Crash

Rating:
Summary: Glitches: 5 Star film, 3 star DVD
Review: The film itself is excellent but there seems to be a couple of technical problems with the DVD.

Presented with the choice of an R or NC-17 cut, you select which version you want to watch and press enter. So far so good. Unfortunately it seems that the R version (a cut version) is coded in such a way that when scenes presenting typically distubed Cronenbergian sex arrive, the DVD skips to the top of the next scene. Great in theory but my multizone player (which handles US DVDs without a hitch) nearly had a nervous breakdown, freezing, crawling and then suddenly jumping to the top of the next scene. I tried the DVD out on other multizone players (including a dedicated Zone 1 PC DVD player) and had the same results. The more perverted NC-17 cut works fine, no problems at all.

The other glitch is in the widescreen letterboxing. Those of you viewing without the luxury of a widescreen TV will see the bottom of the frame jumping up and down. It's not a huge problem but very distracting. Luckilly it stops after the first 20 or so minutes.

Rating:
Summary: I didn't understand most of it
Review: It took me a while to understand this movie. Is a twisted story. I didn't like the format either, most of the movie was dark.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book But Mediocre Movie!
Review: The best part of the whole movie was the stageing of the James Dean crash.

Rating:
Summary: As smooth as polished bodywork
Review: To say I was slightly confused after watching this film was an understatement. Was I supposed to now understand something about autoeroticism that I hadn't previously? Had the plot actually gone anywhere? I felt, and sometimes still do, that I had missed something that was crucial to the story and once discovered, the whole film would click into place. Upon a second viewing, the cool and calculated direction of such abrasive subject matter by the masterful David Cronenberg drew me into the lives of these characters with such hypnotic force, I was left breathless. Like the novel itself, Crash is a quite simply a beautiful work of art about quite an ugly subject. Despite the controversy surrounding it, it remains a visual tour de force, the camera at times simply a neutral observer, at others, a prowling predatory monster (see the opening montage). For those who allow themselves to be totally submerged in the atmosphere of a film, Crash is an experience unlikely to be repeated. For others, it will be a cold, emotionless myriad of one sex scene after another. Think hard about indulging in this film however if sex scenes tend to offend you, it can be truly shameless at times and without conscience.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing, fascinating and bizarre
Review: Based on the book by J.G. Ballard, this story about a strange and disturbing subculture that has evolved a sexual obsession and fetish for crashing automobiles is no doubt one of the more bizarre ideas for a novel ever created. The members even go so far as to create and re-enact fatal "classic" car crashes from the past--such as the one that killed James Dean or Jane Mansfield. Its theme also reminded me of the recent movie, the Fight Club, in its idea of a repressed and narcissistic culture of violence that lies just beneath the surface of our otherwise highly polished, technologically advanced society.

I didn't think I was going to like the book or the film originally, even though I'm a fan of Ballard's, but I found I actually liked it a lot despite my initial misgivings. Partly, this was because I happened to hear an interview on the radio where Ballard discussed how he got the idea for the book, and which helped to explain it at least somewhat. Well, maybe. It's still pretty weird. Anyway, I'll recount the story here for those who missed the interview. It was on National Public Radio.

Ballard said he got the idea from passing a fatal traffic accident where a beautiful women had been killed, and you could see everything from the road as you drove by. The woman's body had ended up mostly nude on the rear deck of the passenger compartment, and he said people were driving by gawking at the scene and rubbernecking, and he suddenly got the idea that the whole thing was very erotic for them despite the obviously tragic circumstances and the woman's untimely death. At that point the link between eroticism, car crashes, and death was made, and he was off and running with his bizzare new story idea.

I thought Spader, Koteas, Unger, and Hunter were excellent in their roles, and that also helped to make an otherwise implausible film more realistic. Of course, it's a David Cronenberg film, so what was I expecting? Well, I was probably expecting lots of weird sex and violence--such as the scene in his Naked Lunch, based on the Burroughs book, where the guy is getting anally raped by an 8-foot high half-human, half-centipede creature (Ballard, take note). Well, I like his movies usually, but this one was pretty weird even for someone with Cronenberg's predilection for darkly disturbing themes, and it certainly stands out as one of the more bizarre films on the theme of sex and violence, or on the relationship between sex and violence.

