3 Crashes

The three "Crashes" of the title of this post refer to the novel Crash published in 1973, the film "Crash" directed by David Cronenberg in 1996 and the film "Crash" directed by Paul Haggis in 2003.

I wrote about the Cronenberg film in a previous post. I just finished reading the novel yesterday. That film is based on the novel. It does follow the basic idea of the books, but there are some differences. The novel starts off with the death of Vaughan then goes back in time. In the film Vaughan is involved in the reenactment of famous automobile accidents in which celebrities died. In the book he does show a fascination with these deaths, but he does not reenact them. When I was watching the film the death of Albert Camus came to my mind, and his death is mentioned in the book but not the movie. It the film and novel, James Ballard is involved in an accident in which a man dies. In the movie he is looking at a screenplay and loses control of his car, but in the novel there is not an explanation of his loss of control, but after the loss of control he loses a tire. Watching the film I wondered thy there had not been an investigation of the crash. In the novel there is an investigation, and the cause of the crash is judged to be accidental. In both the film and the novel there is a sexual tension between Vaughan and Ballard, and in both they do have a sexual encounter. Vaughan's penis is mentioned frequently in the book. In the novel Vaughan is planning a crash with Elizabeth Taylor in which she would die. In the movie this seems to be transformed into a planned reenactment of the death of Jayne Mansfield. In the film the relationship between Dr. Helen Remington and Ballard is closer than the relationship they have in the novel. In both they have sex multiple times, but in the novel her reaction to the death of her husband is stronger. The sex in the novel seems to be more impersonal than in the film. The film takes place in Canada, and the novel takes place in London. The simplest explanation for this would be that the movie was filmed in Canada. I can understand why some of these changes were made in the film. I find both to be very erotic. The tie between car crashes and scars in both is very erotic in theory, but I do not want to experience that eroticization in reality.

I watched the 2004 film directed by Paul Haggis earlier today. It deals with race relations in LA between various ethnic groups. It is a very strong and moving movie. I found myself in tears several times while watching it. It is not an easy film to watch, but it definitely is worthwhile. There are very strong performances from the cast. The characters are multidimensional. There is none who is completely good or bad. All of the characters reveal some form of racism. This is where the film is most realistic. We may try to deny it, but we are all influenced to some degree by stereotypes. The important thing is to recognize when we are being influenced by these ideas and to remember that these stereotypes are not true. I highly recommend watching this film. I will write more about it later.