Academy Award Winning Movies: Crash/Monster's Ball [2 Discs]

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Features:
  • cc

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Editing - 2005 (Hughes Winborne)
•     Won Best Original Screenplay - 2005 (Bobby Moresco, Paul Haggis)
•     Won Best Picture - 2005 (Cathy Schulman, Paul Haggis)
•     Won Best Actress - 2001 (Halle Berry)
•     Nominated Best Director - 2005 (Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Song - 2005 (Michael Becker, Kathleen "Bird" York)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 2005 (Matt Dillon)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 2001 (Milo Addica, Will Rokos)

• American Cinema Editors Guild

•     Nominated Best Edited Feature - Drama - 2005 (Hughes Winborne)

• American Film Institute

•     Won Best Picture - 2005
•     Nominated Best Actress - 2001 (Halle Berry)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2001 (Lee Daniels)

• Art Directors Guild

•     Nominated Best Art Direction in a Contemporary Film - 2005 (Laurence Bennett)

• Berlin International Film Festival

•     Won Silver Bear for Best Actress - 2002 (Halle Berry)
•     Won Silver Bear for Best Actress - 2001 (Halle Berry)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Best Original Screenplay - 2005 (Bobby Moresco, Paul Haggis)
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 2005 (Thandie Newton)
•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 2005 (J. Michael Muro)
•     Nominated Best Director - 2005 (Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 2005 (Hughes Winborne)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2005
•     Nominated Best Sound - 2005 (Sandy Gendler, Richard van Dyke)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 2005 (Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon)

• Broadcast Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Ensemble Acting - 2005
•     Won Best Screenplay - 2005 (Bobby Moresco, Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Director - 2005 (Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2005
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 2005 (Terrence Howard, Matt Dillon)

• Chicago Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Picture - 2005
•     Won Best Screenplay - 2005 (Bobby Moresco, Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 2005 (Terrence Howard, Matt Dillon)
•     Nominated Most Promising Performer - 2005 (Ludacris)

• Dallas/Fort Worth Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 2005 (Matt Dillon)
•     Won Top Ten Film - 2005

• Directors Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Director - 2005 (Paul Haggis)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pictu - 2005 (Matt Dillon)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama - 2001 (Halle Berry)

• Independent Spirit Awards

•     Won Best First Feature - 2005 (Paul Haggis)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 2005 (Matt Dillon)
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 2001 (Milo Addica, Will Rokos)

• Las Vegas Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Screenplay - 2005 (Robert Moresco, Paul Haggis)
•     Won Best Supporting Actor - 2005 (Matt Dillon)

• London Film Critics Association

•     Won Best British Supporting Actress - 2005 (Thandie Newton)
•     Won Best Screenplay - 2005 (Robert Moresco, Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Actor - 2005 (Don Cheadle)
•     Nominated Best Director - 2005 (Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2005

• National Board of Review

•     Won Breakthrough Performance by an Actor - 2005 (Terrence Howard)
•     Won Best Actor - 2001 (Billy Bob Thornton)
•     Won Best Actress - 2001 (Halle Berry)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2005
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2001

• Online Film Critics Association

•     Won Breakthrough Filmmaker - 2005 (Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 2005 (Bobby Moresco, Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2005
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 2005 (Matt Dillon)

• Phoenix Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Ensemble Acting - 2005
•     Won Best Original Screenplay - 2005 (Robert Moresco, Paul Haggis)
•     Won Breakout Performance of the Year - Behind the Camera - 2005 (Paul Haggis)
•     Won Top Ten Film of the Year - 2005

• Producers Guild of America

•     Nominated Producer of the Year - 2005 (Cathy Schulman, Paul Haggis)

• Screen Actors Guild

•     Won Best Ensemble - 2005
•     Won Best Actress - 2001 (Halle Berry)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 2005 (Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon)

• Toronto International Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2004

• Writers Guild of America

•     Won Best Original Screenplay - 2005 (Bobby Moresco, Paul Haggis)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 2001 (Milo Addica, Will Rokos)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Billy Bob Thornton - Hank Grotowski
       Don Cheadle - Graham Waters
       Halle Berry - Leticia Musgrove
       Jennifer Esposito - Ria
       Sean Combs - Lawrence Musgrove
       Brendan Fraser - Rick
       Terrence Howard - Cameron Thayer
       Chris "Ludacris" Bridges - Anthony
       Coronji Calhoun - Tyrell Musgrove
       Charles Cowan Jr. - Willie Cooper
       Larenz Tate - Peter
       Michael Pena - Daniel
       Art Chudabala - Ken Ho

• Director:

