Total Film's 50 Most Hated Films of All Time # 32 - Crash

Did anyone see the Academy Awards for the year 2004?  Just wondering.  Because if you had seen these awards, you would have seen the movie that won BEST PICTURE for 2004.


Crash.


Yup, apparently Total Film has decided that the film that won BEST PICTURE in the year 2004 is one of the most hated movies of all time.  I cannot even begin to explain the rationale. 


On a personal front, I never watched Crash.  J-Man and Decepitsean both came back from viewing the movie with less than stellar reviews of the film and quite frankly, I was not surprised.  I saw the trailer and it did not grab me.  Now, when this happens, one of two outcomes take place: 


1) Someone sees it, tells me it was better than the trailer, at which point I catch it in some manner or form.
2) Someone sees it, tells me it's as bland or garbage as I thought it would be and I never watch it. 


You can file Crash in slot 2.  Nevertheless, I do not agree that this film should be on the 50 Most Hated Films of All Time list.  This viewpoint may shock you, but you should probably hear me out before you start protesting how utterly over-hyped the film is. 


Quite simply, Crash cannot be hated.  If it is overrated, then it must have been highly thought of to begin with.  Nowadays, more than ever in fact, the Academy Awards are a popularity contest.  That is not to say that I think all the films that win awards are garbage.  All I'm saying is that the film that gets the most campaigning from the studios wins.  So, it is enough to say that at the time that Crash won, it was the most popular choice amongst the movers and shakers in the film industry to win the Academy Award.  You can't win the BEST PICTURE award and then seven or eight years later proclaim that the movie is suddenly hated.  Like it or not, this film won Best Picture in a popularity contest in Hollywood.  That alone shows this movie is not hated and this inclusion on Total Film's list is a result of bias on the part of the person who produced the list, not an actual census. 


Rating: Worth the hate?  The little gold statue in Paul Haggis' room proves it's not hated. 


- Stephenstein