Paul Haggis won two Oscars for his major feature debut as director and co-writer. Set in Los Angeles over two days, it is a picaresque, episodic film with a cast of disparate characters whose lives coincide for one reason or another, from racist cop John Ryan (Matt Dillon, pictured) who pulls over black TV director Cameron Thayer (Terrence Howard) and his wife Christine (Thandie Newton), to the simple hassles that Iranian Farad (Shaun Toub) encounters.
Other subplots involve the wife of the DA Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) making assumptions about Daniel (Michael Peña), her Mexican locksmith and the actions of Anthony and Peter (Ludacris and Larenz Tate), one of whom is the brother of police chief Graham Waters (Don Cheadle), himself no innocent, having an affair with colleague Ria (Jennifer Esposito).
Haggis is no stranger to Oscars, having been nominated for the screenplays of Letters from Iwo Jima and Million Dollar Baby. The film, released in 2004, has been compared to Magnolia and Short Cuts but it is more complex in its aims and simpler in its structure, as Haggis shows a city where racism and its manifestations are easily encountered but where those at both the giving and receiving end are not simple ciphers but complex human beings, whose intolerance is caused by both their personal and society's problems.
Crash is a Film programme that first aired in 2004 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
