Too many fans seem to be blown away

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Awesome Movie

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

I really love the works of David Cronenberg. His idea of cinema is really wonderful. The kind of atmosphere he creates while delivering his stories is simply fabulous. Recently, i watched his film 'Crash' (1996). Unlike, his other works like 'The Fly' (1986) or 'Videodrome'(1983), i was slightly apprehensive about this one. This was because of the mixed audience response this film had got. No matter, how much we claim that we do not care about the thoughts of others, we are all guilty of basing our reaction after considering others.Nevertheless, i did end up watching 'Crash' and can safely conclude that anyone after watching this one would either love it or simply hate it. It's seems hard to imagine any other kind of reaction considering the subject matter of the film. The plot involves a group of individuals seeking sexual gratification from an unusual source that is a car crash. The film revolves around the character of James Ballard who after having survived through a horrible car accident ends up undergoing a shift in his attitude towards such incidents so much so that he begins getting sexually drawn towards these incidents . This happens after he ends up meeting with a women who was also the victim of the car accident in which he was involved.She introduces him with a person named 'Vaughan' who seems to do nothing but plan car accidents so that he can derive pleasure from them. James ends up getting to be a part of Vaughan's gang. The arousal through these activities ends up improving the sex life of James and his wife who earlier were having passionless sex. As is quite understandable a plot like this would invariably attract wide variety of reaction both positive and negative.For me the important theme that this film tries to portray is based on how an incident like a car crash which is generally associated with tragedy can really be turned into something highly sexual in nature. 'Crash' is the study of human psychology and shows how easily it can be transformed from one particular kind of reaction to another of the same event by just changing the outlook. The incidents of car crashes in this film try not to evoke sympathy from the audience but they actually try to sexually incite the audiences through such incidents.Eventually, whether this film does or does not work for you will depend upon a particular reaction it evokes from the viewer. If the thought of blood,sperm, shredded glass,dirty car etc. together disgusts you then this movie will surely not work for you.

Dear David Cronenberg, I take my hat off to you for making a movie based on Ballard's Crash. It really pushes the limits of what can be put/shown on film. The film was true to the book. You captured the coldness and in-humaneness of these characters who are lost in their sexual fantasies. But like in the book, it is the same sexual fantasy and its variations repeated over and over again. It did get pretty tedious after a while. Ballard wrote this in the introduction to his book - "Crash is an extreme metaphor for an extreme situation." Well, I do spend time at work browsing through pictures of supermodels with whom I would never get to sleep. And I do hold those women up as the ultimate standard of beauty. So that is a bit of an extreme situation as it could lead to disillusionment. I guess this is what Ballard was talking about when he wrote - "the ultimate role of Crash is cautionary, a warning against that brutal, erotic, and overlit realm that beckons more and more persuasively to us from the margins of the technological landscape." The actors looked cold, distant and aroused all the time. Best Regards, Pimpin. (6/10)

David Cronenberg is known for his disturbing mixture of psychological and body horror, his films are always slickly made but with a real seediness to them that actually gives them a unique edge. For all of his work however Crash is the film that most people think crossed the line because it is simply too sordid and repulsive, causing massive controversy on release and still carrying infamy the this day. The fact its based on the novel by JG Ballard (whose work is always deeply unsettling) should give you a clue about the films nature. I think the film is very gripping, not just because it is extremely well made and acted, but because the ideas behind the film are a lot smarter than most give it credit for. Firstly the biggest issue people have with the film which is the plot. It is effectively about people who are turned on by car crashes or the thoughts of being in a car crash. A young TV director named James Ballard gets involved with a group of people into this form of fetishism when he himself has a car crash. I will admit that the premise is very far out there and yes Crash is very disturbing at times, but its no more as troubling in a graphic sense than most films based around sexuality and I think people are more troubled with the idea itself that the film. The sex scenes are extremely graphic and unnerving, the scene with the scar tissue is downright horrible, but I think that they do work given the context of the film.Then you have to look at what the film is trying to say. Cronenberg's works (and Ballard's) have always had links to the loss of human feeling because of the technological world we live in and that plays a large role here. The film is certainly a comment on the human condition, how people have become so empty that the only way to feel intimate is to risk ones life doing something so dangerous. Many of these very simple ideas work fantastically, the fact that something as everyday as the car plays such an important role or that the fetishes of these people are something completely out of the ordinary. There is also the way in which the car is used to stalk people and used for sexual fantasies that links into this clever idea. I also don't understand the anger towards the more graphic areas. Violence, sex and drugs are put together frequently in films with little fuss made, yet add something different to the mix and people lose their minds. If you swapped out car crashes for heroin or cocaine addiction then nobody would even bat an eyelid. I think the cast deserve a massive amount of praise given some of the stuff they have to do. For me James Spader has always been a very interesting actor and here he is very effective in a brilliantly understated performance as Ballard. Deborah Kara Unger is also excellent as his wife, between this and The Game she really deserved more starring roles, and her chemistry with Spader is surprisingly believable. The groups de-facto leader Vaughn is excellently played by Elias Koteas, especially given the difficult borderline nature of the character. The always great Holly Hunter and Rosanna Arquette give solid supporting performances too. The characters here are extremely distant and cold, which understandably turns off many, but they are made that way to reflect the story and not because of a lack of character development.One area where the film truly excels in is with Howard Shore's score. This is easily one of the most atmospheric and haunting scores of its time, fitting the film so perfectly it is hard to believe. The opening title song is just incredible, the jagged dissonant guitar is so powerful and is used to underpin the score throughout. The film looks fantastic. The colour scheme is impressive, with the daytime scenes having a mechanical grey look that adds to the dullness of the world and the night scenes having an icy sheen that gives them a strange beauty. The car crashes themselves are very well done and look like you'd expect real car crashes too. There are many memorable moments littered throughout, the car wash scene is very well shot and the cryptic ending is actually quite profound.So for me Crash is a film that gets unfairly hated on, mostly because its premise is daring and very out of the ordinary. It is frequently disturbing and at times bordering on repulsive, but it carries itself in such an unflinching manner and with such great ideas that you understand why. Its comments on the world are deceptively brilliant, whilst I think to acting and score are both superb. Cronenberg shows himself as a truly talented director once again, as he knows from the very start what he want to achieve and everything that takes place leaves an impact because of that. It is a film that is difficult to like, but one that almost has to be admired.

Have you ever been turned-on by the sight of "deep-gash" scar tissue? Does the thought of being in a car crash make you horny? Are you sexually aroused by grossly mangled and disfigured limbs? Well, if you answered "Yes" to even one of these "very revealing" questions, then Crash just might be the movie that you've been waiting to see for all of your miserable life.Directed by David Cronenberg (the ultimate master of movie mumbo-jumbo), Crash is a literal head-on collision with "weird". But this ain't no interesting sort of weird. No. This is the kind of weird that literally makes your skin crawl and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Yep. There's no denying that.Crash is a steely-cold, and, yes, inhuman sort of movie. Its story takes a completely clinical look at alienated people, with their emotionally sterile lives, who find sexual arousal in automobile accidents and grossly disfigured bodies. (I don't get it)