Crash

For this icily erotic fusion of flesh and machine, David Cronenberg adapted J. G. Ballard’s future-shock novel of the 1970s into one of the most singular and provocative films of the 1990s. A traffic collision involving a disaffected commercial producer, James (James Spader), and an enigmatic doctor, Helen (Holly Hunter), brings them, along with James’s wife, Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger, in a sublimely detached performance), together in a crucible of blood and broken glass—and it’s not long before they are all initiated into a kinky, death-obsessed underworld of sadomasochistic car-crash fetishists for whom twisted metal and scar tissue are the ultimate turn-ons. Controversial from the moment it premiered at Cannes—where it won a Special Jury Prize “for originality, for daring, and for audacity”—Crash has since taken its place as a key text of late-twentieth-century cinema, a disturbingly seductive treatise on the relationships between humanity and technology, sex and violence, that is as unsettling as it is mesmerizing.

Film Info

  • Canada
  • 1996
  • 100 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • English
  • Spine #1059

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration supervised by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, and 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, both approved by director David Cronenberg
  • Audio commentary from 1997 featuring Cronenberg
  • Press conference from the 1996 Cannes Film Festival featuring Cronenberg; author J. G. Ballard; producers Robert Lantos and Jeremy Thomas; and actors Rosanna Arquette, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, James Spader, and Deborah Kara Unger
  • Q&A from 1996 with Cronenberg and Ballard at the National Film Theatre in London
  • Behind-the-scenes footage and press interviews from 1996
  • Trailers
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Jessica Kiang

New cover by Phil Hale

Purchase Options

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 4K digital restoration supervised by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, and 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, both approved by director David Cronenberg
  • Audio commentary from 1997 featuring Cronenberg
  • Press conference from the 1996 Cannes Film Festival featuring Cronenberg; author J. G. Ballard; producers Robert Lantos and Jeremy Thomas; and actors Rosanna Arquette, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, James Spader, and Deborah Kara Unger
  • Q&A from 1996 with Cronenberg and Ballard at the National Film Theatre in London
  • Behind-the-scenes footage and press interviews from 1996
  • Trailers
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Jessica Kiang

New cover by Phil Hale

Crash
Cast
James Spader
James Ballard
Holly Hunter
Helen Remington
Elias Koteas
Vaughan
Deborah Kara Unger
Catherine Ballard
Rosanna Arquette
Gabrielle
Peter MacNeill
Colin Seagrave
Credits
Director
David Cronenberg
Written by
David Cronenberg
Produced by
David Cronenberg
Based on the book by
J. G. Ballard
Executive producer
Robert Lantos
Executive producer
Jeremy Thomas
Coexecutive producer
Andras Hamori
Coexecutive producer
Chris Auty
Coproducer
Stephane Reichel
Coproducer
Marilyn Stonehouse
Director of photography
Peter Suschitzky
Production design by
Carol Spier
Edited by
Ronald Sanders
Music by
Howard Shore
Costume design by
Denise Cronenberg
Casting by
Deirdre Bowen

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