<i>Crash</i> Under Investigation: Engaging Complications of Complicity, Coherence, and Implicature Through Critical Analysis

Abstract

Using a critical analytic lens, this essay examines how race, racism, and race relations depicted in the movie Crash reflect complicity, coherence, and implicature. The essay first utilizes complicity theory to offer a critical analysis of the film, then provides a thematic analysis of student reactions to the film as a means of gaining insight into multiple possible readings of the film. The analysis demonstrates how a simultaneous, multilayered experience of complicity, coherence, and implicature functions as a process of mediation for the viewing audience.