Initial
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 74% based on 242 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A raw and unsettling morality piece on modern angst and urban disconnect, Crash examines the dangers of bigotry and xenophobia in the lives of interconnected Angelenos."[23] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[24] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[25]
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and described it as "a movie of intense fascination",[26] listing it as the best film of 2005.[27] Ebert concluded his review with the sentiment "not many films have the possibility of making their audiences better people. I don't expect Crash to work any miracles, but I believe anyone seeing it is likely to be moved to have a little more sympathy for people not like themselves."[26] Steve Davis of the Austin Chronicle called it the "most compelling American movie to come around in a long time" and said it succeeds in inviting audiences to make preconceived notions about the characters and then complicates those notions.[28] Ella Taylor of LA Weekly described it as "not just one of the best Hollywood movies about race, but along with Collateral, one of the finest portrayals of contemporary LA life period."[29]
The performances of Dillon, Cheadle, Bridges, Peña, and Howard were singled out.[30][31][32][33] Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote, "Specific scenes, especially those involving Dillon as the racially resentful cop who, like everyone else, has his reasons, bristle with tension as the character continuously pushes past conventional limits in abusing his authority and, redeemingly, in his display of uncommon valor."[34][28] Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian gave the film three out of five stars, writing, "Crash is a very watchable and well-constructed piece of work...but its daringly supercharged fantasies of racial paranoia and humanist redemption are not to be taken too seriously."[35] Joanne Kaufman of the Wall Street Journal opined, "Ultimately, Crash succeeds in spite of itself," noting that at a certain point, it "starts to feel obvious and schematic" but remains "a complex blend of compassion and sorrow".[36]
The film's plot elements, such as the means through which all the characters are connected, were derided by critics as contrived and unconvincing.[37][38][31][39] Ty Burr of the Boston Globe wrote that the film "is one of those multi-character, something-is-rotten-in-Los Angeles barnburners that grab you by the lapels and try desperately to shake you up. It's more artful than Grand Canyon, less artsy than Magnolia (LA gets dusted with snow instead of frogs), and much less of a mess than Falling Down."[32] Burr lamented how "its characters come straight from the assembly line of screenwriting archetypes, and too often they act in ways that archetypes, rather than human beings, do. You can feel its creator shuttling them here and there on the grid of greater LA, pausing portentously between each move."[32]
Another criticism centered on the storytelling as didactic and heavy-handed. Writing for Slate, David Edelstein commented Crash "might even have been a landmark film about race relations had its aura of blunt realism not been dispelled by a toxic cloud of dramaturgical pixie dust."[40] Others noted how the film had nothing new or insightful to say on racism, with Stephanie Zacharek of Salon writing that Crash "only confirms what we already know about racism: It's inside every one of us. That should be a starting point, not a startling revelation."[41][42] A.O. Scott of the New York Times described it as "a frustrating movie: full of heart and devoid of life; crudely manipulative when it tries hardest to be subtle; and profoundly complacent in spite of its intention to unsettle and disturb."[43]
Much criticism focused on how the film presents racism and its origins, with many noting its depiction of race relations as too simplistic and tidy. The redemption arcs of the white characters, particularly Sergeant Ryan, drew controversy for their execution.[44][45][34] Many opined that Ryan's redemption by way of his heroic rescue of Christine felt unearned.[45][44][46][40][33] Others pointed out the implausibility of Jean Cabot softening her racist attitudes because of an ankle sprain and the care of her Latina housemaid.[45] Clarisse Loughrey of the Independent wrote, "By presenting racism as nothing more than a personality issue in need of a fix, Crash absolves its white audience of any sense of collective responsibility."[44]
Retrospective
In the years since the film's release, criticism and debate about the film have grown alongside ongoing cultural dialogues about race and social movements in the United States.[47][48] In 2009, cultural critic Ta-Nehisi Coates criticized the film as shallow and "unthinking", naming Crash "the worst film of the decade".[49] The film has been described as using multicultural and sentimentalist imagery to cover over material and "historically sedimented inequalities" that continue to affect various racial groups in Los Angeles.[50]
In a retrospective review, Tim Grierson of The New Republic opined, "Haggis has characters hurl nasty epithets at one another, as if that's the most corrosive aspect of discrimination, failing to acknowledge that what's most destructive aren't the shouts but, rather, the whispers—the private jokes and long-held prejudices shared by likeminded people behind closed doors and far from public view."[51] The film was also criticized for depicting the Persian shopkeeper as a "deranged, paranoid individual who is only redeemed by what he believes is a mystical act of God".[52]
