Ensemble cast packs 'Crash' with rich stories

As it began, President John F. Kennedy declared that the United States would have a man on the moon within 10 years.

Considering that manned space flight was less than 10 years old – and considering the technology of the time – the fact that man set foot on the moon in August 1969 is mind-boggling.

So many things happened in the ‘60s: TV finally came into its own; the British invasion changed pop music, as did the psychedelic era later on; a new breed of film makers gave us a new brand of intensely personal movies.

The civil rights movement was also a big part of this social setting.

Many people assume that the struggle for civil rights was won in the hard-fought battles of the 1960s. Some things have changed, to be sure, but the fact that racism is not as overt now as it was then serves merely as a smokescreen.

The term “politically correct” has become a euphemism for people who, in most cases, are merely trying to be sensitive to others’ feelings.

And don’t think racism is limited to simply white vs. black issues. It rears its ugly head in every culture.

It should come as no surprise that a subject this intense – and personal – is the basis for a number of great movies in the last four decades.

In the 1960s there were films such as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” “In the Heat of the Night” and “A Raisin in the Sun.” Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever” put the matter in a more current setting.

But no film is as on target and hard hitting as Paul Haggis’ “Crash.”

First-time director Haggis wrote the screenplay (he also wrote last year’s Oscar winner “Million Dollar Baby”), and he borrows heavily from a style advanced by writer/director Robert Altman.

“Crash” uses an ensemble cast and features several interweaving stories as did the Altman classics “The Player” and “Short Cuts.”

Haggis manages to improve on the genre.

“Short Cuts” clocked in at three hours, nine minutes. “Crash” – at one hour, 47 minutes – is brief in comparison.

The story unfolds over a 36-hour period, and Haggis packs so much character and plot development into each scene that he’s able to juggle the viewer’s sense of time.

It would be an exercise in futility to try to describe what takes place in “Crash.” The stories, and especially the interactions between the individual stories, are richly complex and intricately staged.

Anyone with brains and compassion will be examining their own beliefs for a long while after the final credits roll.

The cast is impressive.

Sandra Bullock, who always has seemed to be the sweetest of the megastars, shows her mettle here and plays entirely against type. Don Cheadle, who was rightfully lauded for his performance in last year’s “Hotel Rwanda,” continues to prove he should be taken quite seriously in dramatic roles. Matt Dillon is intense and unnerving as a racist cop who may have some pertinent points and issues.

The real star, though, is writer/director Haggis. He’s fashioned a film that, in both style and substance, is as good – and as powerful – as filmmaking can hope to be.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

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