LA crash

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Movie
German title LA crash
Original title Crash
Country of production United States , Germany
original language English
Publishing year 2004
length 113 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Paul Haggis
script Paul Haggis,
Robert Moresco
production Don Cheadle ,
Paul Haggis,
Mark R. Harris ,
Robert Moresco ,
Cathy Schulman ,
Bob Yari
music Mark Isham
camera James Michael Muro
cut Hughes Winborne
occupation
synchronization

LA Crash (Original title: Crash ) is an American episode film - drama from 2004 . The directorial debut of the scriptwriter Paul Haggis revolves around racism. The film tells the history of a rear-end collision in several interwoven storylines in which different people with their attitudes and prejudices clash in the big city of Los Angeles. The film received mostly positive reviews and several awards, including in 2006 the Oscar for Best Picture . In 2008 Haggis' film concept was continued in a 26-part television series of the same name .

action

The action takes place in the California metropolis of Los Angeles . The first scene shows a rear-end collision involving policeman Graham Waters and his colleague, the Latina Ria. The accident happened at a place they were called to because there was a murder to be solved.

The following scenes are flashbacks from the previous day: District Attorney Rick Cabot and his wife Jean are ambushed by two young African Americans . Anthony and his friend Peter steal the couple's car, a black Lincoln , and drive it to a fence who deals in stolen cars. On the way there they accidentally run over the Korean Choi Jin Gui, who is standing next to his van on the street. After a short discussion about whether to leave the man lying there, they take the man to the hospital, but put him down in front of the gate and disappear.

After the robbery, Rick and Jean have several locks exchanged in their house. Jean sees her prejudices against black people confirmed by the attack and therefore suspects the man from the locksmith, Daniel, a Latin American , that he will give the keys to her house to a "prison buddy". In the following scene, however, it becomes clear that Daniel is not a criminal, but a loyal family man.

The black couple Cameron and Christine feel the racist attitude of the frustrated policeman Ryan, whose father has been sick for a few weeks. Because the two drive a black Lincoln, they are stopped by Ryan. During the subsequent control he does not feel that he is being taken seriously and is provoked by the drunk Christine; he takes revenge by sexually harassing Christine very aggressively during the search and thus humiliating the couple. At home, the married couple quarrel because the husband did not intervene when Christine was molested. He argues that it was more intelligent not to defend yourself against the police officer, as otherwise they might have been shot.

Officer Hansen, Ryan's colleague and therefore passively involved in the sexual harassment, disapproves of his partner's behavior and asks his manager for a transfer. The supervisor, also African American , dissuades Hansen from filing an official protest against Ryan's behavior, since he, as his long-time supervisor, could get into trouble himself. He has known Ryan long enough and did not notice any racist attitudes in him. If Hansen no longer wanted to go on patrol with Ryan, he'd better give a forward reason.

The next scenes show Ryan in his home, which he shares with his sick father. He has had problems with the prostate for a long time and Ryan looks after him carefully. The next day, he appears at the office of his health insurance clerk, an African American woman, to discuss his father's treatment. He is turned away by her, whereupon he tells her the story of his father, who had a building cleaning with 23 African-American employees, which he paid voluntarily according to tariff. After more than 30 years, the city of Los Angeles decided to only place its contracts with companies that are run by members of ethnic minorities . This was his father's financial end. She turned him down after he made racist remarks and he left her office angrily.

Investigator Waters, who made his first appearance in the opening scene of the film, visits his mother at home. She is addicted to drugs and can barely take care of herself. She asks Waters about his younger, criminal brother Peter, who has been undetectable for days. The mother tells him to look for him. Peter is the young man who steals the SUV with his friend Anthony at the beginning of the film. A look in his mother's refrigerator shows Waters that there is only spoiled food there.

Waters is called to a crime scene where the white undercover drug investigator Conklin allegedly shot and killed a black man in a car driving next to him in self-defense. Conklin has already killed two black people while on duty, but no culpable or racist behavior could be proven. This time the case is particularly delicate because it turns out that the man shot was also a civil investigator.

When the internal police investigation finds $ 300,000 hidden in the spare tire while investigating the car the man was driving, Waters tends to believe that the policeman who was shot must have been involved in criminal activities and that Conklin's version of self-defense could be correct. District attorney Cabot, who is out for the votes of black voters, wants Conklin to be convicted so that the black policeman who was shot can be seen as a hero who was killed in the service, and he puts pressure on Waters criminal brother Peter through his assistant, Flanagan. Waters finally agrees against his conviction in the version of the crime that Conklin probably shot the black civil investigator out of racist motives, which Cabot then announced at a press conference.

Waters buys groceries for his vegetating mother, who is now focused solely on the disappearance of her younger brother, and puts it in the refrigerator while she sleeps. She then thinks that the missing younger brother, whom she clearly prefers, did so. In a later scene she mentions this to Waters.

