Crash [Criterion Collection]

Be it a car commercial, a James Bond thriller or a teenage coming-of-age film, the auto as an erotic icon is nothing new in cinema. This controversial erotic Canadian independent film from David Cronenberg takes that symbolism even further, sending it down a twisted road of bizarre sexuality and fetishism that many viewers may find offensive, close to pornographic, or highly questionable at best. It is the kind of film that is sure to generate discussion concerning the complex relationship between technology and human sexuality. Based on J.G. Ballard's cult novel Crash (1973), it centers on people who are sexually aroused by automobile wrecks. James Ballard and his wife Catherine are into bizarre sex with other people -- as is seen in the opening scenes. One day James is involved in an ugly car crash resulting in the death of a man in the other car. The passenger Helen Remington survived, though she too is injured, and James and Helen later meet briefly in the hospital. While there, James also encounters the enigmatic Vaughn who later introduces James to a select group of car-crash fetishists who frequently gather to watch Vaughn's careful reenactments of celebrity car crashes in which the drivers wear no protection, not even seatbelts. Helen and James meet again by chance at the refuse yard where both of their wrecked cars are impounded, and the two develop yet another of the film's rather twisted relationships, together attending Vaughn's re-creation of James Dean's deadly wreck. Following the fun, the partygoers repair to the home of the head stuntman, where they meet up with the rest of Vaughn's bizarre cohorts, including the beautiful but tragically injured Gabrielle (Rosanna Arquette, a crash victim herself with whom James also becomes involved. When not messing with the other women, James tries to respark his marriage to Catherine by including her in his smashing get-togethers, the highlight of which is to be a reenactment of the decapitation of Jayne Mansfield. This is a very adult film, and in the U.S., the film received an NC-17 rating because it features prodigious sex, homosexuality and violence. Cronenberg did not dispute the rating.