For once an Oscar travesty that doesn’t involve Martin Scorsese, right? Ordinary People beats Raging Bull, Dances With Wolves waltzes past GoodFellas... Now Crash ram-raids the 2006 ceremony, leaving Ang Lee politely vexed and Brokeback Mountain short-story scribe Annie Proulx calling the Best Picture winner “Trash” and complaining about Lions Gate sending DVD screeners to Academy members. Let’s attribute the idiocy of the latter whinge (how outrageous that voters dared watch a competing film!) to post-show comedown and concentrate on the substance of the main complaint: the best movie didn’t pick up Best Picture. Too right. Good Night, And Good Luck and Munich are both better pictures, while the My Social Issue Is Bigger Than Your Social Issue marketing of the eventual winner and the early favourite now makes it hard to view either unjaundiced. In fact, if you’re at all cynical about Paul Haggis’ multi-stranded LA story you had best avoid the extras here, where the insufferable featurettes make the movie out to be the celluloid equivalent of Martin Luther King. The commentary is insight-light, while the Director’s Cut shows negligible changes to the original feature... which – beyond the snide jibes – remains a superbly acted ensemble piece. Losing the first viewing’s what-happens-next suspense inevitably robs Crash of some impact, but it retains a driving force.

DVD Extras:

Director commentary
Making Of documentary
Three featurettes
Director introduction
Deleted scenes