In the film “Crash” directed by Paul Haggis, through Anthony and Peter, the director cleverly utilizes the language feature of dialogue, further broken down into ironic and symbolic dialogue throughout the film to create a powerful emotional response within the audience. In this case, the emotional response created is frustration over peoples underlying personalities. These language features are essential in the film, as they help to achieve the overall idea of highlighting the racial differences that are apparent in LA on a day to day basis.

In the introductory scene of the film, the viewer is engaged in the irony that is presented by Anthony and Peter. During this scene, Rick and Jean (two wealthy white people) are walking on the same footpath as Anthony and Peter (two poor black people) towards each other. The moment Jean sees the two black men, she instantly grabs the arm of her husband and walks in the opposite direction. Anthony – “She got colder as soon as she saw us.” The initial reaction by Anthony highlights to the reader the racial discrimination created through Jean’s actions. Up until this point, the viewer shows pity towards Anthony and Peter, as they realize the all too common reoccurring theme of racism that is being presented. He then goes on to say “If anybody should be scared, it’s us.”, and shortly after pulls out his own gun and carjacks the wealthy white couple. This consequently develops into irony, and the thought in the viewers mind that Anthony and Peter are two black men carrying out the common stereotypes placed upon their people. The director’s intentional use of irony is this scene creates frustration within the viewer, as they see the underlying personalities of the two characters, who appeared racially discriminated at the beginning of the scene, but then go on to inflict fear into the racists. This sequence of events has been deliberately used by the director to support the overall idea to highlight not only the racial differences between people but also to create a sense of self-reflection within the viewer. Through these actions, the viewer gains frustration towards the two individuals.

In the next scene, the viewer experiences irony again presented by Anthony and Peter, when Peter’s St Christopher statue brings him and Anthony what seems like endless bad luck. After carjacking Jean and Rick, Peter places the small figure on the dashboard of the newly stolen car for protection and safe passage. Shortly after, Anthony and Peter find themselves in a difficult situation, as they have just failed to sell their newly stolen Navigator to Lucien, who does not want to buy the car due to the evidence of a Chinaman’s body being underneath the car, a man they ran over shortly before. “Oh yeah, make sure you get that. Without him, things could’ve gone really f***ing wrong tonight.” – Anthony angrily uses sarcasm to respond to Peter’s action of taking the figure off the dashboard. St Christopher is the saint of safe passage, which is ironic for the fact that whenever it is shown in the film, the director has deliberately used this symbol in the opposite way to what the meaning around St Christopher is about.

The next day, the irony is again expressed through Anthony, and foreshadows an ironic event happening further into the film when talking about Peter’s friend nicknamed “Mo Phat”. During this dispute, Anthony talks about how he has no sympathy for black people who steal from black people. Further, into the film, Anthony and Peter are seen “back to work”, searching for another victim of a carjacking. Soon Anthony realizes that the victim they have targeted is a black man, Cameron (a film director). Although making his statement about stealing from black men very clear the day before, Anthony forces himself to continue attempting to carjack Cameron, going back on his statement. At this moment the viewer shows anger towards the film, as they begin to see the underlying personalities of people in LA, in this case of Anthony and Peter; in two cases they have made a statement relating to racial discrimination presented to them as black people, and then ironically perform the opposite of what they said, making the viewer have uncomfortable feelings towards the two carjackers. The director also deliberately used symbols such as the St Christopher statue, to further highlight symbolic dialogue within the film, presented by Anthony and Peter.