Crash

David Cronenberg’s Crash is a study of incredibly sick people who share a mutual fetish involving sex and car crashes, which means that it’s also one of the most disturbing films ever made. Even after seventeen years, the film has lost none of its potency.

I’ve been writing on the subject of film for a very long time. As a result, I like to think that I am fairly thick-skinned as far as adult content is concerned. In all of that time, one film has consistently given me the creeps no matter how many times that I see it. That film is Crash. Each time that I have watched this film, I keep asking myself, “Why? Why are you watching this? How is this film going to benefit you in any way, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually?” These are all valid questions, and my answer to each one of them is this: “I have no idea.”


Crash is a somewhat provocative and intellectual film, which explores some interesting – if entirely troubling – ideas. In many ways, Crash is typical Cronenberg in the way that the film explores the effects that car crashes have on the human body. If you are familiar with Cronenberg’s work, you will note that he is quite preoccupied with the functions of the human body – in this case, the American obsession with vehicles and the extreme sexual implications of that obsession.

In the film, a man named James Ballard (James Spader) is drawn into an underground club of fetishists who derive sexual pleasure from viewing, and being part of, violent car crashes. The leader of the group is a horribly scarred man named Vaughn (Elias Koteas, in one of his best performances), who regularly stages re-enactments of celebrity car crashes, and whose philosophy is deeply rooted in the “reshaping of the human body by modern technology”. One of his followers, a woman named Gabrielle, is clad in a full body brace which nearly renders her immobile and in constant need of assistance – in effect, the physical manifestation of Vaughn’s twisted delusions.

Both James and his wife, Catherine, spend most of their days carrying out sexual exploits with other partners, only to come home and reveal the graphic details to one another. Right from the start, we see that their relationship is a bit on the unorthodox side, and so it is not entirely absurd that these two people would fall into a cult such as this one. Thankfully, the film never offers any easy answers to ease the audience. We are thrown into the pit along with these morally repugnant individuals to watch their sick fantasies play out. Those looking for the “point” of it all will be sorely disappointed. This is a film about the nature of obsession and unexplainable desire, and there are no pat or contrived explanations to be found.

The sex scenes within the film are graphic and unsettling, as these people come together simply as a means to an end. The sex within the film is devoid of emotion and, more often than not, unapologetically shocking. Crash earns its NC-17 rating and then some. With this being said, these scenes sit comfortably within the context of the film, pulling us even further into the dreary, rain-drenched world of flesh, metal, and steel that Cronenberg has created.



Crash is a noteworthy film. However, whether or not you should choose to subject yourself to this sort of material is entirely up to you.



Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg has always been pushing the boundaries of cinema since his first feature Shivers (1975), which labeled him “The King of Body Horror.” Cronenberg started out as one of the most impressive genre directors of the 1970s and early 1980s with titles such as The Brood (1979) and Videodrome (1983) that featured provocative imagery along with themes of the fear of the human body and with social commentary on either psychology in The Brood to technology in Scanners (1981) or the media’s control over our own perception of reality in Videodrome. Cronenberg succeeded greatly with these brutal cult classics but it was only a hint of the more original and groundbreaking works to come. Cronenberg arguably made his big career breakthrough film with his last horror opus and also his most commercially successful to date with The Fly (1986). This showed the director continuing his past themes but this time with more thoughtful character development and crafted a timeless tragic love story. With Dead Ringers (1988), Cronenberg marked a new beginning as a true film auteur with this stunning psychological drama starring Jeremy Irons in two roles as identical twins. A deeply moving and challenging film that was the first in which Cronenberg began evolving into his own personal voice and even genre that left both fans and critics amazed and carried onto Naked Lunch (1991).

It was in 1996 though that this new voice made his most controversial and many would say his most shocking film with Crash. James Spader plays film producer James Ballard who is in an open marriage with his wife Catherine (Deborah Unger). They both engage in various infidelities but are only aroused when discussing the intimate details of their extramarital sex. After being involved in a near fatal car accident, James along with Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter) come to discover an underground sub culture of scarred and Omni sexual car crash victims who use car collisions as a sexual turn on. It soon becomes a jolting life force that each character crave. The quiet and abstracted like dialogue delivery from the actors is superb, the atmospheric cinematography is unsettling, the cool and at times rock & roll musical score from Howard Shore sets the mood in an instant. Like a lot of great films, it leaves you with a new point of view on its story and themes after each viewing but it is one that will repeal many. With an open mind for stories on what is dark of the soul, it will have a lasting impact. A disturbing film that remains one of the greatest of the 1990s. Cronenberg expresses many ideas in each of his films, sometimes he’s more successful at it than others but with contemporary titles such as Spider (2002), A History Of Violence (2005) and A Dangerous Method (2011), he continues to evolve and experiment with new stories as well as challenge the audience. An essential director whose work deserves to be discovered and studied.

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.