The film ranks at #460 in Empire's 2008 poll of the "500 Greatest Films of All Time".[53]
In 2010, the Independent Film & Television Alliance selected Crash as one of the 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the last 30 years.[54]
Top ten lists
Crash was listed on many critics' top ten lists.[55]
- 1st – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
- 1st – Steve Davis, Austin Chronicle
- 3rd – Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
- 3rd – Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper[56]
- 3rd – Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly
- 4th – Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post
- 6th – Christy Lemire, Associated Press[57]
- 7th – Claudia Puig, USA Today
- 8th – Richard Schickel, Time
- 8th – Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
- 9th – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Oscar controversy
At the 78th Academy Awards, Crash won the Oscar for Best Picture, triumphing over the heavily favored Brokeback Mountain in what is considered as one of the most notable Oscars upsets.[58][59] After announcing the award, presenter Jack Nicholson was caught on camera mouthing the word "whoa" out of apparent surprise at the result.[60] The film's use of moral quandary as a storytelling medium was widely reported as ironic since many saw it as the "safe" alternative to Brokeback Mountain, which is about a gay relationship (the other nominees, Good Night and Good Luck, Capote, and Munich also tackle heavy subjects of McCarthyism, homosexuality, and terrorism).[61] Critic Kenneth Turan suggested that Crash benefited from homophobia among Academy members,[62][63] some of whom openly voiced their discomfort with Brokeback Mountain due to its subject matter.[64][65][66] After the Oscars telecast, critic Roger Ebert insisted in his column that the better film won the award.[67][68]
Film Comment magazine placed Crash first on its list of "Worst Winners of Best Picture Oscars", followed by Slumdog Millionaire at #2 and Chicago at #3.[69] Similarly, a 2014 survey of film critics by The Atlantic identified the film's victory as among the most glaring mistakes made by the Academy Awards.[70] In 2017, David Ehrlich and Eric Kohn of IndieWire ranked Crash as the worst on its list of "Best Picture Winners of the 21st Century, Ranked from Worst to Best".[71]
In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter polled hundreds of Academy members, asking them to re-vote on past controversial decisions. For the 2005 Best Picture winner, Brokeback Mountain beat Crash and the other nominees.[72][73]
In a 2015 interview, Haggis commented, "Was [Crash] the best film of the year? I don't think so. There were great films that year. Good Night, and Good Luck – amazing film. Capote – terrific film. Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, great film. And Spielberg's Munich. I mean please, what a year. Crash, for some reason, affected people, it touched people. And you can't judge these films like that. I'm very glad to have those Oscars. They're lovely things. But you shouldn't ask me what the best film of the year was because I wouldn't be voting for Crash, only because I saw the artistry that was in the other films. Now however, for some reason that's the film that touched people the most that year. So I guess that's what they voted for, something that really touched them. And I'm very proud of the fact that Crash does touch you. People still come up to me more than any of my films and say: 'That film just changed my life.' I've heard that dozens and dozens and dozens of times. So it did its job there. I mean, I knew it was the social experiment that I wanted, so I think it's a really good social experiment. Is it a great film? I don't know."[74][75]
In a 2020 retrospective about the film and its Oscars win, K. Austin Collins of Vanity Fair wrote the film "is a throwback to a familiar strain of Oscar-friendly, liberal message movie—in which the 'message,' often, is that people are complicated, goodness is relative, and evil is not a terminal condition. It dramatizes racism the same way that classical Hollywood storytelling has long dramatized things: through a sense of character and intention and a guise of psychological realism, through arcs and archetypes, through a slow climb toward third-act revelations about who people really are as evinced by the things they've achieved, the changes they've undergone by film's end."[47]
In February 2024, David Fear of Rolling Stone ranked Crash as the worst Best Picture Oscar winner of the 21st century, criticizing what he described as the movie’s heavy-handed symbolism and its various caricatures. Fear concluded his commentary by stating “We have a feeling that were we to revisit this list in the year 2050, Crash would still occupy this same slot.”[76]
Accolades
Crash received several awards and nominations, and was named one of the top ten films of the year by both the American Film Institute[77] and the National Board of Review.[78] The film was nominated for six awards at the 78th Academy Awards and won three, for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.[79] It was also nominated for nine British Academy Film Awards and won two, for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Newton.[80] Dillon received nominations for best supporting actor at the Academy Awards,[79] British Academy Film Awards,[80] Golden Globe Awards,[81] and Screen Actors Guild Awards[82] for his performance. Additionally, the cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture,[83] and Harris and Moresco won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay.[84]
