Crash — Crash(Blu Ray)
Appearing in 1996 Crash was based on J.G Ballads controversial 1973 novel of the same name. The original books was set near a London airport, and it’s surrounding road network- with its lead character been a middle-class commercials director James Ballard. Cronenberg set his version in 1990’s Toronto Canada- adding his coolly clinical-yet-unsettling cinematic tropes to the film. As a director, he's never shied away from controversy, but this was most certainly his most notorious film due to its mix of sexual simulation & violence, and I personally recall going to see the film when it originally got shown in the UK- and most of the audience walked through-out the film.
The films plot focus in on James Ballad( James Spader) & his wife Catherine(Deborah Kara Unger). When we first meet the couple, they are each having sex with others- James with his assistant on the film set, and Catherine in aircraft hanger- meeting later to discuss the encounters- so it’s clear their marriage is very open & kinky. On his way one night, back from a film set, James is not watching the road- and becomes involved in a crash- the male driver been killed & thrown into James car. James awakes in the hospital to find his leg strapped up with a metal frame, and while walking around the largely people-less hospital he bumps into Dr Helen Remington(Holly Hunter)- who was also in the other car, and we find out it was her husband who was killed. With the Dr is a man who shows great interest in James leg brace & body damage- we later find out this is Robert Vaughan(Elias Koteas) who is head of sexual cult who both revel in Symphorophilia(sexual interest and arousal derived from stage-managing the occurrence of a disaster and then watching ) and aroused from car crashes/ related body damage. Fairly soon Ballad becomes fascinated by both Vaughan & his collection of perverse misfits- taking in a wanting to recreate classic film star crashes stuntman, and a brace/ calliper wearing women.
Though-out the film is thick with a cold & almost inhuman atmosphere, which is enhanced by the score by regular Cronenberg composer Howard Shore- who offers up an unsettling blend of chiming, cold, at points discordant guitar tones & low key woodwind orchestration. Everyone in the film plays their roles with cold disconnection & purely derange pleasure focused manner, all moving towards the films ultra bleak & grim ending. Spader is very good in the lead role, as is Unger as his darkly perverse wife- but the real star of the film is Koteas who literal drips sleazy unease as Vaughan. I think its fair to say that this is the greatest apparition of J.G Ballads work made- with the books themes & car perversions brought to very troubling cinematic really well by Cronenberg. I’ve always enjoyed pretty much all of Cronenberg filmography, but this remains a keen favourite due to it’s distinctly cold & unsettling air.
Moving onto this new Blu Ray- and we are presented with the uncut NC 17 version of the film. This has been given a 4K scan from the original 35MM film- and both visually & sonically it’s wonderful well defined- making the feeling of cold & crisp unease even more potent. On the extras side, we find a good selection of new & archived material. On the new side, we get a commentary track from Australian film scholar Adrian Martin- this is most interesting & thought-provoking. He starts off talking about the film's origins, moving on discuss the cold distinctive way it’s filmed. Moving on to talk about cut scenes & storylines from the film, he mentions the wonderful controlled sound design. Going onto compare the original novel and the film, and how Cronenberg has tackled the original themes of JG Ballard’s book. A great commentary track, that is very worthy of a play.
Next of the new stuff, we get a series of on-camera crew interviews- these each run between seventeen and twenty-seven-minute mark- and they are with photography Peter Suschitzky, executive producer Jeremy Thomas, composer Howard Shore, casting director Deirdre Bowen. All of the interviews are good, giving a nice balance between the subjects discussing their careers in general, their experiences with Cronenberg, and the film to hand. The two I found most interesting was the one with Shore- he shows us the films original paper scores, talking about the instrumentation chosen & it’s recording set-up, and how he researched/ got ready for score writing with reading Crash, JG Ballad’s other books, and the script. The other interview of particular interest is with casting director Deirdre Bowen- here she talks about her career in general- moving onto the many films she cast for Cronenberg, talking about how actors were selected & why. Lastly of the new extras, we get Architect of Pain: The Cronenberg Project- which is a fourteen-minute visual essay by Caelum Vatnsdal – here he talks about architecture and location in Cronenberg films- and this is most interesting
Next, we have a great host of archive extras- these take in cast and crew interviews, the original 1971 short film Crash, more recent Cronenberg shorts, two short films by other directors influenced by JG Ballard and the novel Crash, and a few more bits. The finished release comes with a booklet featuring new writing by Vanessa Morgan, Araceli Molina, Jason Wood and Zoe Beloff, and a reprinted excerpt from Cronenberg on Cronenberg. A double-side poster, reversible packaging.
In conclusion, it’s great to have this new & classy edition of Crash- with Arrow doing a wonderful job on the new print and the great extras. A great end to Arrow Videos releasing schedule this year, who have once again release a wonderful selection of titles in 2020.