What is the best film of 1996? For my money, it's David Cronenberg's Crash. An adaptation of J.G. Ballard's 1973 cult novel, Crash is by far the most uncompromising and confrontational film of the year, perhaps even the decade. A film that presents the relationship between sex and technology as never before, Crash has already become one of the most controversial films of the nineties. Unlike most safe, predictable Hollywood productions, Crash refuses to kowtow to its audience. So be it. In spite of the efforts of Ted Turner and others to suppress this movie, it's clear that Crash is not going to go away.
* Turner isn't alone in his efforts to ban Cronenberg's film; similar attempts have been launched (often successfully) throughout Britain.	For a while, it looked as if Americans wouldn't get a chance to see Crash. After its premiere at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, Crash was picked up for domestic release by the Turner-owned Fine Line Features. Super-mogul Turner pronounced himself "appalled" by Crash, and attempted to suppress its American release.* Meanwhile, the film was given a limited release in Canada in the fall of '96 where it cleaned up at the box office. Apparently its high grosses have changed Turner's mind about Crash's meritFine Line is scheduled to release it in the US in March. So what's all the fuss about? Crash is not, as many have alleged, a porno movie. Although it has more than its share of sex scenes, most are shot from the waist up. Besides, Crash has much more on its mind than the average stag film. All of the upset that Crash has caused only testifies to its power. Perverted though they may seem, it's clear that the images and themes of Crash hit a little too close to home.
* Many viewers (even fans of Cronenberg's earlier movies) won't like Crash. "A collection of sex scenes is not a plot," complained a viewer at a test screening.	After a near-fatal car accident in which a doctor is killed, James Ballard (James Spader), starts an affair with the doctor's widow (Holly Hunter). The two find that they can only have sex in Ballard's car, an exact reproduction of the vehicle he destroyed in the accident. Finding himself increasingly attracted to images of car accidents, Ballard and his wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger) are sucked into the bizarre world of Vaughan (Elias Koteas), whose activities include staging famous car accidents. The story is drawn from a piece in Ballard's 1969 written collection, The Atrocity Exhibition, arguably his masterpiece. Whereas the short story (Crash) ran a whopping four pages, the resulting novel numbered over two hundred. It should come as no surprise that repetitiveness is one of the key criticisms leveled at Crash, the novel. It's also a charge leveled at Crash, the film.* Dispensing with Ballard's inner monologue (a feature of the novel), Cronenberg instead chooses to present the couple's descent into auto fetishism through a series of images. Yes, the constant sex scenes (often presented two, sometimes three in a row) are repetitive, but then it's not always the sex itself that matters. It's more often the sight of a hand clutching the upholstery or fingers caressing the accident wounds on a woman's shouldersuch details convey more fully the plot of Crash than any conventional method.
* Crash is the closest modern cinema has come to capturing the twisted mood of a film such as Masumara's Blind Beast.	Technically, Crash is top notch in every respectas we've come to expect from Cronenberg. The car accidents are brilliantly staged, as are the sex scenes. But those viewers expecting to see something along the lines of Cronenberg's earlier films (Videodrome, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, etc.) are bound to be disappointed. Crash is unrivaled, even in Cronenberg's already unique filmography. But then, as bizarre as it is, perhaps Cronenberg's greatest achievement here is the unsettling familiarity of his images: babes stroking auto parts, sex in the back seat of a convertible, car chases, car crashes...all well-known to us from thousands of movies and television commercials. This, then, is Crash's most disconcerting qualityit deals with fantasies we've already had.
	Crash Alliance Communications Productions/ Fine Line Features. 100 minutes Director: David Cronenberg Producers: David Cronenberg, Stephane Reichel, Marilyn Stonehouse Executive Producers: Jeremy Thomas, Robert Lantos, Andras Hamori, Chris Auty Screenplay: David Cronenberg Based on the novel by: James Ballard Cinematographer: Peter Suschitzky Editor: Ronald Sanders Cast: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger, Rosanna Arquette, Peter MacNeil, Yolande Julian, Cheryl Swarts, Judah Katz
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