LAT: Differing Views of Race in L.A. Collide in 'Crash'

[question everything]

From the Los Angeles Times

Differing Views of Race in L.A. Collide in 'Crash'

The Oscar-nominated film's depiction of a city seething with mistrust inspires fans and critics.
By Cara Mia DiMassa
Times Staff Writer

March 2, 2006

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has seen the film three times, and encouraged the deputy chief in charge of LAPD's professional standards to pass copies around the department. But Joe Hicks, the longtime African American community activist, believes the movie so distorts the state of race relations that it could hurt Los Angeles' reputation. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa loved the movie. His lawyer, a former member of the county Human Relations Commission, hated it.

"Crash" opened 10 months ago, but it continues to resonate across Los Angeles for reasons that have little to do with the six Oscars it is up for Sunday.

The movie has become something of a Rorschach test for Angelenos, separating those who believe the city's multicultural residents usually get along and those who feel race relations remain an open wound. Is the Los Angeles of "Crash" an accurate depiction of racial strife lurking just below the surface, or is it a cartoonish collection of stereotypes presented as the real L.A.? It's a debate that has played out at dinner tables, in classrooms and online.

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"There's nothing I saw depicted there that I've not experienced in my own years of policing, that my wife has not," Bratton said in an interview last week. "Just under the surface there is, unfortunately, a tension.".. The film's fans praise it for challenging the popular notion that as Los Angeles becomes more diverse, it also becomes more tolerant.

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The movie's critics acknowledge that racism and divisions remain in Los Angeles. But they argue that "Crash" is over the top in its portrayal of a city always on the verge of exploding with racial resentment. Some are particularly turned off by the explicit dialogue in which many conversations between characters of different races devolve into ugly exchanges of prejudice and stereotyping.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crash2mar02,1,3638930.story?coll=la-headlines-california