Crash Paul Haggis's 2005 drama Crash is a vehicle for exploring social tensions in the United States. Although a huge portion of the film is devoted to race relations, prejudices, and stereotypes, an important meta-narrative also permeates Crash. That is, the film subverts the traditional Hollywood norm to "present working people not only as unlettered and uncouth but also as less desirable and less moral than other people," as Parenti puts it (1). Instead of depicting the members of the middle, upper-middle, and upper classes as being morally, intellectually, and socially superior to those of lower classes, Haggis presents a world in which all people are equally as culpable of creating a dystopian society in America. Each of the characters in Crash is besieged by stereotypes and prejudices that prevent a genuine encounter with others in the multicultural landscape of Los Angeles. Moreover, race is a tag for underclass, and not necessarily linked to actual socio-economic category. Each of the characters in Crash has an in group-out group status consciousness based on race or social class. Haggis shows that people in the upper classes are not necessarily heroic, as Parenti might predict. Likewise, Haggis shows that people with lower class status are not in need of rescuing by the upper class. The characters of Jean (Sandra Bullock), Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon), and Farhad (Shaun Toub) especially illustrate the ways Haggis flips the Hollywood class stereotypes on their heads, revealing an alternative vision of heroism.

Jean Cabot harbors racist and prejudicial beliefs. She is an upper-middle class woman who drives an SUV and lives a classic suburban Los Angeles lifestyle. Cabot is also unhappy, and is aware of being unhappy. Haggis shows that Jean's unhappiness is directly linked to extreme loneliness and social isolation. For instance, Jean is shown in several scenes interacting with her housekeeper. In one scene, Jean has an emotional breakdown in which she al but confides in the housekeeper as her only friend. The scene is poignant, because it shows the weakness of being part of the upper social strata, and simultaneously humanizes and uplifts the power of the lower social strata. The housekeeper is entrusted and empowered with the ability to become the hero, in a grand role reversal.

The same can be said for Officer Ryan's character. One of the least sympathetic characters throughout the film, Officer Ryan is a stereotypical racist white cop. His attitudes toward black cops and black civilians are equally as deplorable. Ryan is from a working class background, and would seem to fit neatly into the Parenti model of showing the lower classes of being incapable of genuine heroism. However, Ryan reveals a heroic side of his nature in his treatment of and devotion to his ailing father. Ryan cannot fully overcome his prejudice, but he does symbolically rescue a black woman who happens to be of an upper middle class background. The rescue scene establishes Ryan as being more complex than a typical "white trash" cop, as might be expected in less sensitive films.

Parenti claims, "virtue is more likely to be ascribed to those characters whose speech and appearance are soundly middle- or upper-middle class." In Crash, this is not necessarily the case. No character is fully equipped with virtue or vice, and all characters demonstrate having both. Social class status is not a predictor of virtue, as can be seen in the character of Jean Cabot. Likewise, social class is not a predictor of vice, as all characters in Crash exhibit prejudice and narcissistic behaviors. One of the most notable characters in Crash is that of Farhad, who is the Persian store owner. As a Persian man, Farhad has been tagged as being an underclass individual. He is associated with the terrorists because of his appearance, and as a result, Farhad comes to live in fear. American society has failed him, as he is not free and has no opportunity for the type of upward social mobility that the racism is something he contends with on a daily basis. Yet Farhad also comes to harbor his own racist and prejudicial beliefs. Ultimately, Farhad gets a gun and intends to use it to murder a man. This would seem to establish the underclass as being less virtuous than the upper class in Crash, but this is not the case. Farhad is redeemed by an act of fate -- which is the fact that the gun was filled with blanks. Had Farhad actually gotten away with murder, then he would have been clearly established as being morally unsalvageable. In this case, Farhad is shown to be redeemed through a perceived act of divine intervention.
Virtue of character is not important in Haggis's Hollywood universe. No person is seen as being morally virtuous, because society has an inherently corrupting nature. In a place like Los Angeles, fear and suspicion are in the social contract. As Scott puts it, Haggis makes a comment on "the state of the American civic conversation," (2). This new civic conversation reverses the roles of social class status so that underclass heroes become as likely or possible as upper class heroes. In Parenti's analysis, Pretty Woman is used as an example of the most extreme version of upper class bias. The "dreamboat millionaire corporate raider" played by Richard Gere rescues the damsel in distress from the lowest rung of society: prostitute (2). Not only is the prostitute, the "pretty woman," in need of being rescued from a dangerous job, but she is also shown to be in need of rescue from her uncouth social status. As Parenti puts it, "She is low- class. She doesn't know which fork to use at those CEO power feasts, and she's bothersomely fidgety, wears tacky clothes, chews gum, and, y'know, doesn't talk so good," (2). In Crash, no such rescuing happens. The only rescue scenes that are meaningful are those that genuinely exhibit the character of an individual in times of crisis. Thus, the wealthy but neurotic Jean Cabot buckles under psychic and emotional pressure and cannot be a hero even to herself. The racist low-class white trash bigot of Officer Ryan somewhat redeems himself. Farhad is redeemed as well, by recognizing the errors of his ways as he is saved from being a murderer.

It is important to note, however, that Farhad and Ryan are redeemed in ironic ways. Their redemption respectively happens in spite of, but not because of, their lower class status. Officer Ryan was just doing his job when he rescues Catherine. Although he does emerge as a hero, it is arguable whether his racism taints him for life as a lower-class individual. Likewise, Farhad's redemption does not necessarily happen on his own volition but because of divine intervention. As Holmes points out, there is a "substantial, elusive yet pervasive" racism in Los Angeles (314). Haggis's film depicts racism as a "barrage of the most condescending racial and ethnic insults," and "dares to express the prejudicial sentiments we harbor in our hearts," (Holmes 314). Within this construct, and especially in the post-September 11 universe, "any olive-complexioned people who could be conveniently mistaken for [Arabs] became niggers too," (Holmes 314). Farhad is a "nigger" in this sense, the lowest possible stratum of society in America. He is depicted as a complete and utter outsider, even in multicultural Los Angeles. Farhad is associated with all that is un-American and anti-American, in spite of the fact that he also embodies what would have been the ultimate American Dream narrative in the modern world. In a post-modern world, the narrative has been deconstructed. The American Dream is dead. Farhad is a victim of American society. Racism permeates his consciousness, even as racism is a part of his everyday interactions with others who hate him because he looks like what the media says a terrorist looks like. If Crash presents the "dominant pedagogical fallacy: that everybody's a little bit prejudiced," then Haggis is only doing a good job of subverting outmoded Hollywood norms (Middleton 321). Haggis's Crash transforms the previous narrative of social class status associations with character virtues and shows that no one in America can be truly virtuous because the society is inherently corrupt.

Haggis's film Crash shows that Hollywood no longer needs to revert to stereotypes about social class, let alone race or gender. As Parenti points out, films like Pretty Woman are puerile and do a great disservice to the nation by showing that lower class individuals, and especially women, are incapable of self-improvement without being rescued by wealthy white males. Crash almost depicts the opposite. The Jean Cabot character is of the upper strata of American society, yet she cannot save her own soul let alone that of anyone else. Her strained relationships, with self and others, fail to provide any redemptive qualities. On the other hand, Officer Ryan is of the lower social strata in American society. His bigotry is a core theme in Crash, and is disturbing from a meta-narrative perspective. Yet in spite of…