Crash Under Investigation: Engaging Complications of Complicity, Coherence, and Implicature Through Critical Analysis

Abstract

Using a critical analytic lens, this essay examines how race, racism, and race relations depicted in the movie Crash reflect complicity, coherence, and implicature. The essay first utilizes complicity theory to offer a critical analysis of the film, then provides a thematic analysis of student reactions to the film as a means of gaining insight into multiple possible readings of the film. The analysis demonstrates how a simultaneous, multilayered experience of complicity, coherence, and implicature functions as a process of mediation for the viewing audience.

Keywords:

• Complicity
• Coherence
• Implicature
• Crash
• Race Relations

Notes

1. Another film that explores race relations, with a plot grounded in implicature, is What's Cooking? (2000). Interestingly, the parallels between this film and Crash are noteworthy: both explore the dynamics of race and ethnicity (and related issues such as assimilation, identity, relationships, and gun violence) through a multicultural cast over a single day/day and a half around the Thanksgiving—Christmas holiday season.

2. Several events in the movie imply that the European American DA and his African American assistant are romantically involved. When he receives the call from his wife, the DA and his assistant are about to enter an elevator together; after he answers the call, he enters the elevator alone.

3. As the movie concludes, and the credits begin to appear, the Stereophonics’ Maybe Tomorrow plays: “I've been down and wondering why; little black clouds; keep walking around; with me; with me; so maybe tomorrow; I'll find my way home; so maybe tomorrow; I'll find my way home.”

4. “Driving While Black” refers to the practice of racial profiling, whereby “a person's race or ethnicity influences police decisions to stop citizens, search them, or make an arrest” (Barlow, 2001, p. 3).

5. Of note, this heart-tugging scene ends as the locksmith's beeper goes off. In their written reactions, many white students describe how they immediately assumed that he was being called away not for a work-related reason, but to participate in some form of illegal activity.

6. In an earlier scene, Daniel comforts his daughter who he finds sleeping under her bed in fear of being shot. Daniel explains that she doesn't have to worry about that happening again because they have moved into a safer neighborhood. When his daughter remains unconvinced, he gives her an invisible protective cloth that can stop bullets—something that his mother gave to him as a child.

7. There were 54 participants from the southeastern campus, 51 from the Midwestern university, and 31 from the Midwestern community college.

8. As such, some (but not all) of the assignments asked students to describe their cultural identities within the context of their reactions to the film. While this provides some cultural context for the data, it only provides partial information regarding the demographic composition—in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.—of the total participant population. When available, we make note of salient demographic descriptors that help to contextualize viewers’ reactions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark P. Orbe

Mark P. Orbe is Professor of Communication & Diversity at Western Michigan University

Etsuko Kinefuchi

Etsuko Kinefuchi is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of North Carolina