Michael Social Issues In Film

The movie “Crash” (Dir. Paul Haggis, 2004) takes place in Los Angeles, post 9/11,

and shows different conflicts and stereotypes between the many ethnic groups in this city.

The characters in this movie are a white LAPD policeman, who is trying to get a doctor

for his dying father, but the black clerk is not allowing it. He takes his anger out later

that day on a black couple who were pulled over at a traffic stop. A white lady and her

husband are carjacked by two black teenagers. The white lady then is racist towards the

Mexican locksmith who she believes will break into her house, who is then stereotyped

by a Persian storeowner. This movie shows how society interacts with each other, not by

the person, but by the colour of their skin.

I think that the movie portrays accurately how society has created different stereotypes

for the different ethnic groups that we have living in North America. This movie makes

us think that prejudice, crime and deviance are learned through experience. Each

character “crashes” with different ethnic groups and forms ideas in their head towards

that group of people.

There are many scenes of crime and deviance in this movie, such as robbery and

murder. One sociological perspective that the film portrays is the conflict perspective,

which is defined as “groups in society in a continuous power struggle for control of

scarce resources.” (p. 25, Sociology of our Times). Throughout this movie, there are

conflicts and crimes committed between different social classes. For example, when two

black teens are stealing a car from a white couple in a well off area of the city. They are

stealing the car to sell to a “chop shop” to make money. They are from a lower social

class and have learned to steal to make money. This is deviant behaviour. Also the

Persian shop owner, whose shop was ransacked, tried to buy a gun