CRASH
A film review by Vince Deehan
Copyright 1997 Vince Deehan
Written and Directed by David Cronenberg. Based on the book by J.G. Ballard. Cast: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger and Rosanna Arquette.
CRASH finally got released in the UK today, Friday June 6th 1997. It is still banned by the London Council of Westminster but the distributors have managed to get some cinemas *just* on the outside of this boundary (namely the ABC Shaftesbury Ave for one, where I saw it), to screen it. So people living near the West End don't have to trek out into the suburbs to see it ! I saw it at the first screening of the day a t 12:40 and upon leaving the cinema I was not one bit surprised to see a film crew interviewing people as they left the cinema. I managed to creep past them ! I wouldn't have known what to say !
The plot of the film, although the word plot seems hardly appropriate giving the distinct lack of one, was showing the exploits of a group of individuals who get their sexual kicks from watching and being involved in car crashes. I won't bother with trotting out the names of the characters or even try to distinguish them from each other because I found them all deeply uninteresting and not really worthy of much close attention.
The only reasons to see this film are if you're interested in lots of graphic sex scenes and want to see some awesome car crashes. I can't deny that some of the sex scenes were highly charged and very erotic (although I almost feel ashamed saying it !) but this is not what I go to the cinema to see, as a rule. The best films have great dialogue, a good story and believable characters. CRASH had none of these things.
The car crash scenes were as explicit as the sex scenes and really quite frightening. I certainly jumped out of my seat several times ! The sheer force of some of the jolts was very well conveyed, not least in one scene where they re-enact Jimmy Dean's car crash. It was terrifyingly real. I hate driving, in fact I have a bit of a phobia about driving to the extent that I haven't driven a car for over a year (I kid you not). This film has only confirmed my fears of driving, or more specifically of crashing. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing !
The cast for CRASH is led by James Spader, Deborah Kara Unger, Elias Koteas and Holly Hunter. That's an impressive cast, but although they did their best I'm sure , I still found all the characters hard to care about. There was so little dialogue in the film, which made the characters seem very thin and it was impossible to understand their motivations. How did these people become so twisted that a violent car crash seemed to be an essential part of their sex lives ? The film doesn't even attempt to offer an explanation. We are merely presented with these strange people and are shown in detail what they get up to, but the film offers no opinion of its own. It's all up to us to come to some sort of conclusion I guess.
The music by Howard Shore is one of the best things about the film. It's mostly led by a screechy guitar motif that crops up throughout the film, and gives CRASH an appropriately jarring background sound
The opening titles were also great. All the names of the cast and crew were shown coming towards the viewer and were composed of twisted chrome letters. Very classy, I thought.
The thing is, good music and good titles does not in itself make a good film. I am very glad to have seen CRASH but I can't say I enjoyed watching it. I left the cinema feeling quite brutalized by what I had seen and it was not a pleasant experience. I hate to be so negative about films that I review and I would feel very guilty if this review puts people off checking the film out for themselves. So I would urge people who are considering going to see CRASH to go along, and see what you make of it !
Review written on Friday 6 June 1997 E-mail: vince@deehan.demon.co.uk http:\\www.deehan.demon.co.uk
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