The success of
Crash at this year's Oscars has spawned a couple of heated debates over its relative merits or lack thereof. I stand firmly with those who consider it one of the worst films to have won Best Picture since I've been watching the Oscars, although there's no denying that the film has got people talking about race and the way it manifests itself in contemporary America.
What I'd like to do, instead of outlining all the reasons I disliked Crash, is to start a thread recommending other films about race, and I'd appreciate your input.
Here are some of the films I think do a great job of addressing racial problems, and a few notes on why:
Lone Star - directed by John Sayles. An ensemble picture that covers three generations and five races (anglo, african-american, native american, spanish-latino, native latin american) and every combination of those races.
At times the racial divides are direct and blunt, as when a young soldier explains that she serves in 'their' (white) military because 'they' don't care who's serving and they pay well. At other times, the tension is subtle, as when the owner of local restaurant treats her workers poorly because they are not 'pure' Spanish. Sayles understands that the racial problems of border Texas are more complicated than mere skin color, and we witness a parent-teacher conference exploding into a debate about the 'real' history of Texas: the noble white manifest destiny, or the sordid massacre of natives? The story weaves back and forth through time to show us how the generations of the past have forced the circumstances of the present.
Sunshine State - another ensemble piece by Sayles, this time addressing the development of a small beach community in Florida.
Here, all the elements of racial drama are set up, but curveball after curveball keeps the audience in unexpected territory, and forces harder and more probing questions about the history of race relations in this country. An aging African American decries desegregation as the end of the black community. A native American has no qualms about mocking and bulldozing down native grounds. The genteel cruelty of white culture finds itself mirrored in genteel black culture. Sometimes the realities are unspoken but obvious: the battle for preserving an historically black neighborhood takes place in front of an all-white city council. Again, we're faced with the day-to-day circumstances of race relations, with the full understanding that the many shades of interaction are rooted not only in personal prejudice, but in a long and complicated history.
Hoop Dreams - nonfiction, yes, but has any film captured the uncomfortable tension between inner-city blacks and suburban whites more accurately and painfully?
The word racism is never spoken, but the circumstances alone propel the nasty realites of racial inequality into every frame of this otherwise uplifting film. The callous disregard of one boy after he fails to live up to the school's sports expectations is shocking in its audacity. One of the best documentaries ever made. Here, race and class go hand-in-hand, as we stroll down the halls of an affluent white school, only to be disturbed later by the squalor of a poor, inner city public school. No one in the film questions these inequalities outright, because everyone knows they exist and has come to expect them. This is the world of entrenched racial roles.
American History X - Dostoevskian rip-off though it may be (it also suffers from a weak ending), American History X gets special points for addressing the avoided question in so many films about race: why in the world are we still having these problems?
The film takes us right into the dark side of the matter: a charismatic white supremacist who, in an effort to keep the audience from a facile rejection of him and his beliefs, never falls into a flat caricature of simple-minded evil. We are horrified because we cannot dismiss him so easily, as we can the hundreds of stock Hollywood villains. More importantly, the film never polemicizes outright: the racist's journey into understanding takes place without a word of sermonizing; he grows slowly with the audience, and the essence of his conversion is laughter. The director, Tony Kaye, may be a blowhard, but he understands that the really difficult issues don't always translate into words.
Now.
Understand that these are only the first films that come to mind - if you have other recommendations, I'd be glad to hear them. Most directors are afraid to touch racial issues because they're so polarizing; most attempts turn into feel-good lessons on equality and understanding. Important lessons, to be sure, but they avoid asking the tougher questions: why is racism still a problem? If we 'all know' that racism is bad, why is it so prevalent? How can we work towards a better future - and, can we?