I’ve been hearing for some time now that Crash was going to win for Best Picture, especially after it won best ensemble at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. (And since they mailed out something like 100,000 screener DVDs.) I had hoped that the ink spilled on Crash vs Brokeback was just bored journalists, but then Tony Curtis went going on the record as saying he wasn’t even going to -see- Brokeback Mountain, and the same was true for other Academy members, well. The win was not a surprise.
And see. I liked Crash. It’s solid. Intense. Excellent performances. But there are some bits where you can tell Haggis cut his teeth on TV, like the montage at the end. I don’t know. I think I’m always going to resent it a little bit. It’s not even that I thought Brokeback Mountain was the best film this year. It’s flawed, and I’ve been a Capote girl from the start. Plus, I know that all of the nominations for various degrees of queer this year are just awesome. But it was the best film nominated (that actually had a chance), and I had really hoped that we were going to make it all the way. It stings that we didn’t.
What I really think gets me about this is the admission that people weren’t even going to -see- it. They went on the record that they were afraid, they were going for the safe choice, and they were going to select a best picture without viewing the competition. -That- kills me. It doesn’t surprise me (I’m sure it happens all the time, and with less controversial films) but it hurts.
(Also, does anyone understand the producer controversy over Crash? I’ve read a few stories on it, and I don’t, so feel free to explain it using small words. Assuming anyone else -knows- that there was a producer controversy.)
ETA Best commentary seen yet. And from an earlier article by the same writer: In other words, if “Brokeback” doesn’t win it’s either a triumph for advertising or homophobia. Either way, the Academy looks bad. Personally, I think it’s a bit of both.
wicked jaws 
I think people who say shit like that shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Have an open mind or SHUT THE HELL UP.
Dude, seriously. And I’m going, “Tony Curtis? Was he not in a number of the Gayest Movies Ever?” Sigh.
Also, I might be bitter. Because if -I- was a voting member of the Academy, I sure as hell would be seeing everything.
oh, if you were a voting member of the academy, this would be such a beautiful world in which to live.
agreed!
Now see, here’s an argument I can actually get behind. I don’t think that people who refused to watch any particular picture should be allowed to vote.
And now I see Steph already said that. 🙂 But I agree!
I wonder if there would be any voting members -left-.
i don’t think a triumph for advertising, since i’d never even *heard* of crash until last night. and perhaps i live inside my house mostly and only watch hgtv, but i’ve been to see a handful of movies and i look at posters and if i’d heard of it, it’d bored me and i didn’t pay attention.
But they’re not advertising to you, not initially, anyway. They’re advertising to the Oscar voters. So the trade ads, the DVD screeners, that’s the advertising he’s talking about.
I’d heard of it (when it was in theaters, even) but just barely, and it only stuck with me because I’m a big Don Cheadle fan. It came out of nowhere, basically, to win, and it was all about the campaign money. It really only worked, though, because the Academy is homophobic enough to -need- a safe choice, and thus Crash presented itself.
:: licks your nose ::
Well, that’s one argument 😉
*ponders* Should you vote if you don’t see all of the movies? Tony? Hmmm?
Yeah, there were other amazing male performances, but if PSH hadn’t walked away with that Oscar, my TV would have been a smoking pile of mess.
And poor Jon. I was laughing my ass off at home as everyone in the theatre just sat there at the beginning.
I guess NY and Hollywood shouldn’t sit beside each other at dinner.
I think there might have been a happydance when PSH won, but you cannot prove a thing, I tell you.
Jon sure as hell played well to the room -I- was in. This is why I should be at the Oscars. The other reason is that I tend to yell things like, “Why are you not showing Dan Futterman? You SUCK!”
That would go over well, I bet.
there might have been a happydance
I started clapping, and rod looked up from the computer and was all “Why are you clapping at the TV?” heh.
That seals it. You and I are going to the Oscars next year. (and we’ll be wearing TROUSERS!) They so need us.
I guess NY and Hollywood shouldn’t sit beside each other at dinner.
Good way of putting it – it really seemed to me that they Hollywood crowd was *really* not comfortable not having “one of their own” up there.
I thought Jon was HYSTERICAL.
Indeed. The silence after the Death to Smoochy line was a good indicator of how much they enjoyed him representing them. Oh, well, he was funny as hell, and ratings were up something like 20% in Canada, so I think we should host them next year. *snarf*
What do you think? 😀
TOTALLY!!
I seem to have deleted my ‘In Jon We Trust’ icon, dammit!!
Heh. “and now…the 79th Academy Awards! Live from Yellow Grass Saskatchewan!”
No more Jon icon? *cries*