Two Thought-Provoking Movies

I think the two best movies released so far this year are “Crash” and “Kingdom of Heaven.” Although they take place thousands of years apart and are very different types of movies, both deal with issues of intolerance. “Kingdom” is a beautifully filmed historical epic focusing on religious intolerance. It stars Orlando Bloom, who’s maturing into a very watchable actor, as a knight defending people of all faiths living in Jerusalem between the Second and Third Crusade.

“Crash,” on the other hand, takes viewers to contemporary Los Angeles during a tense 24-hour period and shows how misled racist behavior and comments can be. It’s a very disturbing film but so well done that I can’t stop thinking about it. There’s one scene between a father and his little girl who’s afraid of the dark that’s the most touching parent/child sequence ever filmed. And there are so many surprises in this movie. You can’t tell who the good guys and bad guys are. I love to be surprised in a movie, don’t you?