Power issues in the movie Crash (2004) as it relates to sex, gender and culture within the enculturation and acculturation process

Movie Review: Crash
Student
Institution
Abstract
Crash is a film that generally talks about interlocking stories of Koreans, Latinos, blacks, Iranians, criminals and cops, the poor and the rich, the powerless and the powerful. All these parties are defined by racism in one way or another. Moreover, they are victims of racism and are culpable of it too. Occasionally, they rise above these issues but not in a simple way. Their bad desires may be intuitive and on the other hand, their good desires may be treacherous. Either way, it is difficult for one person to know what the other is thinking about. As a result, this film is painted with passionate fascination. All the characters have their distinct way of living. It is also tricky to determine how they will behave since a lot of scenes in the movie purely rely on accident. In Crash, the probability of something to occur is high and therefore it can as well be referred to as a free will film.
Introduction
Crash is a film that was produced and directed in 2004 by Paul Haggis. This film resulted in Academy Awards following its screenplay for Million Dollar Baby. It focuses on different Los Angeles actors and as stated earlier, all these characters come from divergent racial and social backgrounds (Taulbee, 2006). In this film, the story is being narrated in chronological manner, however, one scene is put to the beginning and then its cut back to the day before; this is shown by a visual text “yesterday”. Both sections of this film have stories connected based on luck, serendipity and coincidence; it is because characters keep on clashing with one another every time.

Crash assumes that many individuals feel antipathy and prejudice against other groups.
One thing that keeps on recurring is that assumptions which are made by characters in the film prevent them from knowing the real individual standing before them. This can best be seen in characters like Shaun Toub, who was an Iranian but was being confused to be an Arab; Don Cheadle was having an affair with Jennifer Esposito yet she was his partner at work and he never understood Jennifer’s nationality well. Moreover, Matt Dillion thinks that Thandie Newton, a light-skinned black woman was white. Lastly, both district attorney’s wife and Shaun believed that Michael Pena, a Mexican-American locksmith was a crook and a gang member, and in real sense he was a family chap.
The film also examines issues such as class, force and raw exercise of power. This paper aims at discussing different kinds of power in leadership as exhibited by characters in the film; these powers are coercive power, reward power, legitimate power, expert power and Referent power.
Power in the Movie
It can be referred to as the capability to get things happen with or without resistance of other individuals. Most people believe that power is corrupt, whilst others believe that they become successful when they have more powers, this means that power plays important role in their lives. For others, they believe that with or without power, nothing changes. In Crash, anybody who commands conformity through leverage possesses different type of power; however, it is still viewed as a sign of force. Power is implemented unjustly in this film just to punish, take advantage, take revenge on others and command people.
Formal Power
Reward power
Refers to the type of power that is expressed by rewarding individuals for complying with one’s wishes, generally, this kind of power is accomplished by awarding promotions, giving bonuses, extra time off from work and giving raises. It is exercised in the movie when a Persian guy and the daughter arrived in the gun store and started chatting in Farsi which made the clerk to mistake them for Arabs and later on started insulting them. The clerk commands the guards who were off camera to remove the man out because he was believed to be a threat. The man’s absence makes the clerk to get an opportunity of assailing the man’s daughter with sexual attempts; however, she turns down the clerk’s sexual advances and on realizing that his efforts were baseless, he promises her that she will served with a gun when she cooperates.
Legitimate Power
This power normally arises from holding a position of power in workplaces, for instance being a key associate in a leadership team or being the boss of the entire team. This power is exercised when workers in a firm are fully aware of individual’s authority. At HMO, Shaniqua uses her power unfairly to tell off Ryan through hurting his farther. Ryan’s effort to convince HMO to pay for his fathers’ illness was dealt a big blow when Shaniqua, the managing Director at the company who was acting as a porter for the insurance company refused to help him because of Ryan’s blatant chauvinism against Shaniqua; and generally, about African-Americans. She later informs Ryan that she would have accepted the request if Ryan’s father-a nice man-had shown up. In this case Shaniqua exercises her legitimate power badly over Ryan.
Coercive Power
This type of power is exercised through panic. It is received through threatening other individuals in a workplace. In the film, after Ryan getting frustrated by Shaniqua, he directs his anger to an innocent African-American tycoon called Cameron and his wife. As a cop, Ryan uses his power coercively to stop them as they arrive from a party, he threatens them to get out of the car or get arrested, Cameron stood helplessly watching his wife getting roughed up and harassed by the cop. He is reluctant to act because the man holds state power and secondly, this cop threatened them with a gun.
Informal Power
Expert Power
This type of power heavily depends on individual’s knowledge, skills, or experience. As individuals get experience in a given field, they later become thought leaders in such fields and begin to gain expert powers. It is exercised in the movie immediately after Daniel leaves the car keys on the kitchen counter. Ria and waters who were detectives arrived at the shooting scene where the two drivers exchanged fire and use their forensic expertise to identify important information that helped them during investigation process. Furthermore, they identified the surviving shooter as an undercover cop, he was male. Also, they identified the black dead shooter as an undercover cop. Additionally, they found huge sums of money in the trunk of the dead officer.
Referent Power
It simply arises from being respected and trusted in a work place. Individuals gain referent power when other workers trust what they do and how they make decisions or handle issues (Bruner, 2008). In the film, Peter and Antony are known carjackers in the entire city, they are feared by people in the city as well. They carjacked a married couple when the couple was getting inside their Lincoln navigator, some days later, as Daniel Ruiz was changing their lockers at their Cabot house, Jean noticed Daniel’s tattoos. Jean then complains loudly to Rick about the carjacking incidence and that she cannot trust a Hispanic man with her property because he can take the copy of her car keys to gang members. In this case, Jean believes that people of Hispanic origin are professional carjackers and burglars.
Conclusion
Generally, as the characters’ role alter throughout the movie, the theme of power keeps on expanding. We have witnessed how characters are at different times depicted as aggressors and in other instances as victims. Through these changes, we are able to see how force and power are abused and misused in the film. Moreover, the changes allow us to review the theme of power under two broad categories namely informal and formal power. Carjackers, the cops, managers and tycoons contributed a lot to this theme since the drama revolves around them.
References
Bruner, D. Y. (2008). Aspiring and practicing leaders addressing issues of diversity and social
justice. Race Ethnicity and Education, 11(4), 483-500.
Taulbee, S. J. (2006). Film review of the movie Crash. Pastoral Psychology, 55(2), 247-251.