Analysis of the Movie "Crash" in Terms of Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication is dynamic relationship between two or more people in which messages conveyed significantly influence their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and relationships (McCronack, 2015). The film to be discussed in this essay is the film Crash.

There are number of things that happened in this movie that relate to what we learned in this class. This movie shows many examples of chapter five in our book. It has high context culture, low context culture and masculine displayed. It also showed how different races relate to the concepts of race, class, gender, oppression and ethics. In the movie I learned that people in low context culture are more heard and more likely to help people in high context cultural.

Crash is 2004 American film. It was directed by, Paul Haggis. He was born in March 10, 1953 in London, Canada. The film was created in Los Angeles. It was about social classes and race tenses. The main characters of the film are Anthony, Cameron Thayer and Jean Cabot. The writer, blends several connected stories about race, family, class and gender in Los Angeles aftermath of 9/11. One of the races was black. They felt like they were being chased after because of their race. The social issue in the movie was that rich people were considered successful and the poor people were considered unsuccessful. The women in the movie were oppressed. The film shows how this different people dealt with the math.

The film starts when two black couples get caught by white cops. This is where the racism starts. They were stopped unjustly, then the car they had accident with another couple. The second couple blame the first couple for the accident they get into and the argument continues. This kind of situation takes place more than ones in the movie. One time a women is sexually harassed after being pull over. Throughout the movie you see barriers of classes crossed by different races being successful outside of their oppression and class, such as the black characters driving both old and high class cars, and having both white collar and high impact jobs. By the end all of the characters are brought together through a common emergency and all treated and were treated equally to overcome the situation.

Masculine culture is which man are expected to adhere the traditional roles. In the movie man are more dominant than women. For example, the Persian store man who came to American to serve his family, he views himself as the protector and this leads to him buying a gun. Another example is, the white man who provides beautiful and good lifestyle for his family, the black officer who serves his family. “Masculine cultures value include the accumulation of material wealth and as an indicator of success, assertiveness, and personal achievement” (McCornack, 2015, p.g149). In the film we have Cameron Thayer who is considered successful because of the kind of car he has and job. He is television director and drives model of car as the Cabot’s.

Ethics is what causes harm and what doesn’t. In the movie Anthony who is black believes that all white people hate and fear him because of his race. As result he does harm because he believes that doing good did nothing. When he does harm he gets in trouble, and he feels that that's the only way he can convey his message. In the other hand the white people fear him and others like him because of what they had done in the past and what they might do in the future. This causes the whites to fear blacks and causes their fear to be justified.

In the movie race is shown in low context culture and high context culture. This is currently reflected in United States. In USA people are low context in culture, they are direct in their communication and feelings. For example, black people are being chased after because of their race and they share what they feel about this through protesting and other activities. In high context culture people are indirect with their communication and is hard to determine the reason behind their act. One example of this in USA is the refuges from different parts of the word such as, the refugees from Korea. There are many differences between high and low context culture. Racism has been highly displayed in United States when Trump become United States president. When he was elected many people felt that there are more racist people in United States than none racist.

In low context culture people “strive to be informative, clear, and direct in their communication” (McCornack, 2015, p.g148). In the film Anthony who is played by Ludacris is open about his feelings and communicates very well. He informs everyone that’s watching the film that he is being chased because of his race. In low context culture people make important information’s obvious. The message Anthony portray is very obvious. He is angry about the injustice he faces as a black man in Los Angeles. In the opening scene Anthony is walking with his friend and while a white couple is walking towards them he notices that the woman grabs closer to her husband. Anthony assumes this reaction is due to his race and that the woman fears him. Although Anthony does not know the thoughts of the woman he assumes that all white woman has the same thought while encountering black men. This assumption is confirmed later in the movie after the couple is carjacked by Anthony when the woman admits to her husband that she feared Anthony wishes she would have expressed her fear verbally.

High context culture is a culture in which much of the real meaning of message is indirect and which the message can be found in unwritten or other nonverbal behaviors. “Consequently, people in such culture often talk indirectly, using hints or suggestions to suggestion to convey meaning” (McCornack, 2015, p.g146). In the film there is van full of Cambodian and Thai people locked up in a truck ever since they came to United States. They were brought as slaves, and later in the film Anthony sets them free. After they are set free none of them talk or tell what happen. One reason was because they didn’t know the culture of United States. Cambodian and Thai are people from Asian and Asia is considered to be a high context culture.

The issue discussed in the movie are reflective of society today. One issue that’s wide spread in our society is classism. Donald trump is a great example of this issue. He is considered to be one of the most successful person in United States because of his wealth. Also he is the president of the United States, which cares a lot of authority. One other issue is, gender. In some countries, men are always more dominant than women. For example, United States and Africa never had a woman president. That's because men are trusted to hold authority over people and are more likely than women to become leaders. This has been going on for decades and despite any women trying to change that context it still remains the same. Similarly in the movie no one spoke about the dominance of the man.

Cultural differences can be gapped. In the movie after the 9/11 math took place people came together as one. When we face extreme circumstances we come together to overcome that out of fear and forget our differences. For example, the man who sexually abused the woman on driveway rescues her from the fire despite the fear of getting in trouble by saving her. It's also shown how the white police officer after having abused the black lady through oppression chooses to liberate a whole truck of Cambodian and Thai children showing compassion that he previously was not depicted having.

In conclusion, the film Crash showed race, gender, class, and oppression in different kind of culture. The film connects to the concepts; high context culture, low context culture, masculine and ethics we learned in our textbooks. It also reflected some issue that our society faces today. In this film I learned the difference between high and low context culture in communication and feelings. I learned that low context culture are more direct and high context culture are indirect. I also learned that power and money can sometimes determine our success in life.