Watch Paul Haggis’ (2004) Academy Award winning film “Crash.”
Here is the link to the feature-length film “Crash”, directed by Paul Haggis, through FLITE:
https://col-fsu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01COL_FSU/1nonqn4/alma991005490589804773 (Links to an external site.)
Click on “Swank” to view this film online.
Answer the following questions.
Case Study: “Crash” (Haggis, 2004)
The central symbol of American culture in the film “Crash” is the car (or vehicle in any form).
1. Describe three different vehicles featured in the film and the social identity group (SIG)
associated with it.
2. Especially focus on two “crashes” between SIGs involving vehicles that occur during the 24
hours depicted in the film. Understand that the director uses ‘flashback’ technique to re-arrange the events that happen during that day. In what way(s) do these crashes symbolize ‘crashes between cultures’?
3. One critic has observed that these vehicle-centered crashes symbolize an even deeper message of guilt and redemption.
A. What vehicle-centered crash would be an illustration of the “guilt” of cultural absolutism
(“my way or the highway”)?
B. What vehicle-centered crash would be an illustration of the “redemption” of cultural
relativism (“I differ from you but at the end of the day we are both human beings”)?
C. Identify one character who achieves a personal “salvation” as a result of a vehicle-
centered crash? Include evidence from the film that they have changed their racist
attitudes.
4. This film is an excellent case for applying Andrea Rich’s “Intercultural Communication”
model.
A. Identify one character from each of Rich’s race groups: A, B, and C.
(Caution; the diagram former student Penny Troupe contributed to the module may not
be 100% accurate!)
B. Identify one character from each of Rich’s economic/class groups: X, Y, and Z.
C. Describe an interaction between characters from two different spaces on Rich’s model in
which the differences (“crashes”) in their race and class began in conflict but ended in
reconciliation.
