Crash! Moving to the future.

In 1995 I was heartbroken when Sean Penn didn't receive an Academy Award (Oscar) for his performance in "Dead Man Walking", it was given to Nicolas Cage for "Leaving Las Vegas". Penn was brilliant and for a minute I was mad at the Oscars. Normally I can agree with most nominations and winners, which is the case of movies such as "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" in 1975, "Annie Hall", "Unforgiven", "The Clockwork Orange", "The Godfather", "Silence of the Lambs", "Braveheart", "American Beauty", "A Beautiful Mind", "Gladiator" and "Million Dollar Baby." In cases such as "Forrest Gump" and "The English Patient", I don't know what they were thinking. In the beginning of 2005, my husband and I went to the movie theaters to see "Crash". When it ended, I guess I had one of those famous moments of lucidity, I said to him, "this is one of the best films I've seen in years", and being a script writer myself I added, "The script is amazing." Yesterday night I was enjoying the triumph of this movie because, unbelievably, it didn't get all the hype when it was in theaters and it wasn't given the importance that some not-so-great films had (War of the Worlds for example). It is like the little movie that could. Weeks after purchasing the DVD for my personal collection which includes very few movies, I saw Oprah talking about "Crash", and then I knew that it meant something to her, just like it did to me: racial issues, judging others, treating people in a humiliating way...and I can go on and on on the aspects depicted in this great film. "Crash" is a film to raise consciousness about who we are, where we come from and where we might be heading if we don't start to recognize the value of every human being. It shows you a personality that you can feel related to because you have probably been there, somehow. I applaud the achievement and the unexpected way in which this film grabs your soul. It's an eye-opener that everyone must see. More movies should begin to focus on the growth of human kind and stop stereotyping. That notion that dark skin and eyes makes you Latin, even if you don't speak the language is obsolete, proof is I don't have dark skin or eyes, and I'm more Latin than Rosie Perez who is trying to prove in this year's Miami International Film Festival that she is BORICUA even when she doesn't speak Spanish nor has ever lived in Puerto Rico. Give me a break! It's cool that she wants to get in touch with her roots but in order to achieve so effectively she HAS to spend some years interacting with her heritage. Thank you for reading and for working on uplifting films such as this year's Academy Award winning for Best Screenplay and Best Picture, "Crash", it reminds us that after all, WE ARE ONE. Isa