I had seen "Crash" before, and I really don't like its character development and poor content. However, I heard of that the story of City of Hope is also deal with multiple story line, social issue, and racial problems, which are similar to our Oscar winner. Does this movie do a better job than Crash?
share10 times better than Crash. City of Hope is the film that not only Crash emulated, but also Grand Canyon, which also had a similar theme and was released a few months after City of Hope. COH is a masterpiece, and definitely John Sayles' most underrated film. You can see by the scarcity of messages on this board. Apparently, nobody cares about this film. Sad.
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Thank you. I will get that film since it is very hard get today. I feel awfully disappointed when many people said "Crash" is a masterpiece (Not bad, totally but overrating) They even play it in Ethnic Study courses (Even though its plot is ok, directing is fine, the story is too stereotypical)
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City of Hope 10
Short Cuts 8/9
Crash 6
Now it may be due in part to the fact that it's been over 15 years since I've seen it & it was much earlier in my film viewing days, but City of Hope really struck me like no other US film did in the year it was released. "Crash" seemed too try to hard to impress, while "City of Hope"'s understatedness felt more realistic. I keep looking back here in the hope that it's coming out on DVD to no avail. :(
" Crash " is typical mainstream 'bs', the kind of stuff the movie industry leads the lemmings into believing that it is a great piece of work. " City of Hope " is
' John Sayles '. NEED I SAY MORE?!!!
Yes, absolutely ... "Crash" is an ambitious film with worthy intentions, but it ends up being much too obvious and manipulative. "City of Hope" is more down-to-earth, subtler, more honest - it achieves something quite incredible, bringing you into the lives of a cast of characters from all different sides of the city and making them seem real.
shareI love "Crash" just as much as "City of Hope". They share the hyperlink thing with having all those characters, but they have two different styles. One uses naturalism, the other realism.
And I think they both work great for what they're setting out to do, and I just love movies with tonnes of juicy supporting roles for so many good actors.
It's a shame "City of Hope" isn't on deev yet. A nice glossy Criterion release would be the best thing for it.
I agree. I was very disappointed by how shallow Crash turned out to be. It's the kind of film that tries to trigger a dialog but just falls into the trap of reiterating stereotypes without really examining the actual issue. As you mentioned, the characters were not well developed and as a result I found that I really didn't care about them. City of Hope is much more sophisticated in its exploration of the network of tenuous relationships that exist in a major city. Despite being, in true Sayles fashion, an ensemble film, the characters and the interactions amongst them are well established and nicely developed. Definitely worth watching. It's one of those movies that dominates your thoughts long after the ending credits.
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Trust me, I'm a doctor.
I echo the negative sentiments towards Crash. A wishy-washy and manipulative work that undermines the issues at hand. However, City of Hope is a relatively obscure film worth hunting down. Whilst the script sometimes reduces the effectiveness of the content, the themes are challenging and the film recognises many of the unspoken, external factors that lead to social unrest and more specifically, crime. It's worth looking into, but the masterpiece that is The Wire contains many similar motifs and issues, but does so more eloquently. Nonetheless, highly recommended.
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