Ann Lee won the Best Director award. It is so obvious that the directing in Crash is not masterful enough, so that they have to separate the Best Picture and Best Director awards this time if they want to give the Best Picture to Crash for the subject matter. But is Crash deserve this award for itself, comparing with all the other nominees? The answer is no. The film is not bad, it did well on organizing the complex subject, on details, on bringing up the conflicts and resolving them. But the plot was too dramatic, too predictable. Everything was based on a shallow idea of causes and consequences. This simplified version of the idea, was neither convincing, nor realistic. Who would believe that a white racist police officer sexually harassed an African-American woman in front of her husband, could then saved the same woman's life in a deadly exposure days later? A shop owner, who bought a gun the day before, had his shop damaged and denied insurance reimbursement, poured his revenge towards a locksmith, uncovered his name AND ADDRESS, tried to kill him at home, but accidentally shot the locksmith's daughter? And the bullet was a blank? They cannot happen, even in the movies. Maybe I am the shallow one that does not understand the metaphor. Still, I would not call a film a good one if I could tell the rest of the plot when I saw the first 1/3 of it. A predictable movie is boring. Period.
I was wondering, after finished watching Crash, why a film deals with racial and cultural stereotype is full of stereotype itself, as if the world stopped developing. There are a lot of little old tricks like the "brake" vs. "blake" etc., but all those tricks and old fashioned stories didn't touch the deep root of the problem. The misunderstanding and social intolerance of certain ethnic groups. Most people, while working on racial issues, did not realize let alone understand the history. No one truly regrets the wrong doings one or one's ancestors did. Without the understanding and regrets, one always think of oneself as the giver, the other parties the receivers. Positioning themselves like that, the racial issue will never be resolved.
Some Best Picture winners can never become a classic. Crash will be one of them. Shame on the Academy. There are much better films this year. What is the reason why they did not vote for Brokeback Mountain or Good Night, and Good Luck. I didn't know. Or I guess I should know according to the new name of the Academy.