!! For the novel by Creator/JGBallard and the 1996 film adaptation:

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: It's a novel about repulsive people both using and being used by each other, and also about their intense sexual attraction to car crashes. So alienating it literally got Ballard called "beyond psychiatric help."
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The opening title theme by Music/HowardShore, scored for multiple icy electric guitars, perfectly captures the weird, cold, and yet highly eroticized atmosphere of the movie.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** The movie came out five years after renowned screenwriter and director Creator/JosephLMankiewicz likened modern movies' treatment of sex to "two cars hitting each other."
** Creator/HollyHunter plays a woman with a chestnut bob haircut who just so happens to be named [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Helen]].
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: This is a novel (and film) where the lead characters are deviants doing fucked up shit. What did you expect? As mentioned below, the novel's first publisher was so disgusted by the novel's content that they said Ballard was beyond psychological help.
* ValuesDissonance: The first publisher's assistant to read the submitted manuscript returned it with a note that Ballard did not need a publisher so much as a psychiatrist, which Ballard took as a sign that he had succeeded in his aim. And indeed, the novel was extremely controversial in Britain upon publication (as opposed to somewhat, but less so, in the US), a controversy that reared its head again with the release of the film. However, Ballard notes in his memoir that the French seem to have completely gotten it, as the French translation has never gone out of print and no one there has denounced it or called for a ban.

!! For the 2004 film:
* {{Anvilicious}}: One of the main criticisms against the film is that it dispenses Haggis' opinion on race very overtly, with its large cast seemingly doing [[AuthorTract nothing but talk about race]].
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music/MarkIsham's "Sense of Touch" (based on the traditional Welsh song "Lisa Lam") plays throughout the film, including as its outro, and really sets the poignant tone that the movie is going for.
* BrokenAesop:
** Despite the film proudly bearing an obstinately anti-racist message, the only two Koreans of any real importance to the plot turn out to be slave traffickers. See also AsianDrivers on the main page.
** The movie attempts to sell the message that average, everyday people can harbor racist attitudes, but this message is stymied by the fact that half the cast is unlikeable for reasons unrelated to racism: sexual harassment, carjacking, being a demanding Karen, etc. This makes the message come off as less "Anyone can be racist" and more "People who are ''already'' jerkasses are more likely to be racist."
* CrossesTheLineTwice: There's a few instances of this, but Flanagan's weary declaration of "Fuckin' black people, right?" to Graham Waters, a black detective, really stands out. The latter's subtly astonished reaction really sells it.
* {{Glurge}}: As discussed by Creator/LindsayEllis in her review of ''Film/{{Bright}}'', citing many scholarly analyses, the film portrays racism as the actions of a few bigoted individuals, rather than the institutionalised and systemic problem some believe it to be. It's no wonder why people widely regard this as one of the worst Best Picture Oscar winners and even went as far as to call it "the worst movie of the 2000s," as writer Creator/TaNehisiCoates put it.
* HarsherInHindsight: The scene where Officer Ryan molests Christine is even more uncomfortable in light of the accusations of sexual misconduct leveled at director Paul Haggis.
* HilariousInHindsight: Assuming you buy into the idea that the film won Best Picture over ''Film/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.
* HypeBacklash: It got a ''lot'' of this after it won Best Picture, especially since the film had come out long before the main awards season and many people had forgotten about it until the Oscars. It's not seen as a ''bad'' film exactly, but many people feel its handling racism is at times clunky and shallow.
* JerkassWoobie: Graham Waters. He's a rather callous person, especially toward those close to him, and ultimately [[spoiler: condemns a fellow police officer for gunning down a deranged undercover cop in self-defense.]] However, by the end of the movie it's clear that he's a good cop who does care about people [[spoiler: and this fact is used to blackmail him into claiming the innocent white cop's killing of the guilty black one was racially motivated in order to protect his brother Peter. Which is then rendered pointless when he finds Peter murdered. And worst of all, his drug-addicted mother blames him for Peter's death. To add insult to injury, his mom believes Peter bought her groceries before he died, not knowing that Graham was the one who did while she was strung out.]] His look of utter defeat, in the end, is tragic.
* {{Narm}}: Some of the lines are so over-the-top racist that they loop back round to being hilarious:
-->''"Osama! Plan the jihad on your own time!"''\\
''"And he's not gonna go sell our key to one of his gang-banger friends the moment he is out our door."''\\
''"I can't look at you without thinking about the five or six more qualified white men who didn't get your job."''\\
''"Dopey fucking Chinaman."''
* OvershadowedByControversy: Nowadays, any time the film is mentioned, it's about how [[AwardSnub it "stole" the award]] for Best Picture at the Oscars from ''Film/BrokebackMountain'', widely regarded as a superior film, and it's often cited as one of the worst Best Picture snubs in the Academy's history, if not ''the'' worst.
* 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.
** The "invisible cloak" scene.
** For some, Graham's opening monologue about "the sense of touch."
* SpiritualSuccessor: To the 1991 film ''Film/GrandCanyon'', which features Creator/SteveMartin as a misanthropic Hollywood producer (playing against type) whose life intersects with characters from all walks of life in LA, and which popularized the notion that LA was a WretchedHive of class and racial tension less than a year before the Rodney King riots. If not, in fact, TheRemake of ''Grand Canyon''.
%%* SoOkayItsAverage: How a lot of people react to the film nowadays.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Farhad tries to kill Daniel, and nearly accidentally kills Daniel’s daughter, only failing because his own daughter made sure his gun was filled with blanks. Daniel had warned Farhad that his door was faulty when he redid the locks, but Farhad tried to kill him because he didn’t know who vandalized his shop. Farhad Should be facing attempted homicide and reckless endangerment charges at the very least.
* TheWoobie: Daniel, a kind and honest lower-class family man who finds himself a victim of racial profiling due to his appearance.
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