The Oscars opened the closet door to gay-themed films but shut it almost as quickly.
"Brokeback Mountain," the much-ballyhooed favorite about two gay cowboys, won best director for Ang Lee on Sunday but stunningly lost the best picture prize to race drama "Crash." Additionally Philip Seymour Hoffman won best actor for playing gay novelist Truman Capote in "Capote."
The victory for "Crash" suggested Oscar voters were more comfortable with a tale that exploited the seamy underbelly of racial conflict in contemporary Los Angeles than with a heartbreaking tale of love between two married men.
"Perhaps the truth really is, Americans don't want cowboys to be gay," said Larry McMurtry, 69, who shared an Oscar for best adapted screenplay with Diana Ossana for "Brokeback."
No overtly gay love story has ever won a best picture award and, as of Monday morning, none has. The big question going into the Oscars was whether Hollywood, often in the forefront of social issues, would break another taboo.
"Film buffs and the politically minded will be arguing this morning about whether the Best Picture Oscar to 'Crash' was really for the film's merit or just a cop-out by the Motion Picture Academy so it wouldn't have to give the prize to 'Brokeback Mountain,"' said Washington Post critic Tom Shales.
Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan saw "Brokeback's" failure as a sign that Hollywood was not yet ready to grant the topic of homosexual love mainstream respectability.
"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 'Brokeback Mountain' made a number of people distinctly uncomfortable," he said, adding:
"So for people who were discomfited by 'Brokeback Mountain' but wanted to be able to look themselves in the mirror and feel like they were good, productive liberals, 'Crash' provided the perfect safe harbor."
BROKEBACK, CRASH WIN 3
"Brokeback" led the field with eight nominations and ended up with three prizes, also winning for original score.
Hoffman won for playing Truman Capote in "Capote," a story of the archly gay writer going to Kansas to report on the murder of a family of four for his classic book "In Cold Blood." Hollywood sweetheart Reese Witherspoon won best actress for her performance as country singer June Carter in the Johnny Cash biographical film, "Walk the Line."
"Crash," which covers a 36-hour period in Los Angeles as the lives of people of many races collide in a way that highlights bigotry, was a close second to "Brokeback" in Oscar handicapping. "Crash" writer/director Paul Haggis said he was "shocked, shocked" with the victory. It also won three prizes.
"We're still trying to figure out if we got this," he said, clutching his golden trophy in his hand. "None of us expected it. You hope, but we had a tiny picture ... this was a year when Hollywood rewarded rule breakers."
Following the plots of many of its message-themed movies, Oscar took a decidedly political tone with winners noting causes, and freshman show host Jon Stewart making wisecracks.
Stewart's performance seemed to divide the TV critics.
"It's hard to believe that professional entertainers could have put together a show less entertaining than this year's Oscars, hosted with a smug humorlessness by comic Jon Stewart, a sad and pale shadow of great hosts gone by," said the Post's Shales.
"Brokeback Mountain" was released by Focus Features, a unit of NBC Universal, which is controlled by General Electric Co. "Capote" was released by Sony Pictures, a unit of Sony
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Lee
Bookmarks