No, no, not the financial one from which you are even now picking the shards of glass and twisted metal from your bank account and pension fund, I mean the film, "Crash", directed by Paul Haggis. I am sure you will all be pleased to see that here, at Duff & Nonsense, our constant endeavour to bring you reviews of the very latest releases at lightening speed is well up to standard as the film was only released in 2004! Thus, I must assume that most of you have seen it, and if you haven't, then buy the DVD - now!
I missed it in the cinema - damn! - but saw it on TV a couple of years ago, and then again last night on Channel 4 Films. It is a tale of damnation and salvation demonstrated with great skill by Paul Haggis who has taken his scalpel and removed a thin slice of Los Angeles life, from the top in the District Attorney's office, to the bottom in the back of a stolen truck filled with illegal Asian immigrants, and shows us with forensic intelligence the myriad of connections between them all. It is a walking, talking depiction of the great truth expresssed by Freidrich Hayek that modern societies are simply too huge, too complex, too dynamic, for any bureaucracy, even armed with the biggest computers in the world, to fully comprehend. It also has the wisdom to point up what is, perhaps, the greatest influence in all of our lives no matter how well we are organised - chance? - fate? - co-incidence? - the law of unintended consequences? - call it what you will.
Just about everyone in this story starts as one thing but ends up, if not exactly as something else, then definitely in an altered state of either being or awareness. Some of them are clearly conscious of this, some only comprehend it dimly. None of them are entirely bad, any more than they are wholly good. Setting them off, in the background, hovering above, beyond and all around these individuals and their trials and tribulations, there is the teeming, non-stop energy of life and death in Los Angeles. This is a superb film, one of the very few that can be watched over and over. Do not, under any circumstances, miss it.
We caught a bit of Mary Poppins the other day. There were some longeurs, but it really is rather good. Its about the Human Condition, but not all of the Human Condition.
Posted by: dearieme | Tuesday, 04 November 2008 at 19:02
Never seen it, 'DM', always felt that any film with an actor in it called 'Dick van Dyke' was probably going to be too risque for me!
Welcome back, by the way.
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 04 November 2008 at 20:34
I'm so glad to hear you liked "Crash." I loved it, too.
Posted by: Sister Wolf | Wednesday, 05 November 2008 at 08:03
Crash is a wonderful film.
There's actually another film, also called Crash which you might enjoy too.
Posted by: Larry Teabag | Wednesday, 05 November 2008 at 23:15
Yes, thank you, 'Teabag', I know all about that one. Perhaps you would care to provide us all with a learned critique - I have it on good authority that you have watched it so many times your lips move in synch with the dialogue!
Posted by: David Duff | Thursday, 06 November 2008 at 09:11