The Culture Club (Film: Crash) June 27, 2010

This is the next study session in a series of culture studies where something from the media (e.g. a book, a film, a music album) is discussed from a Christian perspective but the session is for people of all faiths and people of no faith at all who want to explore the message behind the media.

The session will start at 5:45pm when we will watch the film on the big screen in Madisons Cafe and the discussion starts at 7:30pm.

There is no charge for this event and is open to those aged 15 or over.

FILM INFO
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Trailer:



The following summary is taken from the Damaris study guide @ http://www.damaris.org/content/content.php?type=1&id=296:

The lives of a diverse cross-section of the LA population collide one fateful day. District Attorney Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Jean (Sandra Bullock) are carjacked by two young black men Anthony (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges) who sees racism everywhere in life, and Peter (Larenz Tate) his exasperated friend. After the incident, Jean is paranoid and suspicious of people from other racial backgrounds. She suspects the Mexican locksmith Daniel (Michael Pena) will give their new keys to his friends to break into their house. Daniel, meanwhile, tries to cure his young daughter’s fear of bullets, and has to deal with irate Persian storeowner Farhad (Shaun Toub) who employs Daniel to fix his door locks. The two have an argument when Farhad refuses to get a new door despite the old one not being secure. Later, the store is broken into and smashed up. Armed with his recently bought gun, Farhad goes to confront Daniel.

Meanwhile, racist cop Jack Ryan (Matt Dillon) and his idealistic young work partner Tommy Hansen (Ryan Phillippe) pull over black couple Cameron (Terrence Howard) and Christine Thayer (Thandie Newton). After threatening to arrest them, and then molesting Christine, Jack lets the pair off with a warning. Tommy, disgusted but powerless to stop Jack, has to watch. When they get home, Christine and Cameron fight as Christine is furious at how her husband stood by and let Jack touch her. Tommy asks for a transfer to another work partner, unable to deal with Jack’s racist behaviour but unable to report him, knowing what this would do to his own career. During all this Jack struggles with caring for his ill father who lost his job because minority-only companies began getting preference in city contracts. After an attempted reconciliation with her hurt husband, Christine’s car crashes and overturns on the road and Jack is the only officer around to help her.

Black police detective Graham (Don Cheadle) has to contend with his mother’s constant requests for him to find his missing criminal brother, and his romantic relationship with his white work partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito). He also has to decide whether or not to accept a bribe from Rick’s aid Flanagan (William Fichtner) when faced with what could have been a racially motivated crime.

The characters lives intersect and crisscross throughout the day, spelling tragedy for some and a fresh start for others.

Previous Sessions
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This series continues to be popular. Previous evenings have looked at "Helvetica" (film), Athlete's "Black Swan" (music album), Man Dancin' (film), "Looking For Eric" (film), "Rachel Getting Married" (film), "Vantage Point" (film), "Slam" (book), "Black Gold" (fim), "Heima" (Sigur Rós) (film/music), "The Squid and the Whale" (film), "The Bourne Supremacy" (film), "Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling" (book), "Into The Wild" (film), "Atonement" (film), "Iron Man" (film), "The Lives of Others" (film), "Pan's Labyrinth" (film), "Utopian Dreams" (book), "Breaking and Entering" (film), "Little Miss Sunshine" (film), "Evan Almighty" (film), "Babel" (film), "The Zahir" (book), "Paradise Now" (film), "Life on Mars" (TV series), "Collateral" (film), "Arthur and George" (book), "Moulin Rouge" (film), the Robbie Williams album "Intensive Care", "Lost in Translation" (film), "Whale Rider" (film), "The Incredibles" (film), "The Da Vinci Code" (book), the U2 album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" and "Chocolat" (film).