"She had these little stubby wings, like she could've glued them on, you know, like I'm gonna believe she's a fairy. So she said, "I'll prove it." So she reaches into her backpack and she pulls out this invisible cloak and she ties it around my neck. And she tells me that it's impenetrable. You know what impenetrable means? It means nothing can go through it. No bullets, nothing. She told me that if I wore it, nothing would hurt me. So I did. And my whole life, I never got shot, stabbed, nothing. I mean, how weird is that?"
The moral of the story is this: Racism is bad.
There are a couple parts of the movie that are really intense, emotional, and interesting, but a lot of it is too much. There's no subtlety. We are all racists -white people, black people, Hispanic people, Chinese people, Middle Eastern people. We are pretty much all racist in some way or another. Even the most accepting and incorruptible of us (ahem, Ryan Phillipe), are secretly racist, either against our own race (i.e. ashamed of yourself and denying your own race) or of another. There are a bunch of interweaving stories revealing this in Crash.
There are two really powerful moments that had an impact on me. One is when an angry Persian shop owner (He is mad at a locksmith because the locksmith told him he needs a new door, not a new lock, and he ignored the locksmith and got robbed. Insurance won't cover the damages, so he decides to shoot the locksmith -not so rational, this guy.) shoots at a lovable locksmith whose daughter jumps in front of the gun at the last second because her father gave her an invisible protective cloak (or so he told her). We find out the gun had blanks, unbeknownst to the shop owner, so the little girl is okay.
The other is when a racist police officer, who earlier had pulled over a lady and felt her up, later ends up saving the same woman from a burning car. She doesn't want his help at first, but is forced to let him save her, and he seems very affected by the experience (as does she). I would like to know what both of them were thinking afterwards.
These two parts were good; otherwise, it's overall a bit too preachy and self-important for my taste.
Just remember: Racism is BAD (Who knew?), and you ARE a racist (Don't argue. Yes, yes you are.).
Brokeback Mountain 2005
"There ain't never enough time, never enough..."
I preferred Brokeback Mountain, the story of two cowboys, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), who fall in love while they are tending sheep one summer on Brokeback Mountain. They are kept apart mostly because of Ennis's fears of the social repercussions of them being together. Jack wants them to live together on a ranch, saying, "Truth is, sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it," but Ennis has memories from childhood of a homosexual man being violently murdered: "Bottom line is, we're around each other an' this thing, it grabs hold of us again at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and we're dead." Ennis and Jack both get married (their wives are played by Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway respectively) and have children. They are living in different states (Wyoming and Texas), and only see each other periodically when Jack is able to get to Wyoming and they can go on "fishing trips" together. As the years pass, it is very painful for them to live apart, but despite Jack's constant urgings, Ennis is never comfortable with the idea of being openly gay. He seems to be ashamed of his behavior, but unable to let Jack go. Similarly, Jack finds it painful that Ennis won't agree to live a real life together with him, but is not able to move on:
Jack: Tell you what, we coulda had a good life together! Fuckin' real good life! Had us a place of our own. But you didn't want it, Ennis! So what we got now is Brokeback Mountain! Everything's built on that! That's all we got, boy, fuckin' all. So I hope you know that, even if you don't never know the rest! You count the damn few times we have been together in nearly twenty years and you measure the short fucking leash you keep me on, and then you ask me about Mexico and tell me you'll kill me for needing somethin' I don't hardly never get. You have no idea how bad it gets! I'm not you. I can't make it on a coupla high-altitude fucks once or twice a year! You are too much for me Ennis, you sonofawhoreson bitch! I wish I knew how to quit you.Ennis: Well, why don't you? Why don't you just let me be? It's because of you Jack, that I'm like this! I'm nothin'. I'm nowhere. Get the fuck off me! I can't stand being like this no more, Jack.
They are the loves of each other's lives, it is plain to see, and it is heartbreaking watching them live apart because of social pressure. Very sad. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are terrific. I would have picked this movie over Crash. It gets its message across without hitting you in the face with it.
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| Ennis mourns the loss of Jack. |
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