The Persian haberdashery dealer Farhad wants to buy a firearm to protect himself and his shop. However, this project fails because of his poor knowledge of English. Farhad is insulted by the arms dealer and equated with the terrorists of September 11, 2001 . Then his daughter buys the firearm and a pack of cartridges. Farhad can no longer properly close the access door to his shop. He therefore wants to have a new lock installed by the locksmith Daniel. Daniel replaces the lock, but explains to him that he also has to get a new door so that the lock engages properly. However, his recommendation does not go well with Farhad, whose lack of language skills are an obstacle. He insults Daniel as a cheat who just wants more money in his eyes. Daniel controls himself and waives payment. The following night Farhad's shop was broken into. The burglars ravage the shop and leave racist slogans on the walls. In addition to the despair over the destruction of his livelihood, Farhad's wife is also amazed at being referred to as an Arab in the graffiti .

The insurance agent explains to Farhad that the insurance company will not cover the damage because he did not follow the urgent recommendation to have a new door installed and thus acted negligently . Farhad therefore wants Daniel, the man from the locksmith, to pay for the damage. He drives to his house and wants to force him, at the gunpoint, to give him money for the shop. Daniel's little daughter rushes out of the house and jumps into her father's arms to protect him. Farhad is startled and shoots the girl and Daniel. For a moment it looks like he met the girl. To everyone's surprise, however, she was not injured, as Farhad's gun is only loaded with blank cartridges.

The policeman Ryan has a serious accident and wants to free Christine, who is trapped in her car. When she realizes that he is the cop who sexually molested her the night before, she pushes him back in a panic. Finally he can convince her that he just wants to help her and at the last moment saves her at the risk of his life from the car, which has caught fire and explodes immediately.

Meanwhile, her husband Cameron is attacked by two petty criminals, Anthony and Peter, who want to steal his car. Cameron struggles, and when the police arrive, Peter escapes while Anthony continues to steal the car. However, Cameron does not want to get out, he drives off without further ado and a chase begins. When the police stop the vehicle and Cameron tries to attack the police, Officer Hansen recognizes him. He sees the opportunity to make up for his passive involvement from the previous day and calms the situation down by standing up for Cameron in front of his colleagues. The police let him drive on and do not notice that the car thief Anthony is hiding in the passenger seat. Cameron then gives him back his revolver and points out that he has humiliated both of them. Anthony gets out of the car.

A little later, Anthony passes the van of the Korean guy he has run over and steals the car with the keys in the door. When he takes it to his fence, it turns out that several people are chained in the hold. They are Asians who were apparently locked up there by the Korean, a human trafficker. The fence offers him $ 500 for each of them and wants to resell them.

Jean speaks to her friend on the phone, tells her that she is dissatisfied with her housekeeper, and shortly afterwards slips on her stairs and falls. In a later scene it becomes apparent that she was discovered and looked after by her Latin American domestic servant Maria with a sprained foot, while her supposed best friend downplayed the situation on the phone and abandoned Jean. Full of remorse and gratitude, she hugs the woman whose job she recently wanted to quit and to whom she has distrusted and suspected because of her Latin American origins.

When Hansen drives home after work, he picks up a hitchhiker. It's Peter who went to an ice hockey game after the car was stolen and is also on his way home. The conversation between the two develops from the initial small talk in a negative direction. When Peter suddenly starts laughing for a long time, Hansen wants to stop and let the passenger get out. Peter has discovered the figure of St. Christopher on the dashboard of the car and reaches into his pocket, in which he also has such a figure, to explain his laugh. However, Hansen believes that Peter wants to draw a gun, draws his pistol and shoots Peter in the car. He realizes his mistake, leaves the victim on the roadside and burns the car.

In a flashback to the opening sequence of the film, investigator Waters can be seen at the crime scene again. He finds the saint of Peter, his brother, on the roadside. When Waters and his mother identify the dead brother's body in the hospital, the mother collapses in tears. She mentions that Peter went shopping for her and filled her refrigerator and raves about her "little darling". Waters is silent about this, as well as about his mother's allegations that he did not comply with her requests to look for the missing brother because his work is more important to him than his family.

At the end of the film, Anthony drives the stolen van to Chinatown (Chinese Quarter), releases the Asian prisoners there and gives one of them $ 40 so that they can buy something to eat. Another scene shows a rear-end collision in which the clerk from Ryan's health insurance is involved, in which she makes derogatory comments about the Spanish-speaking driver of the car that hit her. The film ends with a tracking shot through the trickling snow over LA.

Emergence

Paul Haggis came up with the idea for the film when he remembered his car being stolen by a robbery ten years earlier . This memory can be found in the scene towards the beginning of the film when the prosecutor's off-road vehicle is stolen. Originally, the film shouldn't have addressed racism, but only dealt with prejudices that arise among strangers. In the film, ethnic groups are consistently and deliberately wrongly named, so Koreans become Chinese and Persians become Arabs .

