Film review
Grand Canyon: Diversity in American life
By Patrick Davis
An enormous part to being an American is grasping the concept of what diversity means. Americans need to stop stereotyping people that are different from them. Instead they should be intrigued with other people’s different ways of life, including culture, values and beliefs. This sociological issue of diversity is known to researchers all over the United States and the world. People need to appreciate what diversity means before they make assumptions about other people. America is an extremely racially diverse country and a lot of the time it causes conflicts in our everyday life and neighborhood settings. My definition of diversity would be a social policy encouraging tolerance for people of different backgrounds.
A perfect entrance in the topic of diversity would be the movie Grand Canyon (1991) by Lawrence Kasdan. This vivid movie from the 1990s portrayed different types of diversity and life changing events. The movie revolved around the lives of six residents from extremely different backgrounds whose lives interconnected in modern day Los Angeles. Each character in the movie played an important part in the movie representing diversity and how in the end everything works out with a little effort and time. The film overall is trying to reveal the image that you have to be tolerant of all people even if they are different from you and have different beliefs or skin color.
An example of diversity revealed in the movie is when Mack’s (main character) car broke down on the way home from an LA Laker’s game. Soon after it broke down a group of teenage gang members quickly approached his car. Mack was scared and the African American gang members could sense a feeling of uneasiness. This is when Simon (an African American tow truck driver) came to the rescue. He pulled the leader of the gang over to the side and talked to him in a stern but respectful manner. In this opening scene Simon showed tolerance and respect to the troubled gang member. He tried to talk to him at a level that the gang leader would understand. Moreover, Simon’s strategy worked extremely well in this situation. It is always important to be the bigger man in the situation and that is exactly what Simon did. The way Simon handled this circumstance is the way people should handle it in everyday life, polite and well mannered.
Another example of diversity that I recognized in the film was the differences in the white verses black neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Mack and his wife Claire lived a rich life a few miles outside the city. They had a huge house, and well paying jobs. They were based in a mainly white centered neighborhood; it would be very rare if you ever saw an African American walking on the streets in this section. Simon and his sister on the other hand lived in a predominately black neighborhood. This area was poor and run down. In this part one would experience poverty, drive by shootings, and more crime than the white area. I noticed this in the movie because they kept showing the difference in diversity and race very clearly. An example of resistant diversity would be Simon’s nephew, Otis, who was contemplating about joining a nearby gang. Resistance occurs when we reject the beliefs of particular cultures or social communities. Otis didn’t like living where he did so he wanted to try and find a new life style.
Overall I think this movie was worth while for me to watch because it touched a lot of different aspects of diversity and paying your dues. Mack paid back Simon in multiple ways throughout the movie for saving his life that night. It is a movie about every good thing you do will be rewarded in the end. The last scene of the movie explains it all when Simon brings everyone to the Grand Canyon, and they take the beautiful sight all in. The movies main message is to tolerate people that are different from you. This movie made me think critically and sociologically about diversity and made me more aware of my surroundings. I learned to be more respectful to people that are different from me.
mwalsh @ April 10, 2008
This movie sounds very interesting and it also brings up the important issue of diversity. Not a lot of people are exposed to a lot of diversity here because the majority of us are from New England and there isn’t that much diversity. My friend goes to school in Virigina and when she is home she always tells me how much different it is between the two. Experiencing diversity can be a culture shock but it is something we should all experience, like in this movie.