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did you see crash?

as you may remember, i lead a monthly film discussion group called Reel Life: discussions on film and faith that meets the first friday of each month at my church. this has been a bit of an experiment of mine to see if people are interested in such a format as a way not only to engage the stories that our culture is telling, but also to respond to them communally as people of faith. we've been meeting since september, and so far it has been pretty good. we have watched movies from a variety of genres, but mostly they've been pretty 'safe,' if you know what i mean.
...
tonight, not so much.
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tonight we are watching crash. if you've seen it then you know that its a bit rough. so i'm interested to see how it goes: watching this movie with a bunch of church folks. it should be fun!
in all seriousness, though, i was just wondering if any of you had anything of interest you would like to contribute to our conversation tonight by way of this blog. if you saw this movie,
-did you like it?
-did you hate it?
-how did you respond?
-do you think it is accurate in its portrayal of how we interact with people who are different than us?
-what is the value of such a story for us as people of faith?
...
okay, so i don't expect many of you to respond to this because i tend to get more comments when i write about things like chocolate, so i'm not expecting a ton of feedback here, but if you saw this movie and can remember what you thought about it, let us know!
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asking,
greg.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
I thought crash was remarkable, horrifying, and truthful. It was one of those films that created internal paradoxes for me - I feel both saddened and yet hopeful, convicted and yet affirmed. What I thought was most helpful about crash is the acknowledgment that there are not easy answers to complex issues. There are people in our world who behave in unspeakable ways, and who still occassionally act redemptively. There are no "black hats" and "white hats" in real life (to mix metaphors somewhat) - there are just people: people created by God who fall short of their intended trajectory. (As Brennan Manning once quipped, "I am an angel...with an enormous capacity for beer.")

Good luck, man, and kudos to you for showing a film that is NOT easy.
11:05 AM
Megan said…
I saw Crash and thought it was very powerful. In some ways very realistic, in many others - not so at all (the whole idea of all their worlds overlapping - but I appreciated it as a way of bringing cohesiveness to the movie rather than the chances of all those stories being connected like that - I guess that bothered alot of people). I do like how it showed that "good" people can do some messed up things and "bad" people can redeem themselves. Definitely makes you think about your own stereotypes of people based on race. I bet you'll behaving a good discussion at church with this one...
8:43 PM
Anonymous said…
This may be too late to help but here are some of my thoughts

-did you like it?
I loved this movie and that is saying something
-how did you respond?
My gut reaction was to say, I would never act like that. However, I could see glimpses of myself throughout the movie.

-do you think it is accurate in its portrayal of how we interact with people who are different than us?

Absolutely
-what is the value of such a story for us as people of faith?

It shows us the dangers of labels and how deeply ingrained that they are. It also shows us that we are in fact a people of community.
10:08 AM
jasonandryansmommy said…
I saw this movie too. The first time I saw it I couldn't get it out of my head for about a week. It was an amazing storyline, very well produced. As someone else pointed out in the comments, I saw glimpses of myself throughout the movie which made me sad. I loved how all the worlds overlapped, when you think about your life, it happens w/o you realizing it.

And, I also give you Kudos to showing this movie to church folks. I can't see a movie like that being shown in our church! As much as I think it should be. Rock on, Greg!
8:24 PM
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