Product Description

This compelling urban thriller tracks the volatile intersection of a multiethnic cast of characters struggling to overcome their fears as they careen in and out of one another's lives. In the gray area between black and white, victim and aggressor, during the next 36 hours, they will all collide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13897 in DVD
• Brand: LIONS GATE HOME ENT.
• Released on: 2006-04-04
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, Special Edition, Subtitled, Surround Sound, THX, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Korean, Persian, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .40 pounds
• Running time: 115 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)

On the DVD
Crash's theatrical and DVD release history is very interesting. Literally crashing on its original release in the theaters, the film really picked up its huge fan base mostly on the DVD market. Now that Crash holds the Oscar for 2006 Best Picture, it is not surprising that Lions Gate rushed out a 2-disc Director's Cut Edition with the Award mention stamped right on the packaging. The question is, is the new director's cut release that different from the original DVD that fans and the Academy fell in love with? This director's cut does breathe a little more life into some of the characters and helps bridge a few gaps in some scenes. But in all honesty, the minor changes are not plot-altering or anything groundbreaking. Heck, even Haggis admits this in the liner notes, openly stating that the film that was in the theaters was his original "director's cut." With this new version he was given an opportunity to sand off some rough edges that bothered him due to rush editing and the short shooting schedule you have to deal with on a low budget film. Chances are if you loved Crash, you will be equally happy with either version. If you prefer to dismiss Crash, the new cut will not change your mind. Unfortunately, there is no post-Oscar feature commentary. The feature-length chat with Haggis, Don Cheadle and writer/producer Bobby Moresco is the exact same as on the original release. What is new is a new Haggis introduction to the film; "Behind the Metal and Glass - Making of Crash", a decent "making-of" feature; some music montages; a music video; and a bunch of deleted scenes with director commentary that are interesting to watch once. Also included is a new 6.1 DTS mix allowing this 2-disc version of Crash to sound a tad bit crisper than the already crisp 5.1 mix which was on the original DVD release. If you already have Crash you will probably be OK keeping it and not bother to upgrade to this edition. However, if you never saw the film, you might as well pick up this version with the minor, additional bells and whistles. --Rob Bracco

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

Everyone in the U.S. should see this film
My friends have been telling me I should see this film since it was released last spring. Katrina showed us that racism was alive and well in our country, but this film said it first.

The story is another six degrees of separation situation with characters of several ethnic backgrounds. The performances are excellent. Sandra Bullock who has been given much too little chance to show her true dramatic acting skills gives a finely detailed performance as a spoiled upper class woman whose world is being attacked by the foreigners but who finds in the end that it is the foreigners who are her friends and the ones she can trust.

Matt Dillon continues to get better and better with each role. His performance as a policeman whose life trying to help his retired ailing father is making so him so angry that he takes it out on everyone he meets on the job. His arguments with his father's HMO, and the overworked doctor assigned to his father will bring recognition to those of us who have been in this position. I can only hope Dillon will finally win an Oscar one of these days. Don Cheatle is there playing a police detective torn between his job and his dysfunctional family, and Thandie Newton gives yet one more excellent performance as an African American wife whose first encounter with Dillon's racist policeman is followed by a second where each of them learns things about the other which turns each into a human being instead of a stereotype. Finally, Ryan Phillippe plays a rookie cop who learns, the hard way, that you shouldn't judge someone until you have walked a mile in their shoes.

This film shows that the good guys and the bad guys are not always evident at first glance. It also shows that a good turn will be remembered and may cause someone to act against their own interests because of it.

This picture was mentioned on a list of Oscar possibilities although the candidates have not yet been named. It should definitely be a contender.

I already saw this...when it was called MAGNOLIA, SHORT CUTS, GRAND CANYON...
CRASH...even the title smacks of obviousness.

Rarely have I seen a film handle the issue of racism so clumsily an didactically, and what stuns me even more is that people are actually buying into the ugly, facile stereotypes employed by the screenplay. Paul Haggis' attempt at creating a mosaic of interlocking vignettes fails on fronts, chiefly because the director has little understanding of how people interact. Instead of drawing out subtle communications between the multi-ethnic characters, he goes right for the jugular with laughably overwrought demonstrations of how blacks, whites, Hispanics and Asians are all oh-so mean to each other. I've seen Sesame Street episodes with more nuance (and better acting, too, but that's a whole different issue). CRASH panders to the mainstream audience with its reductive portrayal of race relations, and makes no apologies for its ludcrious plot contrivances and overly-tidy characterizations. The fact that members of the Academy thought this was the best film of 2005 is stunning and disgusting on just about every conceivable level. If you want to see a real film about racism in America, rent Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING and avoid this vacant, worthless imitation.

Over-hyped
First let me say that I'm not an angry fan of one of the movies that didn't win the Oscar; this review isn't about that. I didn't read all the other reviews, so I don't know if what I say has been covered, but here's my 2 cents...

After many people recommended that I see this film, I finally broke down and rented it. I can honestly say that it in no way moved me or affected my outlook on life like so many people said it would. It left me asking why this film is so hyped and lauded.

The theme of the story is constantly rammed down your throat and played out by characters who are complete and extreme stereo-types of their races. Matt Dillon and Sandra Bullock's characters are laughingly predictable, as are Ludacris and Larenz Tate. The only thing I found touching about the film was the relationship of the locksmith and his daughter, which took all of 10 minutes of the movie. The other characters were so unredeming and abrasive that I didn't care what happened to them.

The end of the story brings hardly any change in the characters, and those that do are not based in reality. For those who have seen it, look to Sandra Bullock's character as reference. Keep in mind, this is suppose to be a day in the life of these people.

So what do you take away from this film? 'That we are all racists.' How profound.

If you want to see a good film about racism with well thought-out characters that you actually feel for, rent 'American History X'. There is redemeption and emotion 10 times over what you find in 'Crash'.