...

Rating:
Summary: Mature, frank and intelligent experience
Review: I like to think that I have pretty much seen it all, and a few of my more recent discussions with friends have centered around just what left is there that can "shock" us in this new millenium. Not much, it would seem. Except "Crash", that is. And I'm not being prudish here. I love this movie. It is a veritable smorgasborg of sensory delights. And a veritible what-is-what of Mr. Cronenberg's ouvre. Metal meets flesh. Man merges with machine. The new order. It's all here and has been discussed endlessly and tirelessly by fans and not-so-fans alike. My point is that it is quite the achievement to offer up something so mature, frank and intelligent in these troubled times. True visionary stuff. Cronenberg (and crew!) bares all and I can't imagine any one sitting thru this and not having at least a few good moments of delicious discomfort. Now that's cinema!

Rating:
Summary: Not Impressed
Review: This movie was about sex and car crashes. The crashes weren't elaborate and the sex WAS NOT GRAPHIC. I do not understand why it received and NC-17 rating and why it was considered to controversial. I only gave it 2 stars because of the hot sceen between the two men.

Rating:
Summary: PARDON MY PERVERSION..........
Review: Brace Yourself [preferably in stainless steel].

NEVER been anything like this - never will - Mr. Cronenberg out Lynches Lynch [David] with this one - even beyond Kafka, if that's possible. No wonder the censors [sensors too] needed physical assistance in the viewing room - Mr. Cronenberg - The Ever-Visionary, unveils this sleek, sexy world of the rich and famous and their little peculiarities regarding speed [behind the wheel type, not from the bottle], fender-benders, and superb old crack-ups.

From the moment Holly Hunter unfastens her seat-belt after that fateful freeway fracas, facing James Spader - slightly crumpled in his seat [with her hubby flung through Spader's wind-shield] you just know that this ain't Kansas.

Deborah Kara Unger's cool beauty chills the senses as Spader's wife - purring along deliciously with her own little agenda and then there's the great ELIAS KOTEAS brilliant as the tormented Vaughan - brilliant and daring scene with Mr. Spader - changing gears so to speak.

Then there's also the fish-netted, steel braced Rosanna Arquette - a sight to behold - as they say - body modifications are the in thing ........ plus a tat or two, just to hide a still warm scar!

A guilty delight!

Rating:
Summary: Utterly and stupid, repeling, and disgusting!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This is resoundingly far and away the worst film I have seen from David Cronenberg, not that any of his films were classics ( except for THE FLY). but I mean who would fall for a sappy idea like this, people sexually aroused by automobile accidents. Isn't it time for Cronenberg to do something valuable in his life, pursue another topic rather than blending sex, technology, and mortification of the flesh. Ted Turner wanted to shelf it because he hated it but his company FINE LINE has distributed it throughout Europe. I could have given this film a 0.5 rating just for the title ("CRASH AND ROT IN PEICES" would have a nice string to it), but since my scale couldn't support that, I will round it off to 1.

Rating:
Summary: A bizarre oddity
Review: Unlike many, I had never heard of 'Crash' before I taped it one night from TV. At the time of its release it was deemed disgusting and degrading, although I figured that with an actress of high calibre such as Holly Hunter, it couldn't be completely iredeemable.

Rather than a story this plays more like a cautionary tale. Spader plays a man who, along with his girlfriend, is bored with sex. After finding himself in a head-on car crash with Holly Hunter he discovers a whole world of people that find such crashes sexually satisfying. Cronenberg's message of the cold effect that technology is having on us is certainly intriguing and well evoked - the characters are all pretty cold. However, despite liking to think that I could never be disgusted by something on screen, I found myself having to turn away at several scenes here. One scene in particular, involving a rape, is very graphic and despite getting its message of brutality over, is still something that a modern audience isn't quite ready for.

Obviously the message of the film is interesting but that's all it is. The lack of a real story means that there is no cohesive thread between the characters other than their bizarre fascination with car collisions. This is certainly an oddity but it seems to lurch too readily between gruesomely explicit scenes and boredom.