Some Thoughts About The Oscars

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'BROKEBACK' DREAMS CRASH AND BURN AS THE ACADEMY'S VOTERS PLAY IT SAFE

By Kenneth Turan
Times Staff Writer

March 6, 2006

Sometimes you win by losing, and nothing has proved what a powerful, taboo-breaking, necessary film "Brokeback Mountain" was more than its loss Sunday night to "Crash" in the Oscar best picture category.

Despite all the magazine covers it graced, despite all the red-state theaters it made good money in, despite (or maybe because of) all the jokes late-night talk show hosts made about it, you could not take the pulse of the industry without realizing that this film made a number of people distinctly uncomfortable.

More than any other of the nominated films, "Brokeback Mountain" was the one people told me they really didn't feel like seeing, didn't really get, didn't understand the fuss over. Did I really like it, they wanted to know. Yes, I really did.

In the privacy of the voting booth, as many political candidates who've led in polls only to lose elections have found out, people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or, likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed "Brokeback Mountain."

For Hollywood, as a whole laundry list of people announced from the podium Sunday night and a lengthy montage of clips tried to emphasize, is a liberal place, a place that prides itself on its progressive agenda. If this were a year when voters had no other palatable options, they might have taken a deep breath and voted for "Brokeback." This year, however, "Crash" was poised to be the spoiler.

I do not for one minute question the sincerity and integrity of the people who made "Crash," and I do not question their commitment to wanting a more equal society. But I do question the film they've made. It may be true, as producer Cathy Schulman said in accepting the Oscar for best picture, that this was "one of the most breathtaking and stunning maverick years in American history," but "Crash" is not an example of that.

I don't care how much trouble "Crash" had getting financing or getting people on board; the reality of this film, the reason it won the best picture Oscar, is that it is, at its core, a standard Hollywood movie, as manipulative and unrealistic as the day is long. And something more.

For "Crash's" biggest asset is its ability to give people a carload of those standard Hollywood satisfactions, but make them think they are seeing something groundbreaking and daring. It is, in some ways, a feel-good film about racism, a film you could see and feel like a better person, a film that could make you believe that you had done your moral duty and examined your soul, when in fact you were just getting your buttons pushed and your preconceptions reconfirmed.

So for people who were discomfited by "Brokeback Mountain" but wanted to be able to look at themselves in the mirror and feel as if they were good, productive liberals, "Crash" provided the perfect safe harbor. They could vote for it in good conscience, vote for it and feel they had made a progressive move, vote for it and not feel that there was any stain on their liberal credentials for shunning what "Brokeback" had to offer. And that's exactly what they did.

"Brokeback," it is worth noting, was in some ways the tamest of the discomforting films available to Oscar voters in various categories. Steven Spielberg's "Munich"; the Palestinian territories' "Paradise Now," one of the best foreign language nominees; and the documentary nominee "Darwin's Nightmare" offered scenarios that truly shook up people's normal ways of seeing the world. None of them won a thing.

Hollywood, of course, is under no obligation to be a progressive force in the world. It is in the business of entertainment, in the business of making the most dollars it can. Yes, on Oscar night it likes to pat itself on the back for the good it does in the world, but as Sunday night's ceremony proved, it is easier to congratulate yourself for a job well done in the past than to actually do that job in the present.

"You may be a sinner, but I ain't yet had the opportunity." --Ennis Del Mar

Interesting article, Lightwizard...I think he's right on about this, especially what I've bolded:


Yep. I'm still disappointed...<sigh>

Thanks for the clarifications. After Setanta wrote that, I remembered the scene that must have come from that - and they did refer to the "over-caffeinated white folk and trigger happy LAPD".

When I like a movie, it usually has to do with whether or not I early on come to care what happens to the characters, and if the storyline is easy to immerse into - and I guess Crash satisfied those things for me.

To name some of them...

The African Queen
Apocalypse Now
Bonnie and Clyde
Chinatown
Citzen Kane
Dr.Strangelove
E.T.
The Graduate
The Grapes of Wrath
High Noon
It's a Wonderful Life
Jaws
The Maltese Falcon
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Psycho
Raging Bull
Rear Window
Rebel Without a Cause
Roman Holiday
Star Wars
Sunset Boulevard
Taxi Driver
To Kill a Mockingbird
2001:A Space Odyssey
Vertigo
The Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights

Three of those films are on the top ten list of greatest movies ever made as polled by Sight and Sound magazine of the top world film critics:
"Citizen Kane," "Vertigo," and "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Try and find some of the Oscar winners on lists of classics, as in Roger Ebert's Great Movies in two volumes. It's surprising how many Oscar winners have actually faded and although they will pop up on cable from time to time are old movies but not classic movies.

We can agree to disagree on Crash. I don't think it was so ordinary and pedestrian about "pushing the same buttons" - as I said, I can't think of another movie that treated race the same way.

