"Crash"
Rating: ***1/2 ( out of **** )
By Fernando Vallejo
Starring James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara-Unger, Rosanna Arquette. Produced, written and directed by David Cronenberg. Running Time: 110 mins. Rated NC-17. ______________________________________________________
Few movies transcend high expectations and cross the line between a movie and an experience. In 1996, "Breaking the Waves" and "Fargo" rose above any other features and became experiences. David Cronenberg's "Crash" outstrips any genre formality and ascends into an unforgettable decaying of urban civilization that only dreams or nightmares can match its jolts. You may or may not like it, but it is a complete vision.
"Crash" has a poetic, nihilistic rythm in its car wrecks and crashes and it automatically transforms into the rudimentary theme that technology is more and more dictating on the fate of our lives and the destiny of mankind. The sadomasochistic pleasure generated by the characters' obsessions with ruptured metal is the disguise used by Cronenberg this time, who really accomplishes his most important work to date.
Based on J.G Ballard's 1973 novel, "Crash" tells the incommode life of director James Ballard ( James Spader ) after a horrible car crash, which kills th husband of Dr. Helen Remington ( Holly Hunter ). The two wind up in the same hospital and puzzingly become erotically charged by an unexplainable attraction that's linking them: the car crash. Soon, they have sex in cars, are turned on by crash dummies footage and their sexual force is so colossal they plant their on car wrecks. Joining them in this almost surreal journey is Cronenberg's most memorable character to date, Vaughan ( Elias Koteas ) who worships all sorts of bloody crashes and the re-shaping of the human body through wounds and scars. He even keeps a portfolio with gruesome pictures of devastated people right after accidents. Gradually, Ballard and his wife Catherine ( Deborah Kara Unger ) become involved in this disproportionate world of pleasure, domination and survival.
Cronenberg's past work consisted of artsy-fartsy duds which were coated by hisscience-fictional, unexquisite grotesqueries , but in "Crash" Cronenberg concocts a revolutionary modification of the concept man vs technology, in a deadly collision course that demonstrates the evolution of an artist when presented with a pragmatic theory about the future. He has cleverly fumigated these characters from social exposition and confronting our senses with a group of people and not an entire society, because in a morbid manner, they are representing th aberration of our world which will not be the same, no matter what. The honesty of the protagonists is not a facade of vague personification but a crude reality of how to understand the future ahead of us, beacuse in "Crash" even at the most explicit, shifting sex traingles there is no major conflict the characters are face with. The conflict is humans approaching a new era.
It can also be said "Crash" contains human beings devoid of background, personalities or opinions but just like Kubrick's "2001" and Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner," "Crash" symbolizes a mechanical community in a fight with themselves , their own progressing minds which in essence, are auto- destructing us. Machines take over man.
The sex is unlike any other we have recently seen, conducted mostly in cars, dangerously erotic and brilliantly executed, devoid of any feelings, and there is no moment in "Crash" where the sex is juxtapositioned away from the unexplained phenomenon of getting turned on by metal. When James and Helen forst glance at each other after the deadly accident, it marks the beginning of a civilized, urban post apocalyptic phantasmagoria vitalized by adrenaline rushing moments.
The people are brave to face their wicked temptations which at first, seem unexplicable, and when Vaughan is introduced their pleasure is given another cryptic element :can technology change the shape of humans ? can technology abolish the evolution of men ?. Vaughan is a man with ideas and they are all experiencing this vacuum of studies and questions with a desire to sexually benefit from these arguments as well as exploring new scientific grounds.
Disguising a universal theme with crude sex is not only appropiate, it is necessary. "Crash" unabashedly emphasizes that relationships, love and cherishing for other human beings are missing in today's microchip age, and again drawing a comparison to "Blade Runner" its proclaiming a bleak, lifeless unfolding world ahead of us. "Crash" is set in the present, it doesn't rely on astonishing sets, art direction or extravagant effects, its heart lies on the thematic components, the direction, the coldness and the coldness of the actors.
The ensemble cast is excellent , Spader, whose expresionless face is letter-perfect for the character and adds to the gloomy tone , but Elias Koteas is deliciously malignant as the morbid Vaughan . You may remeber him from " Exotica " , but his prescence here adds an eccentric effect, as if this sick man is really onto something.
J. G Ballard wrote "Crash" in the early 70's , but twenty four years later it is the quintissential " controversy " movie. Division towards the film will certainly have very wide divisions: either one is captivated or is tremendously aggravated. Ted Turner, President of Fine Line Pictures has criticised "Crash" for being preposterous, as well as some top critics. The combo of flesh and metal may have gotten to them, but with sumptous orgasm- fests it was deservedly rewarded an NC-17 rating. I suppose these people were turned off by the constant sadomasochism.
Time is the only response as to wether "Crash" will rank among " Metropolis", "Runner" and "A Clockwork Orange" in their dedication to express the deterioration of mankind. It relentelssly out-smarts a ridiculous road it could have taken, and by amplifying a fragment of a concept, the destruction that lies ahead of us. Thanks to J.G Ballard , David Cronenberg has finally given us a dazzling piece of filmmaking to discuss and share our opinions.
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