In Crash, Terrence Howard experiences crisis like Othello
o Starts by police officer feeling up his wife
o Begin as upper class Americans
o By the end of the movie they are trying to prove to one another that they are
indeed black and should embrace who they are
o Taken humiliation from his wife, the actor (micro-managing)
o In the situation when he gets pulled over by the cops he refuses to give back
his power
o Moved from being broken to almost falling apart
o By following just Cameron and his wife you could of made a powerful movie
One of the most powerful subplots of the movie
o Melodramas always give the characters who fallen into despair another
chance
o In order to be himself he had to stand up for himself
Every character is given a second chance by the end of the movie
Addresses a central issue of when people think or feel stereotypical thoughts and
when they act on those reactions
o Stereotype activation- racist thoughts arise
o Stereotype application- to act upon a racist thought
o Activation doesn’t always lead to application, it depends on the goals of the
subject
o 3 primary goals that influence this
Comprehension-understanding what is going on
Self-enhancement-the idea to strengthen your own ego by demeaning
another or helping one