I am not comfortable with some of the absolutes being laid down here - by pro and amateur critics alike. What seems to be getting said is that if someone liked Crash, they must not be very emotionally or intellectually aware - that they are somehow naive for getting taken in by it.

Similar arguments could be (and have been) made about the other movie, Brokeback (which I haven't yet seen).

But after all, it is art; and as such much exists in the eye of the beholder.

The necessary coincidences that made movies like "Short Cuts" and "Magnolia" so great is they were credible while "Crash," even though I do like the film, juxtiposes events that are just too unbelievable for me. It's still a tour-de-force based on what now could be considered an over used format but I'm wondering if it will hold up over the years.

Six films, BTW, shared the six top awards!

I have seen all of the winning films and the ONLY one that stood head and shoulders above them all was Wallace & Gromit-The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.The ONLY film that's going to get loads of repeat watchings.Oh,did I mention that it's British?

Haven't seen Brokeback and won't (neither romances or gay movies have much attraction), but I did see Crash and was glad to see it win.

I like movies that set you down a path and then totally flip your perspective by the end of the movie (think The Sixth Sense) as well as stories where the character changes for the better (American History X). I also like movies that embed their story in your memory and offer you little "eureka" moments long after the movie is finished (think the original Wild Things or The Terminator).

Crash accomplished all the above superbly. Intial stereotypes of the movie characters are continually challenged as the movie progresses. Good guys became bad, bad guys good. The movie brings to life the old adage "don't judge a book by its cover"...and, at least for me, the lesson was overdue and well taken.

Crash deserved its award...

If you've seen all the nominated films I can appreciate what you have written. Not having seen the film, "Brokeback Mountain," that is on the top spot of critical reviews at both Entertainment Weekly and Premiere and won nearly very major award plus doing more box office than any other nominee doesn't support your analysis. Time will tell, but I strongly suspect that BBM will become the classic that "Crash" will never hope to become. I like "Crash" very much but I have thought since I saw it that it will not stick with me like BBM.

Oscar has pulled out some real boner results in the past and will always be suspect for the very fact that, in a way, it is conflict of interest. They are all in the movie business and will, in the end, be thinking of what is good for business. The Independent Spirit awards mean much more as far as small films -- it gave the big prize to "Brokeback Mountain."

I won't see any of these films until they make it to video stores. Not sure I want to see Brokeback, but the rest of them are of interest to me. I haven't watched the Oscars in about thirty or more years.

I'm not sure if "Brokeback" is your cup-of-tea, either, edgar. It wouldn't be the sex scene as it's about 30 seconds of the film. If you liked "Lonesome Dove," McMurty brings a lot of that feeling to the script. That's why it did win. I will post a list of films that won with their contested second place films. It's very telling. The Academy screws up more often than some would believe.

I'm kinda ambivalent about Crash. It was kind of in your face in a way that was manipulative that I didn't like, but at the same time it was in your face in an emotional way that I did like. The coincidence between Dillon's character and the black woman whom he saved from the burning car whom he had earlier humiliated was just too improbable to believe, but it was put there to show that even an a-hole could have heroic moments. Subtle this movie was not.

I just loved the way Howard portrayed that crying anger in being absolutely powerless to do anything about the humiliation and injustice his character had just experienced, as he wasn't able to defend his wife's honor, and she dissing him about it. And then to again face the indignity of having to deal with bigotted, trigger-happy pigs.

It had a lot of pretty frank and honest portrayals of your garden variety, everyday racism and bigotry, what with the exchanges between the Black cop and his El Salvadoran girlfriend, the Persian and the Southerners, the Persian and the Hispanic, etc.

It was a pretty good movie, but I think it could have been better.

Hustle and Flow was an alright film. I couldn't buy the pimp character as an actual pimp. I mean, he didn't slap his whores around. Even after that one completely dissed him, all he did was throw her out of the house. I think a real pimp would have put his foot in her ass (to quote the pimp in "I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka"). The idea of a 'kinder, gentler' pimp doesn't work for me.

The rest of the story was pretty good, though.

I thought "Walk The Line" was a pretty straightforward, enjoyable bio-drama.

considering what it was trying to do, Crash was a great movie. with all of those characters and storylines going on, the film did a good job of tying them together and actually making a point about something. i actually had my money on Brokeback but am happy Crash won.

Stereotypes abound...
I've known a few pimps in my day and never heard of them smacking their girls around. There was no need.

I just feel that McMurty's comment was right, that an urban drama took the votes over the rural drama but I also believe that they were essentially doing what has been done before in "spreading around the wealth." My list of great classic films that never got the Oscar is something that bothers the Academy but they've heard it before, and the voting results are of a time and place, and cannot be objectively analyzed. However, because of the fact that "Brokeback" is at the top of the pack in critical response and reached an astonishing box office for a small film with this theme, it's place in film history is guaranteed.

In fact, it could be the controversy of the Oscars will spur box office as much as if it had won. It's going over $80M in a few days.

Godo article on the backlash/backlash in After Elton:

http://www.afterelton.com/movies/2006/3/backlash.html