The film took a year to produce. The casting lasted five years. The shooting took place in 36 days without exception in Los Angeles, for example in Studio City .

The cut of the theatrical version was originally cut for the Toronto International Film Festival 2004, at which the film premiered on September 10, 2004. There, Lions Gate Entertainment was also the distributor.

Since it was not possible to use a real police station for the shooting, the shooting for the scene between Hansen and his superior took place in a building belonging to the American Red Cross . The courthouse in the movie is Los Angeles City Hall as it was more affordable.

The scene with Flanagan, played by William Fichtner , was written especially for him after the filming had reached a dead end because of two sick actors and they could not shoot again in the town hall. He was brought in especially for this scene, was only present for one day and had to leave for China at 6 p.m.

The Cabot home where Jean injured his ankle is Paul Haggis's home. Sandra Bullock was no longer present in the recording after the fall, as it was created as part of post-production.

The story of Ryan's father comes from an email sent to him, according to Paul Haggis . In it, the sender complained that the whites were always portrayed as the bad guys and the African-Americans as the good guys. Haggis answered the email and told him how proud he could be of his father.

The film is dedicated to Anita Addison (1952-2004), the first person to read the script.

occupation

The role of Cameron should have been played by Forest Whitaker , who was too busy directing First Daughter - Date with Obstacles . So the role went to Terrence Howard , whom Haggis had seen in The Tribunal . Cameron's wife Christine was cast in Thandie Newton from the start with the first choice of Paul Haggis. He wrote the role for her, and she said yes while filming Riddick: The Chronicles of a Warrior .

The police officer Conklin is Martin Norseman, Paul Haggis's neighbor. Samuel L. Jackson made a brief appearance as a motorcycle cop because he liked Haggis in the role of Shaft .

Before Ryan Phillippe , Heath Ledger was also in discussion for the role of Hansen. Haggis had previously worked with Ryan Phillippe on an episode of Ein Mountie in Chicago .

synchronization

The German synchronization was carried out by Neue Tonfilm München .

actor Dubbing voice role
Brendan Fraser Torsten Münchow District Attorney Rick Cabot
Don Cheadle Dietmar miracle Det. Graham Waters
Sandra Bullock Bettina White Jean Cabot
Matt Dillon Christian Tramitz Off. John Ryan
Michael Peña Florian Halm Daniel
Shaun Toub Joachim Höppner Farhad
Ryan Phillippe Benedikt Weber Officer Hansen
Thandie Newton Nana Spier Christine Thayer
Terrence Howard Oliver Mink Cameron Thayer
Jennifer Esposito Carin C. Tietze Ria
Keith David Holger Schwiers Lt. Dixon
William Fichtner Frank Röth Flanagan
Larenz Tate Stefan Günther Peter Waters
Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges Jan Odle Anthony
Tony Danza Claus Brockmeyer Fred
Jack McGee Hartmut Neugebauer Dirk
Loretta Devine Susanne von Medvey Shaniqua Johnson
Bahar Soomekh Kathrin Gaube Dorri
Alexis Rhee Michele Sterr Kim Lee
Ashlyn Sanchez Eva Prauser Lara
Dato Bakhtadze Ekkehardt Belle Lucien
Beverly Todd Ilona Grandke Mrs. Waters

profitability

Despite numerous positive reviews, the film only found around 220,000 viewers when it was first shown in theaters in Germany in summer 2005. The work had - despite numerous stars - only a budget of about 6.5 million US dollars .

The gross profit was around 83.4 million US dollars, many times higher. After the success at the 2006 Academy Awards , the film distributor Universum brought the film to German cinemas again with around 50 copies.

criticism

The film received high praise from many film critics. Opponents of the film are of the opinion that the course of the film seems melodramatic, clichéd and unconvincing. Scott Foundas, film critic in Los Angeles, calls it the "worst film of the year" - others even call it "the worst Oscar winner of all time". The fact that the film only won three Academy Awards when it was also voted Best Picture sparked a lot of discussion. This had last happened with Rocky in 1976.

Awards

Oscars 2006

Austin Film Critics Association Award

German reception

From 2015 up to and including 2018, the film was the subject of English as part of the focus topic "Challenges and Choices in an Insecure World" of the Baden-Württemberg Abitur .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Release certificate for LA Crash . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2005 (PDF; test number: 102 861 K).
  2. Age rating for LA Crash . Youth Media Commission .
  3. LA crash. German synchronous index , accessed on December 10, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Decree on key issues for the written Abitur examination 2017. (No longer available online.) Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport Baden-Württemberg, p. 6 , archived from the original on November 10, 2016 ; accessed on October 11, 2016 (German). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / rp.baden-wuerttemberg.de
  5. Further reading aids for the film from Ernst Klett Verlag ISBN 3-12-923083-1 ; Stark Verlag ISBN 3-86668-927-6 ; the original screenplay published by Bob Yari, USA 2004, without ISBN