CRASH

I didn't see this movie until its release to the video
stores in the early part of the year, and it only had
one copy of the movie for rent. I did recommend it to
anyone willing to listen.

Ironically, as the year progressed, a few more copies
of the movie showed up on the shelves of the video
store. Later on, a few more and then a few more.

Watching the movie, I was amazed at the direction and
editing that was paramount throughout the entire movie.
Probably the most excellent, put-together, movie I have
seen since Dr. Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia.

And then I began to read the 'quick studies' of this
movie in most major publications and I wasn't sure I
had watched the same movie as the reviewers. I was
disappointed to note that the majority of reviewers
slanted their statements toward racial and/or
cultural tension in Los Angeles on a hot, sultry day!
Huh? I guess I was so enthralled with the complexity
of interactions that I just missed the racial tension
part. What I saw was people just being people.

For me, what sets this film apart from all others is
how over and over we are shown in a plain, simple,
and an unmistakable way how the effect of just one
action or one word ripples out into this universe
that we inhabit. Everything we say, everything we do,
everything we even think, has an affect in this
world, we just never take the time to examine it.
One simple action on the part of one person a
thousand miles from me, affects me. One simple word
from me can, and does, affect that same person who
is a thousand miles distant from me.

This movie is the meaning of the adage "No man is
an island unto himself." What a person does, and
sometimes doesn't do, affects all of us. We, in
turn, affect everyone else.

One other thing that I liked about the movie was the
fact that finally, finally, slurs and derisive
comments that we have all heard, usually whispered
or in confidence, from someone has now been stated
publicly. Hopefully, by drawing attention to the
fact that racial or uncomplimentary comments are
made constantly by many people-types will also
draw to the conscious level of those same people
what it is they are doing when they voice these
slurs and how their comments may affect people
whom they don't know or have never met and will
never meet in their lifetimes.

"NO MAN IS AN ISLAND"