This film's delayed distribution and release in Britain made it unsuccessful commercially, but its style and content made it an instant classic for fans of the Cronenberg genre. The performance of James Spader is so much like Christopher Walkern in The Dead Zone I almost forgot I was watching a different movie. As in several of Cronenberg's films, the lead character has a deadly curiosity, and his desire to learn more leads him into dangerous areas. In this case, he is becoming more and more involved in the (fictional so far as I know!) fetishising of car crashes and their effects and the people who take such behaviour to its extremes. Cronenberg knows how to push cinema to the boundaries of good taste, then to crash right through them. This both excites and repulses us at the same time. Whilst watching this film I felt thrills I hadn't felt for a long time, comparable to those an adolescent experiences on any new sexual discovery. Just as Spader is taken from his world of mild infidelity into a bizarre underworld where the subject fetish is the norm, we are taken out of familiar movie territory, into an area which is deepest Cronenberg.

Isolated from the film, it would be laughable to see groups of people pay good money to watch a man crash a car dressed in an unconvincing wig, but our involvement by the time this scene arrives is so complete it seems quite normal. The viewer is so drawn into the narrative that it seems like we are among those who have paid to see a man crash a car in a wig...hang on, we have! The film also features an extension of the exaltation of James Dean, in that his car has been restored and the famous crash re-created, a seemingly tasteless treatment of one of cinema's icons, but is this in reality a mere extrapolation of the morbidity and voyeurism of his many admirers?

This film makes you think. Would you put your life at risk for the purpose of getting a new thrill? Many people do every day with drugs or high speed driving. For those of us who have experienced crashes, can we compare the intense mixture of emotions with sex? Credit for this most original of ideas must be given to J.G.Ballard, writer of the book. Only with new ideas like this can Cronenberg sustain his reputation. That this film is not wholly down to the vision of one man benefits it enormously. The actors all seem committed and Hunter and Arquette are sexy in a non-obvious way. Well done Cronenberg, you've done it again! (Sadly there were no extras on the disc).

Great film great picture quality. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because of the aspect ratio doesnt quite fill the screen it has thin black vertical pillars on both the left and right side of the picture. I know this happens as some films are shot in a different aspect ratio originally and this is what you get when watching in 16x9 not a big deal still great film a great quality picture.

If you watched this movie without sound, you would have a completely different cinematic experience. It's the amazingly philosophic dialogue that accompanies the progression of the movie that makes it oddly engaging and significant. From scene one, you will be expecting an exploration of wierd, hard-core sexuality. However, as the movie progresses, you soon discover that there's actually a method to the madness of the unusual characters. The actors' performances and the characters' chance connections will pull you into the story. It's probably one of the most bizarre executions of a storyline I've ever observed in cinema. Connecting a viewer to a completely unusual line of thinking is an accomplishment. Production quality is high, as is editing, acting and directing. I can't compare this film to any I've ever seen. It is definitely a unique journey for the psyche, and the rest of the body.

From the twisted mind of David Cronenberg, witness James Spader as James Ballard, a bored low budget film producer involved with a laconic Deborah Kara Unger as Catherine Ballard in an uninspiring marriage. Enter Elias Koteas as Vaughan, who steals the show as a psychopath dedicated to directing recreations of fatal automobile crashes involving legendary celebrities. Add a few of Vaughan's mesmerized accomplices, a measure of creepy sexuality and engaging soft pornography and you have got a recipe for unforgettable entertainment. Not for the squeamish.

Watched it when it first came out on VHS. I actually own a VHS copy of this movie, but i have to buy the DVD version since no one use VHS player anymore. BTW, I found this movie super arousing and weird kind of sexy. You will be hook once you watch this movie.

Quelle magnifique adaptation (coffret complet blu-ray/UHD/Livre, quantité limitée !) du roman de J.G. Ballard, somptueuses images, bons dialogues, jamais en revoyant ce film 25 ans depuis sa sortie en salle, j'aurai pu penser ressentir cette même émotion étrange, à la fois d'attirance et de répulsion, dans ce thriller érotico-dramatique, mené de main de maitre par le grand David Cronenberg ! Et superbement interprété par James Spader, la troublante Holly Hunter, et les tout aussi somptueuses Deborah Kara Unger et Rosanna Arquette. Ce film est dingue, osé et sobre, comment revivre d'un crash ? Rendre des plaies et des blessures érotisantes ? Dans une tension digne des plus grands thrillers ! Oui, il l'a fait et bien fait ! A posséder…

One of David Cronenberg's classic independent films that cut the edge into the genre. With a stunning cast for 1996 starring: James Spader, Debra Kara Unger, Holly Hunter, Elias Coteas and Rosanna Arquette, it's no wonder such a controversial, blatantly metro sexual film has remained successful over time and collectible as a classic of the genre. Quite simply put, "Crash" is about car crashes being the foreplay of sexual fetishists. The kind of graphic sexuality makes pornography look crude, square and aimless drivel. Certainly not performance art. In contrast, Cronenberg's project is making cutting edge remarks about the human body's beauty and it's sexual relationship to the mechanical technology that cars are. in a sense, many people 'get off' on various parts or processes of cars. How the driver of a classic Corvette in mind condition feels behind the wheel driving offers an example. Cronenberg takes humans' obsessions with cars to their utmost, and nearly unthinkable, degree. Each actor's performance is breathtakingly brave. James Spader, Debra Kara Unger and Holly Hunter are very difficult to forget as these characters. Hihgest recommendations as truly unique performance artistry in every respect.

What an awsone movie! One of Chronenberg's most addictively diaturbing masterpieces!

Einer meiner Lieblingsfilme in hervorragender Qualität.

puro Cronenberg, film straordinario, disturbante ed indimenticabile