It’s certainly debatable which of the films that won Best Picture at the Oscars is the worst. Some think it’s Cecil B. DeMille’s bloated, over-the-top circus epic “The Greatest Show on Earth” from 1952. Some think it’s the visually impressive but simple adventure film “Around the World in 80 Days” from 1956. And you certainly won’t be short of complaints about the time the best picture trophy went to 2018’s “Green Book,” a film about racism in the Deep South in 1962, narrated by a white race-denouncing character and made by white filmmakers.
But generally speaking, many people agree that The worst Best Picture winner was director Paul Haggis’ racism drama “Crash.” “Crash” was, at the time, called a “hyperlink drama,” which was a popular subgenre of mid-2000s films that involved multiple groups of characters who were all tangentially connected in small ways. Other films of the genre were the film “Babel” by Alejandro González Iñárritu in 2006, the film “Traffic” by Steven Soderbergh in 2000 or “Syriana” by Stephen Gaghan in 2005. It was an artificial way of telling a story, and it often failed. Most hyperlink dramas made it seem like the filmmakers didn’t have a good idea for a movie, so they just crammed several shorter films into the same universe, crammed around a central theme of crime, immigration or, in the case of “Crash,” racism. Few people liked the film, and it is still derided. Even Paul Haggis didn’t think it was the best movie of 2005.
But it was a success, grossing more than $98 million on its $6.5 million budget. Indeed, “Crash” was a big enough hit to warrant a little-seen spinoff TV series in 2008. Does anyone remember the 2008 Starz TV series “Crash”? It lasted two seasons.
Nobody remembers the 2008 TV series Crash
The film “Crash” featured a large cast of characters and a large and impressive cast. It could be his star power that brought so many viewers to “Crash”; Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Terrance Howard, Brendan Fraser, Michael Peña, Ludacris and Jennifer Esposito appear. The image on the poster is of Matt Dillon holding Thandiwe Newton as she cries in pain. In the film, Dillon plays a racist and abusive cop who gropes Newton’s character during a “routine stop and frisk.” Later in the film, Dillon saves Newton’s life when she is in a car accident. “Crash” operates a lot in the adolescent “it makes you think” mindset, without really exploring moral ambiguity.
The television series did not carry over any of the characters or cast members from the film, instead forming a sprawling new drama, also set in modern-day Los Angeles. The big hit in the TV series was Dennis Hopper, who played a record producer named Ben Cendars. He was joined by DB Sweeney, Arlene Tur, Ross McCall, Brian Tee and Tom Sizemore. Eric Roberts joined the series during its second season. “Crash” filmmakers Paul Haggis and Cheadle were on hand as executive producers, but the series was created and directed by Glen Mazzara, who previously produced “The Shield.” “Crash” was the very first original scripted show ever produced by Starz.
Because it was a high-profile production based on a Best Picture-winning film, Starz poured a lot of resources into “Crash,” hiring the biggest actors they could find. They also made sure that the series would last at least two seasons, making 26 episodes in total. Despite their efforts, the television series “Crash” remained obscure. It didn’t help that the few reviews weren’t entirely positive.
Critics barely reviewed Crash
Reviews of “Crash” have been mixed, with some critics declaring it better than Haggis’ film and others saying it was just more of the same ham mush. Ginnia Bellafante, write for the New York Timessaid, “even though the title remains the same, the moral agenda no longer presents itself as if it were heavenly scripture.” The series, like the film, featured several storylines that, at first, did not seem to intersect. But by telling stories spanning 13 hour-long episodes, the series could allow connections to be revealed more organically. Bellafante notes that Hopper plays an inspirational character, a former hippie who hates the peace, love and understanding of the 1960s and has become a hard-eyed, devastated-minded cynic.
In the Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert says the TV series “Crash” wanted to be bold, but it fell far short of the mark. He said it was a series in love with its own nervousness, and “well before the end of the long premiere […] you’ll tire of the writers’ redundant efforts to make grand statements about America, racism, sexism, repression, and other psychosocial phenomena that reek of capital letters. » Gilbert also noted an irony in the expansion of “Crash” onto television. The showrunners may have had more time to organically connect their many subplots, but there still wasn’t enough screen time to adequately establish these subplots into something that might interest the audience.
And after these brief stints on the pop culture radar, “Crash” slowly faded from public consciousness. It was an inauspicious launch title for Starz. The channel ended up having more success with comedies like “Party Down,” their sexed-up version of “Spartacus” in 2010, or the horror series “Ash vs. Evil Dead.” Bruce Campbell returned to this series, although he would only reprise the role on one condition..
