'Critical Thinking Assignment on the Movie “Crash”\r'

' on that point are many characters in the movie â€Å" smash” that catches one’s attention. Yet, for the purposes of this paper, saturnineicer Tom Hansen, vie by Ryan Philippe in the movie, shall be discussed. In the debatable movie, Crash, Hansen is a rookie cop whose partner, military officer Ryan (played by Matt Dillon) was portrayed as a bigot.On this accompaniment film, their assignment was to locate a missing fomite reported to check been stolen by Afri coffin nail Americans in one of L. A. ’s posh neighborhoods. As a young officer, he was subject to the authority of his partner, who seemed to kick in unconventional ways of which he did non okay of.In the beginning, he instinctively questioned his partner’s manifestly cruel treatment of African-American members of the community. He witnessed, for example, his partners ill-treatment of a couple who they caught performing fellatio at bottom their car. In a scene in the movie, police o fficer Ryan uses force and authority in molesting the women (played by Thandie Newton) date the economize (played by Terrence Howard) looked on helplessly. When Hanson attempt to intervene, he was intimidated by his partner and he was hale to do go back to the car and do nothing.This created an animosity between the partners. Later on, he asked to be re-assigned to dally with an different(a) officer. In the course of this exercise, Hanson scram himself working alone and incidentally, crossed paths with the African-American husband whose wife his partner molested the night before. In the unfermented feature, he was trying to pacify Mr. Cameron Thayer, as he had just reversed a situation when 2 young African American males tried to hi-jack his car. When police officer Hanson came to the scene, Mr. Thayer was threatening to shoot the delinquent who tried to slew his car while the police in turn, were restless to shoot him. ships officer Hanson, in an effort to make up for his partner’s mistakes, pleaded with his fellow officers as he attempted to calm Mr. Thayer d proclaim until he submitted his weapon. The report card goes on to show how Mr. Hanson is exposed to the multitude of perspectives and manifestations of preconceived notion in his workplace and his encounters. Later on during the day, on his way back home, ponderous on the disfavour encounters he had, he accommodated a hitch hiker, who was of African American descent.Officer Hanson’s thought, full of the interlockings he witnessed and his suffer confusing thoughts, tragically succumbs to the paranoia in his caput and ends up shooting his passenger whom he thought was carrying a gun. His innocence and his moral confidence shattered, he escalate the act by running away from the state when he threw the clay on the side of the pass ad burned the car. The character of Officer Hanson was portrayed to pick up, both cases conflict and role strain. In the film, Crash, Hans on’s role strain stems from his status as a police officer.Case in point, during his partner’s molestation of the director’s wife (Thandie Newton), he was tear between his duty to maintain protocol as a partner, and his duty to the citizens in protecting their unspoileds. In roles strain, there is a difficulty in closure issues concerning a single, particular role that is played by an individual. In this instance, Officer Hanson makes was not able to work pop the strain, initially but he tried to make up for it by saving the director, Mr. Thayer from getting into more trouble with the law.On the other hand, role conflict arises from a difficulty in resolving issues that contend the diverse roles an individual plays in party. In Officer Hanson’s case, role conflict arose when he centering his passenger on his day off. In this case, there is a conflict because in status, he is a police officer and it is his duty to report disgust and enforce the law. However, in this situation, he is the perpetuator of a criminal offence and he could not turn himself in. Officer Hanson was not able to resolve this role conflict when he opted to follow the instinct of self-preservation and made measure to dwell up his crime.The stress that the character experienced direct to the performance of a deviant act. In the movie, Officer Hanson ended up committing a crime. Further more, he did not submit himself to the law, instead, he c everywhereed up the act by burning is car and throwing the body on the side of the road. In this instance, his paranoia and his state of mind at that moment, after encountering several instances of prejudice which stuck into his consciousness, energy gather in contributed to his act of deviance.Although, the shooting of the passenger could have been steaded as an act of self-defense, he crossed over to the side of deviance by not winning responsibility of his actions. Among the Theories of Deviance, one that is most related to Officer Hanson’s character is the Labeling Theory. This character, primarily wanted to be a â€Å"good cop”. That was why he wanted to get away from Officer Ryan, who was portrayed as a bigot. However, his exposure to the reality of societal encounters and the labels that people throw at each other created some form of confusion in his mind.Though he set out to be an idealistic and positive type of person, the labeling of the travels he encountered, particularly the African Americans, modify his judgment and his suspiciousness made him succumb o the paranoia that seemed to be gripping other officers in his profession. The simulated belief of both Officer Hanson and his young passenger Peter Waters (played by Larenz Tate) stemmed from the labels that the society they lived in assigned to the different kinds of people residing in the community and this ultimately led to both to their demise.In the film, the audience witnesses the cozy struggle Officer Hanson faces in his experience as a rookie police officer. It can be said that he tried to walk on air over the prejudices that were prevalent in his coworkers but. He was breed to be fair to all the people of different ranges and ethnicities he encountered. In his own way, we seemed to be trying to make up for what the other people of his race were exhibiting. He did not approve the acts of injustice which he saw being performed on people of other races, particularly the African-Americans.However, Officer Hanson eventually gave in to the sensitivity of his ethnicity, even unknowingly. He is of the Caucasian race. A relative study made on Caucasian and African Americans show that â€Å"from birth, Caucasians have a racial innate solidarity mechanism. Regardless of income or geographical location, Caucasians instinctively bond paper with each other and not African Americans to call for riches and power. (White, 2007) In the character of Officer Hanson, it whitethorn be that he instinctively reacted to a situation based on what people of his race have grown accustomed to.Although he tried to play off against it, he still could not shake it off easily. Unknowingly, he responded to a shared consciousness and upheld the look upon of self- preservation. ply refers to differences and similarities that are relatively similar in biological features and recognized by society as significant to set these group of people apart. (Jones, 2005) The ponder by White further states â€Å"Caucasians have an internal racial cohesive mechanism and believe in racial solidarity. Caucasians understand that solidarity groups amass wealth and power.Once wealth is amassed through cohesion, Caucasians determine who gets what resources, when they get those resources, how many resources they get, and how look atable the resources are allocated. Solidarity preserves the Caucasian race, and ensures that group members are privileged. Caucasians understand the premise b ehind racial cohesion, and they view cohesion as racial solidarity. Although these definitions cannot directly apologise the choices made by the character of Officer Hanson, it gives one an idea of the prevailing value system exist within the community of his ethnicity.It is perhaps, more important to consider is his selective learning of the situation in cover his responses to certain situation in the film. Selective information is how humans interpret particular encounters and experiences based on their own judgment, as influenced by their background, their state of mind and their value systems. In the case of Officer Hanson, his eventual commission of a crime resulted from his perception of the situation he was in. It can be inferred that this perception was influenced by his current experiences but it could also be from his own value systems and his existing frame of mind.Although, he appeared to be a person who would opt to do the right thing, who tried to rise above the e veryday conflicts of race that he came across, in the end, he became a dupe of his own selective perception. In trying to sleep his conflicting roles and in trying to sort out his own feelings, he was in a sodding(a) state of guardedness. Consequently, he was not able to distinctly assess the situation and over estimated its gravity. This selective perception leads to the demise of the recipient of his guarded paranoia and undefined hostility.In the end, his role and self- perception was completely altered as well. REFERENCES Jones, Richard A. (2005) Race and Revisability Journal of Black Studies 35, 612-632.Henslin, James (2007) Essentials of Sociology: A vulgar Approach. (7th Ed.).Pearson: Allyn & Bacon White, Stephen (2007) â€Å"Variables that Inhibit Middle and Upper fall apart African Americans From Achieving Racial Cohesion”. National social Science Association. 21 April 2008 <http://www. nssa. us/journals/2007-27-2/2007-27-2-18. htm>.\r\n'