History YMMV / Crash

* AwardSnub: A snub in ''Crash'''s favor - a number of critics and moviegoers felt that ''Crash'' won Best Picture not so much due to its quality as a film inasmuch as its anti-racism stance was "safer" compared to that of its chief competitor ''Film/BrokebackMountain'', and it frequently gets brought up among the Academy's biggest mistakes over the years.

* {{Anvilicious}}: Modern transport is bad.

* BrokenAesop: Despite the film's reputation for being anti-racist, many reviewers in later years have pointed that the film ultimately ''fails'' as an anti-racist message. This in spite of it being full of painfully ham-fisted discussions about race, the film doesn't really talk about the issue, doesn't want its audience to think about the issue, and at most, it treats racism as simply being a character flaw. In his review of the film, Ta-Nehisi Coates stated that:
--> "I don't think there's a single human being in ''Crash.'' Instead you have arguments and propaganda violently bumping into each other, impressed with their own quirkiness."

!! For the novel by JG Ballard and the 1996 film adaptation:

!! For the 1996 film:

* {{SheReallyCanAct He Really Can Act}}: This is the movie, back to back with ''Hustle & Flow'', in which Ludacris began to seriously win people over as an actor.

* FunnyMoments: While mostly dealing with the drama of race issues in America, the movie also highlights the subject's often hilarious absurdity.
** Pretty much all the dialogue between Anthony and Peter, the carjackers, whose conversations are usually centered around Peter's incredulity in the face of Anthony's hypocritical obsession with racial stereotypes.
** Rick wants to soften his public image in the eyes of black voters after he is car-jacked by two black men, suggesting that he pin a medal on a man he believes to be a heroic black firefighter. The man ''is'' a hero, but one of his assistants informs him that the firefighter is an Iraqi man named Saddam. Frustrated, Rick proceeds to mock the notion of pinning a medal on an Iraqi named Saddam as if it were his assistant's idea.
** To avoid controversy over Sgt. Ryan's racially motivated sexual assault, Officer Hanson's superior forces him to claim that he's requesting to patrol solo due to an intolerable case of "flatulence." Specifically, Hanson's flatulence, not Ryan's. It gets funnier later when Hanson's fellow officers troll him about it over the police radio.
** "Mom, I can't talk right now, I'm having sex with a white woman."
** The fence's monologue about the Discovery Channel.

* HeReallyCanAct: This is the movie, back to back with ''Hustle & Flow'', in which Ludacris began to seriously win people over as an actor.
* HeartwarmingMoments: Anthony refusing to turn the Cambodian immigrants over to his fence, and instead releasing them into the city.
** Everything about the "invisible cloak."
** Ryan risking his life to save Christine's, comforting her as she breaks down in the wake of her trauma, and neither of them knowing how to reconcile this with what he'd previously done to her.
** Similarly, Jean hugging her maid and realizing that she's the only real friend she has.
** Cameron and Christine's reconciliation in the end.

** For some, the "invisible cloak" scene.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The opening title theme by Howard Shore, scored for multiple icy electric guitars, perfectly captures the weird, cold and yet highly eroticised atmosphere of the movie.

** Seeing Terrence Howard and Don Cheadle in a movie together, after the acrimonious circumstances of Cheadle taking Howard's role in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse.

* SignatureScene: The scene where Ryan rescues Christine from the burning car. Even people who don't like the film as a whole have cited this scene as being excellent.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The opening title theme by Howard Shore, scored for multiple icy electric guitars, perfectly captures the weird, cold and yet highly eroticised atmosphere of the movie.

* {{Signature Scene}}: The scene where Ryan rescues Christine from the burning car. Even people who don't like the film as a whole have cited this scene as being excellent.

* AwardSnub: A snub in ''Crash'''s favor - a number of critics and moviegoers felt that ''Crash'' won Best Picture not so much due to its quality as a film inasmuch as its anti-racism stance was "safer" compared to that of its chief competitor ''Film/BrokebackMountain'', and it frequently gets brought up among the Academy's biggest mistakes over the years. [[Main/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And let's just leave it at that]].

* {{Signature Scene}}: The scene where Ryan rescues Christine from the burning car. Even people who don't like the film as a whole have cited these scene as being excellent.

* Signature Scene: The scene where Ryan rescues Christine from the burning car. Even people who don't like the film as a whole have cited these scene as being excellent.

