TV Times

Paul Haggis' three Oscar award-winning 'Crash' a movie on troubled racial relations in Los Angeles will be screened at 6.30 pm on July 18 at the American Centre, Colombo - 3.

The film won Best Picture, Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay at the 2006 Academy awards in addition to a number of BAFTA awards and other international acclaims.

Written and directed by Paul Haggis, the Academy Award winning writer of "Million Dollar Baby," "Crash" reveals a handful of stories, each with a different spin on racial tolerance in today's world.

Crash (2005, 113 minutes), an intelligent and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, White, Latino, Asian, and Persian-is downright amazing.

A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton), who get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a detective (Don Cheadle) and his Latina partner and lover (Jennifer Esposito) investigate a white cop who shot a black cop--these are only three of the interlocking stories that reach up and down class lines.

The cast--ranging from the famous names above to lesser-known but just as capable actors like Michael Pena (Buffalo Soldiers) and Loretta Devine (Woman Thou Art Loosed)--meets the strong script head-on, delivering galvanizing performances in short vignettes, brief glimpses that build with gut-wrenching force. This sort of multi-character mosaic is hard to pull off; Crash rivals such classics as Nashville and Short Cuts. A knockout.

Crash earned some $83 million at the box office around the world as well as millions more in home video and DVD sales.