As I said in the other thread, I thought Crash dealt with the complex issue of race in the most simplistic, sitcom-level manner possible. The hate for it had nothing to do with it beating Brokeback Mountain (in my case, anyway; I thought BBM was fairly overrated and dull); it was due to the fact that it massively sucked.
To anyone who thinks Goodfellas is a standard gangster movie, it’s not. Definitely no glorification going on there; if anything, it focuses almost entirely on the negative aspects of the organization.
It came down to a message of “Can’t we all just get along?” which was trite by the late 90s. There was nothing new there, there was nothing ground breaking.
Yep that and the whole “noble Indian” motif that washes away some truths about native culture. Teh reality was something that wasn’t as pastoral and peacful.
What ruined the movie for me was the fact that it was around the same year Black Robe came out. I saw Black Robe first and was captivated.
It was a story of French Jesuit missionaries going up the St Lawrence to spread the word of God guided by allied Indians. The shots were beautiful but the story and character dynamic make it a sort of anti Dances with Wolves.
Black Robe had no alliegence to any group. The dark side oth both cultures was given equal time. Neither belief system was shown to be superior (despite the characters deriding each other’s culture) In fact in them end we see a Catholic’s prayers answered by the grace of God and a Natives spirit god appear before them, as if both were real.
The clash of cultures rang true and there is a sort of sadness that made you see that despite the differences there were common human frailties and strengths.