  Paul Haggis, Marc Forster

• Producer:

  Don Cheadle, Bob Yari, Paul Haggis, Mark R. Harris, Cathy Schulman, Bobby Moresco, Lee Daniels

• Screen Story:

  Paul Haggis

• Screenwriter:

  Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco, Bobby Moresco, Will Rokos, Milo Addica

• Cinematographer:

  J. Michael Muro, Roberto Schaefer

• Composer (Music Score):

  Mark Isham

• Songwriter:

  Michael Becker, Kathleen "Bird" York

• Composer (Music Score):

  Asche & Spencer

• Editor:

  Hughes Winborne, Matt Chessé

• Production Designer:

  Laurence Bennett, Monroe Kelly

• Art Director:

  Brandee Dell'Aringa, Leonard Spears

• Co-producer:

  Randi Hiller, Sarah Halley-Finn, Betsy Danbury, Will Rokos, Milo Addica, Eric Kopeloff

• Associate Producer:

  Dana Maksimovich

• Executive Producer:

  Andy Reimer, Tom Nunan, Jan Körbelin, Marina Grasic, Michael Burns, Michael Paseornek, Mark Urman

• Costume Designer:

  Linda M. Bass

• Set Decorator:

  Linda Sutton

• Costume Designer:

  Frank Fleming

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Richard van Dyke, Jeff Pullman, Michael Kamper

• First Assistant Director:

  Scott Cameron, Michael Lerman

• Casting:

  Randi Hiller, Sarah Halley-Finn, Kerry Barden, Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, Mark Bennett

• Stunts Coordinator:

  Gary Wayton

• Supervising Sound Editor:

  Sandy Gendler

• Second Unit Camera:

  Dana W. Gonzales

• Additional Cinematography:

  Francis James

REVIEWS:

• For the first time since Losing Isaiah in 1995, Halle Berry steps into a role she's shown reluctance to play: a working-class woman of limited intelligence and refinement, who speaks with a dialect and vocabulary that invokes cruel stereotypes. In the dreadful comedy B.A.P.S. and the wicked satire Bulworth, she offered spoofing variations on that character type, but only here does she stare it down. The result is not only the performance of her career, but one of the best onscreen in 2001. The stratospheric praise given her work led some critics to honor the rest of Monster's Ball with equal vigor, but the film is more a collection of great parts than a complete whole. It's certainly full of incendiary moments; surprising deaths blend into lurid and uncomfortable sex scenes, then into vitriolic bursts of racism, all with a disaffected resignation that's bracing. But one wishes director Marc Forster and screenwriters Milo Addica and Will Rokos would have extracted more of a discernible message from these isolated pockets of pain and rage. The minimalism of their approach leaves many questions. The viewer never learns, for example, why Billy Bob Thornton's corrections officer despises his son (Heath Ledger), which might have explained more of both characters' actions. As an actor-driven work, however, Monster's Ball crackles. Sean Combs shows unexpected depth and dignity as the doomed inmate, and Thornton offers another portrayal of wordless hurt that nicely complements his work in The Man Who Wasn't There. Peter Boyle, returning to the big screen after a three-year absence, personifies the bull-headedness endemic to racism in the South. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi
• The Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby takes the helm of his own project in Crash, an ensemble study of race relations in Los Angeles, which uses the city's daily preponderance of motor-vehicle collisions as a central metaphor. The film recalls the work of Robert Altman (Short Cuts) and Lawrence Kasdan (Grand Canyon) in its attempt to interweave different segments of the city's socioeconomic and ethnic landscape, but uses a blunter hammer stroke to drive home its points. The film's many supporters led to surprising Oscars for best picture, screenplay and editing, as well as a 55-million-dollar box-office take. While some viewers were undoubtedly drawn to the unfiltered language and uncompromising intensity with which racism is depicted, others found that the film veers into contrived territory. As the characters are more often symbolic types than fleshed-out individuals, they butt up against each other according to what will create maximum incendiary dialogue and the potential for explosive conflict. Whether it's Dillon spewing anti-affirmative-action rage, Sandra Bullock spraying racial epithets in as many directions as a lawn sprinkler, or an Iranian business owner and a Latino locksmith using their mutual preconceived notions to block off communication, most of the scenes play out at the highest possible emotional pitch, with mixed results. While a number of scenes work well individually -- most notably Dillon's creepy frisking of Thandie Newton -- their coincidental interconnectedness undermines them enough to seem gimmicky. Even if some viewers found the material preachy, there's no denying that Crash reached a wide audience, its fans identifying a forthright frankness on race relations that they hadn't seen since Do the Right Thing. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi