The little movie that could, did. Crash won Best Picture this year, snatching the honours at the last minute from under the noses of the stunned cast and crew of Brokeback Mountain. Terrence Howard said after the show that, "The most important movie of the decade, I think, is Crash, because of its worldwide social impact." I have said before that we live in an era of the rejuvenation of film, and I think Crash ranks way up there in the most significant films of our century so far.

Beyond the ability of this film to show us how to quit the cowboys, Crash winning this evening says something about which stories are rising in importance in the common mind, and which are falling. Tonight, core issues central to the development of our civilization trumped popular socio-cultural identity politics. Someone on the red carpet said that this is the year Americans learned to think again, and wouldn't that be wonderful if it is true? It's time to go and see Crash again.