Crash | | Cast : | James Spader, Holly Hunter | | Director : | David Cronenberg | | Studio : | New Line Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | March 21, 1997 | | DVD Released Date : | November 17, 1998 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | NC-17 | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 06, 2005 | | Summary | A Crash Course in An Experience of Being Alive. | Content
 | Joseph Campbell once observed, "what we're searching for in life is not a MEANING to life. What's the meaning of a flower? What's the meaning of a flea? [Or ... what's the meaning of an automobile crash for that matter?] What we're searching for is an experience of being alive."
Cronenberg's "Crash" takes Campbell's observation to a place very few would dare go. And that's precisely Cronenberg's mission. To give the audience an experience of truly being alive, in post-postmodern society where, as Spader ponders in the beginning of the film, "doesn't it seem like there's more and more traffic on the highways these days?"
So there is. And what traffic represents is oppression and the enslavement of humankind to what Marshall McLuhan described in his seminal 1951 book, "The Mechanical Bride."
Cronenberg takes this mechanical bride to her ultimate logical, or more precisely, organic conclusion. Since she's no fun to "drive" anymore, why not crash these babies instead, and feel the FULL IMPACT of what it's like, to live, to be injured, to get hurt, to have sex with a crash victim (a person society otherwise labels "freak"), to FINALLY FEEL SOMETHING. Hence the natural association with car crashes and sex. There's an almost inherent frisson connecting the two.
One can't help but be reminded of Michael Douglas abandoning his car in the middle of rush-hour traffic in the film "Falling Down," or the hilarious opening scene in Mike Judge's "Office Space," where an elderly person with a walker is actually moving faster on the sidewalk than the cars on the adjacent road, heading for the "canyons of commerce," the mindless jobs where we waste away our lives pursuing economic concerns, rather than following "a hero's path," rather than "following our bliss," or doing anything which TRULY turns us on. In other words, Cronenberg's point is, "we're driving ourselves insane."
And when any technology becomes TOO intense, or ... TOO INSANE (McLuhan would term this technology "too hot"), it tends to reverse itself, like a flip-flop. One could call that a revolution. And at hundreds of thousands of RPM, where will this revolution go? Watch "Crash" and find out, then think about walking home from the theatre instead. Maybe THAT will be sufficient to awaken you to the experience of being alive you seek. For assuredly, the mechanical bride is death on 4 wheels, one way or the other. Might as well make it "fun!"
It's tragic in a mind-blowing way that in late-20th, early-21st century, an experience of being alive should involve physical harm, mutilation, "accidents" by the misapplication of machines. Death. One is reminded of Gary Jules' version of "Mad World" as popularized by another wild "experience of being alive" movie - "Donnie Darko." Jules laments, "I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad, that the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had." Apply this to "Crash" and it's no longer funny. Just very, very sad.
But instructive.
If telecommuting (that is, working from home) ever became common business practice, there would be no more (or certainly less) need for the infernal congestion of cars on the roads and thus, a pressing need for a counterirritant to this critical problem. Cronenberg turns "road rage" into "road rape," but at least the "victims" are having the experience of a lifetime, perhaps their final one at that. But what a way to go!
As character and "crash guru" Vaughn in the movie explains, "James Dean crashed and died in 1955, and became legend." Isn't that what we all yearn to be - "legendary," unforgotten, heroic persons - not just mindless numbers in the book of "death and taxes."
Ask most of us what our greatest experiences of being alive have been, and "orgasmic relationships" or "strong romantic attachments" will top the charts of response. Little wonder then that "Crash" is so autoerotic (pun intended).
Now, I'm hardly suggesting we all go out and crash our cars and form a group of crash-fetish salacious fanaddicts. I just daydream, as Cronenberg does here, of a world WITHOUT cars, WITHOUT the need to spill seed in the backseat of a turbo-charged Buick or Crown Victoria, going 100 mph, careening out of control on the highways and byways of America.
Cronenberg's allegory is very ANTI-automobile. He wants to see them ALL go up in flames. While at the same time, giving the drivers, and by vicarious experience, his loyal viewers - an experience of being alive we'll never forget. Cronenberg doesn't want to kill or maim us, but he does want to (and succeeds in so doing) entertain us and, beyond that, remind us that, one way or the other, ALL of us are "dying a little bit behind the wheel" each time we go for a drive. Cronenberg is trying to get us to see beyond road rage and transcend our reliance upon mechanical beasts of questionable transit but undeniable frustration. In other words, where is the "road sage?" Would that we could all become such a being. Cronenberg's "Crash" gives us a hint at who this sage, or sages, might be, even if they are, by banausic standards, more than a bit twisted, as in "twisted metal."
