Crash

Crash

Director: David Cronenberg.

Written by: David Cronenberg.

Photography: Peter Suschitzky.

Staring: James Spader, Holly Hunter and Elias Koteas.

Year: 1996.

Country: Canada. 

 There's a lot of fuss right now over a book called 50 Shades of Grey which came out last year. It's an erotic novel that's caused controversy over it's use of BDSM. 


  In 1996 a movie called Crash caused similar controversy. (I'm not talking about the Sandra Bullock/Matt Dillon film by the way).


  The film was written and directed by ex-body horror auteur David Cronenberg. I admit with some embarrassment that In my younger cinephile days I wasn't a fan of Cronenberg, but now I'm older and smarter and I see his true genius.


 Crash explores the connection between sex and car crashes. James Ballard (played by James Spader) is in an open marriage and has an experimental sex life. On the way home from work one night he crashes into Helen Remington (Holly Hunter) and her husband. Helen's husband is killed but James and Helen survive and end up in hospital. After a few accidental encounter, James and Helen begin to have an affair begotten from the thrill of crashing. As the delve in hey discover a sub-culture of people with a car crash fetish.


 This secretive collective stages recreations of infamous Hollywood deaths like James Dean and Jayne Mansfield. Although I enjoyed these scenes, they could be taken as insulting to the memory of these stars. In the original novel this was a comment on the contemporary obsession with celebrities. Cronenberg decided not to delve into this idea which is a shame, I would have liked him to. Though Cronenberg isn't someone who likes to preach, he prefers to let the audience decide for themselves, which he does with Crash.    


 The head of this group is a man named Vaughn played brilliantly by Elias Koteas. He explains to James how a car crash is a "fertilising rather than a destructive event, mediating the sexuality of those who have died with an intensity that's impossible in any other form."


 As you could imagine, there was a lot of negative uproar about the movie. Here in the UK, The Daily Mail ran a hate campaign trying to get it banned, when that didn't work they ran smear campaigns against members of the BBFC calming them unfit for position as one was divorced and one had a child out of wedlock (Yes, in 1996). To this day the film in still banned in Westminster. 


 I honestly didn't find it that shocking, I've seen much worse films like Lars Von Trier's Antichrist for example. I think the disgust steamed from a misunderstanding of the film: I was taken at face value and people were angry because they were feared the film was saying that car crashes were an aphrodisiac and easily influenced audience members would go out after seeing it and deliberately collide with others.


 Cronenberg's direction is masterful The film could have so easily have felt like an adult-movie. But with the exception of the opening scene it never does. The crashes are all factual, too. There's no slow motion, re-play or big explosions. The cinematography is also great, especially in it's use of lighting. 


 The only thing that let the movie down for me was that I found James Spader's character to be really dull and sometimes it felt as though he was just a fly on the wall.


 Crash is an an interesting film that you won't get through unaffected. Students of film will love it as they can peruse over Cronenberg's incredible and intelligent direction as well as all the symbolism embedded into the narrative. It's just not one for prudes. 

Score: 4/5