ank: the word "Crash" in this film is uses as a metaphor for cultures slamming into one another, people banging on one another, cars colliding, hatred echoing down alleyways strewn with shattered glass where dreams are crushed by bloody sledgehammers.
             What is the singular meaning of this film?
             From this writer's perspective, the film shows viewers that diversity isn't an easy game to play in a city crammed with cars, loathing, refugees and attitude; and moreover, we all have our prejudices, biases and hatreds – we just show them in different ways. Some of us can overcome those prejudices; others of us can't.
             Meanwhile, the reasons "Crash" won an Oscar for "Best Picture" are as many and as varied at the colors and cultures to be found in the megalopolis of Los Angeles. Some observers were shocked at the choice of "Crash," since there had been so much pre-Oscar hype about "Brokeback Mountain." Indeed, "Brokeback" had swept numerous awards leading up to Oscar night, and well, it seemed an appropriate time for an openly gay story of such delicate beauty to win it all.
             But those who know the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences well – and the Academy's collective desire to occasionally be brutally honest about life in Los Angeles, where so many films are produced – were not shocked at all. Not in the least.
             It certainly didn't hurt the film's chances first, that it was shot in L.A., and second, that some 78 percent of the Academy's voting members live in California, "the vast majority of them in the L.A. area," according to the Los Angeles Times (Ba
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