In any case, with a cast of superstars like Holly Hunter and James Spader, "Crash" must not be missed (but since the action is going at crash speeds, you might want to hurry and pick up your copy as fast as possible before it speeds off into the night to an uncertain but guaranteed-adrenaline-rush denouement). But do be advised ...
Buckle up for this one. Or ... if you'd prefer ... don't. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 06, 2005 | | Summary | sex and car crashes... thats it. | Content
| Theres not too much to say about this film except that there is very little to this film. Theres some wierdos, some sex and some car crashes and thats about it. The rest is just filler. Had this had actual porno it would have made more sense because it seems the story is just setting up the sex scenes in this movie. The sex is hot and it carries this film but thats really all it had going for it. 3 stars, one for each hot actress that shows her boobs. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 01, 2005 | | Summary | Cronenberg's "Crash" is a masterpiece | Content
| This movie takes you into the pysche of exotica in a S&M scenerio. You have people who survive car crashes and are turned on by the experience. The movie takes the turn of the crash victims getting into self inflicted crashes to gain arousal. These crashes are a vessel to gain sexual energy which into turns the crash site into a sex zone. This is the kind of movie that would will blow your mind. David Cronenberg gives a great sense of putting you there. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 09, 2005 | | Summary | Audacious & courageous, but not entirely satisfying | Content
| After narrowly surviving a car crash, jaded film director James Ballard (James Spader) becomes involved in a strange sub-culture that equates car accidents with sexual release and indulges a fetishistic fascination with the twisted remains, both human and mechanical. Writer/director David Cronenberg is to be commended for having the courage of his convictions. He chronicles the exploits of his characters in explicit detail with an unblinking eye as he follows them to the logical extremes of their pathology, thus richly deserving the NC-17 rating. The result is intellectual and not at all erotic, as cold and hard as the chrome of a fender. This film seems to be very wise about the voraciousness and emptiness of sexual addiction, but I think that I needed at least one character to display some degree of self-awareness for the film to be a completely satisfying experience. Cronenberg leads his characters into their unique sexual limbo and then leaves them there to languish. On the other hand, since the lack of satisfaction is a hallmark of this lifestyle, perhaps the film accomplishes just what it should./ |
| Rating | | | Date | March 14, 2005 | | Summary | You probably won't get it. | Content
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If you do, congratulations - you are definitely in the minority.
I remember this coming out in the US about the same time as 'Lost Highway' after Ted Turner tried to suppress it for so long. While I have admired David Lynch in the past (before 'Twin Peaks', anyway), I remember "Lost Highway' being one of the most irritating two hours in a theatre of my life - like a pretentious never-ending music video. Lynch wasn't doing anything he hadn't already done before. And here it seemed especially flat and uninteresting - a retread, and a major disappointment. The identity switch thing just made me wish I had been watching 'Performance.'
Fortunately, North America's other significant purveyor of weird had something fresh to offer. "Crash" is a movie unlike any other - not that you'd want there to be two. Deliberately chilly and distant, it creeps up on you and pulls you in. It makes an everyday part of our lives seem alien.
Probably too alienating for the stroke crowd. Really, I can't imagine who this movie is for - which is probably why it felt like it was for me. This movie makes me oddly happy, and I'm not entirely sure why.
There is a good deal of humor in the film, which I bet was missed by most viewers. It probably helps if you know something about paraphilia. 'Crash' often plays more like an exercise in ideas than an actual movie - so if you need a linear three-act narrative with reversals and characters you can identify with, you will almost certainly not be satisfied.
However, if you are looking for a movie that will please the reptile in you...
What sets Cronenberg apart from the other "weird" filmmakers (I hate to keep saying that, but if you ask the majority of filmgoers to describe his work, this is the one adjective you will get over and over) is the way he has reinvented himself from time to time. He has not stopped growing as an artist, and has produced one or two bona-fide masterpieces per decade. While talents like Lynch and Greenaway tend to hit their own ceiling and stop, I know that Cronenberg can still surprise me.
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