CRASH ★★★½

A FEW weeks back I reviewed Canadian director David Cronenberg’s first major feature film, Shivers from 1975.

Now let’s look at his most controversial to date, Crash, which had to be cut before it could be shown at all in Australian cinemas.

At the 1996 Cannes Film Festival Crash split the international jury when it was given an honorary award, mainly for being so audacious and confronting.

Two English newspapers mounted a campaign to have the film banned in the UK and throughout the world it divided critics and, as a result, suffered at the box office.

Today it continues to have cult cinema status with the difficult and challenging main premise still divisive and not for most.

Maybe the plot is the simplest way to describe it for you.

James Spader plays film producer James Ballard and Deborah Kara Unger his partner Catherine. They are in an open relationship but the sex they engage in with others seems mechanical, unemotional and almost boring. They seem to need detailed discussion of these affairs to enhance their own sex.

Driving home alone from work one night, James is distracted and causes a head-on collision with another car. The male passenger winds up through the windscreen of James’ car while the other occupant, a woman, is badly injured along with James.

Drifting in and out of consciousness in his car seat James sees the other woman trying to get out of her seatbelt. During the attempt, one of her breasts is exposed. This is a key moment in the story.

In hospital James meets the female survivor, Dr Helen Remington, played by Holly Hunter, who initially spurns him. He also meets Dr Robert Vaughan (Elias Koteas) who is looking after Helen but also takes a strong interest in James’ severe leg injury.

Helen and James meet again after their hospital rehab at the wrecking yard where their cars are being kept. Fuelled by their shared experience of the car crash they start meeting for sex.

Eventually they are drawn into a dark culture inhabited by people who equate sexual arousal with the aftermath of vehicle accidents.

At the centre of this sub-culture is Dr Vaughan who stages underground theatre performances involving re-creations of famous car crashes that claimed the lives of celebrities like James Dean and Jayne Mansfield.

The deeper James and Helen become involved the more bizarre their approaches to sex and relationships become. If the description of the plot is already too much for you then obviously give Crash a wide berth because Cronenberg does not hold back at any stage. Two scenes in particular have become notorious.

I find the film very interesting, but fully understand how it could be criticised for its approach to the material.

The script is based on a novel by JG Ballard and both he and Cronenberg share a fascination with technology and its impact on how we live and interact with others. Crash is a way of representing this struggle to retain humanity in the face of technological advancement.

In this case the instrument of automobile destruction and resulting human death and injury creating a psychological bridge is a particularly crude and problematic metaphor.

Ultimately I fall more on the side of those who feel Crash is an extraordinary piece of film-making but designed mainly to shock audiences rather than warn, inform or even challenge them.

We talk about brave acting performances but Crash is a different proposition again. Spader, Hunter, etc and even Rosanna Arquette have never appeared in anything else quite like this film.

They are all very good, but Koteas in particular takes the term ‘twisted’ to another level again with his character.