Product Description

They all live in Los Angeles. And in the next 36 hours, they will collide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2265 in DVD
• Brand: LIONS GATE HOME ENT.
• Released on: 2005-09-06
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Korean, Persian, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 112 minutes

Amazon.com
Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a detective (Don Cheadle) and his Latina partner and lover (Jennifer Esposito) investigate a white cop who shot a black cop--these are only three of the interlocking stories that reach up and down class lines. Writer/director Paul Haggis (who wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby) spins every character in unpredictable directions, refusing to let anyone sink into a stereotype. The cast--ranging from the famous names above to lesser-known but just as capable actors like Michael Pena (Buffalo Soldiers) and Loretta Devine (Woman Thou Art Loosed)--meets the strong script head-on, delivering galvanizing performances in short vignettes, brief glimpses that build with gut-wrenching force. This sort of multi-character mosaic is hard to pull off; Crash rivals such classics as Nashville and Short Cuts. A knockout. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Crash (click for larger image)

From The New Yorker
A brazenly alive and heartbreaking film about the rage and foolishness of intolerance-the mutual abrasions of white, black, Latino, Middle Eastern, and Asian citizens in the great and strange city of Los Angeles. The movie starts off with separate vignettes in which the characters run afoul of each other, say things better left unsaid, and get into terrible trouble. Later, they cross paths again, sometimes in bizarre coincidences that feel exactly right; some of these scenes play out at the edge of insanity, where contentiousness spills over into tragedy or farce. The furiously candid screenplay was written by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco, and the picture was directed by Haggis, who, in his first time out as director, demonstrates an amazing skill with actors. Don Cheadle, as a withdrawn, melancholy police detective, is the star, and the other players include Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton as an upper-class African-American couple, Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock as an L.A. district attorney and his bitchy wife, Chris (Ludacris) Bridges and Larenz Tate as carjackers, Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe as cops, and Shaun Toub as an Iranian shopkeeper who thinks everyone is out to cheat him. The gentle electronic score is by Mark Isham. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

BEST PICTURE?
CRASH has its absorbing sequences, and as many reviewers have mentioned, it has more than passing resemblance to MAGNOLIA, which is superior in every way. The subject of race in today's America is certainly a noble subject to bring to life in a movie - the issue with this film is that it is didactic, completely predictable and way too clever to be even remotely believable. Each performer is given two specific qualities- their racist self and their human self. And just like a nifty puzzle, all of these sides come together in a rather absurd stew by the time we get to the "revelations" sequence at the end. The musical score and cinemtography are so purposely dramatic and harsh that they end up becoming overbearing. How on Earth did this forgettable, uninvolving movie EVER win Best Picture?

Supremely Over-rated
This movie is watch-able and that's the best I can say for it. What does this tell you: When it was nominated for best picture, I forgot I had even seen it. Only after they played the clip during the Oscar show did I realize I had rented & watched it months before. I guess the positive reviewers are half right: It doesn't present the racial issues "in black & white"- but only in the sense that it doesn't make all the white characters sophisticated and the minority characters blackface caricatures. There are negative reviews here which seem to presume that racism is a relic of the past, which is patently absurd. It is a very real issue, one which affects all of us (usually in more subtle ways than Haggis seems to understand) which is not going anywhere soon. At the same time, every character in the movie seems to have an obsessive racial awareness which controls everything they do. The characters have no depth at all outside of their racial attitude. As a result, the theme is so prevalent that the movie plays like an after-school special. If you want to see a candid and thought-provoking movie about racial relations, check out "American History X" with Ed Norton. The racial discussion takes place in a context that actually makes sense. And if you want to see the movie that SHOULD have been best picture, check out "Good Night and Good Luck." "Walk the Line" and "Brokeback Mountain" were also fantastic films.

Haggis Heavy Handed
Very disappointing script. It's a preview to what we can expect from "difficult" and "challenging" film. The roles are cartoon-like, amplified extremes of racial generalizations. Is this what we are to accept? There are so many subtle nuances and delicate structures to our interactions with each other, why do we have to paint such blatant charicatures? I see no difference between Crash, Herbie Fully Loaded and some Michael Bay film. Ensemble cast? Assemble a script.