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.
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
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
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