* NeverLiveItDown: More often than not, ''Crash'' is remembered as the movie that won Best Picture over ''Film/BrokebackMountain'' and not for its merits as a film.

* AwardSnub: A snub in ''Crash'''s favor - a lot of people think it won Best Picture more because they favored its moral over the competition rather than its quality as a film. It frequently gets brought up among the Academy's biggest mistakes over the years. [[Main/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And let's just leave it at that]].
* HarsherInHindsight: The scene where Officer Ryan molests Christine is even more uncomfortable in light of director Paul Haggis' recent accusations of sexual misconduct.

* {{Anvilicious}}:
** One of the reasons why so many people hate the fact that this film won over ''BrokebackMountain.''
** One major problem is the {{Loads And Loads Of Characters}} means few of them get significant screentime, which combined with Haggis' desire to make a movie about racism, makes it seem like racial issues are literally the only thing any of these people ever talk about.
* AwardSnub: A snub in ''Crash'''s favor - a lot of people think it won Best Picture more because it was the least controversial of the year's Best Picture contenders (with the exception of ''Film/GoodNightAndGoodLuck'') than for the film's actual quality, and it's seen by many film critics as one of the Academy's biggest mistakes over the years. [[Main/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And let's just leave it at that]].

** Assuming you buy into the idea that the film won Best Picture over ''BrokebackMountain'' because the voters wanted to go with the less controversial message movie, it became quite ironic when writer/director Paul Haggis left Scientology a few years later over their support of Proposition 8.

* NeverLiveItDown: More often than not, ''Crash'' is remembered as the movie that won Best Picture over ''BrokebackMountain'' and not for its merits as a film.

* NamesTheSame: As a 1996 Creator/DavidCronenberg [[Literature/{{Crash}} film]] about people who get sexual thrills from being in car crashes.

* AwardSnub: A snub in ''Crash'''s favor - a lot of people think it won Best Picture more because it was the least controversial of the year's Best Picture contenders (with the exception of ''Film/GoodNightAndGoodLuck'') than for the film's actual quality, and it's seen by many film critics as one of the Academy's biggest mistakes over the years. Jack Nicholson, who presented the award, has even said he was utterly shocked when he opened the envelope, which is quite apparent from his face and the little "Whoa" afterwards.
** HarsherInHindsight: In 2013, with an increasing acceptance of homosexuality and more attention to racial tensions in the media, it's likely that if ''Brokeback Mountain'' and ''Crash'' were released now that the latter would be seen as more controversial.
** In 2015, Paul Haggis himself stated that it didn't deserve the award, and was the weakest of the nominees that year. His personal choice for the best of them is ''Film/GoodNightAndGoodLuck''.

* BrokenAesop: The scene where [[spoiler: Hansen shoots Peter]] is meant to imply that the seemingly non-racist rookie cop has [[NotSoAboveItAll racist tendencies after all]]. However, if you picked up a young man of ''any'' color in a bad neighborhood, and he was dressed like a gangsta, had blood on his shoes, started laughing out of nowhere and then dove for his pocket all of a sudden, what would ''you'' do?

** In 2015, Paul Haggis himself stated that it didn't deserve the award, and was the weakest of the nominees that year.

* HilariousInHindsight: Assuming you buy into the idea that the film won Best Picture over ''BrokebackMountain'' because the voters wanted to go with the less controversial message movie, it became quite ironic when writer/director Paul Haggis left Scientology a few years later over their support of Proposition 8.

* NamesTheSame: As a 1996 Creator/DavidCronenberg [[Literature/{{Crash}} film]] about people who get sexual thrills from being in car crashes.

* NamesTheSame: As a 1996 Creator/DavidCronenberg [[Literature/{{Crash}} film]] about people who get sexual thrills from being in car crashes. It's weird.

* {{Anvilicious}}: One of the reasons why so many people hate the fact that this film won over ''BrokebackMountain.''

* BrokenAesop: The scene where [[spoiler: Hansen shoots Peter]] is meant to imply that the seemingly non-racist rookie cop has [[NotSoAboveItAll racist tendencies after all]]. However, if you picked up a young black man in a bad neighborhood, and he had blood on his shoes, started laughing out of nowhere and then dove for his pocket all of a sudden, what would ''you'' do?