Author Topic: Post-Oscar news coverage  (Read 75647 times)

Offline tpe

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #90 on: Mar 10, 2006, 05:07 PM »
i'am with you on this - tpe. Count my vote.

Thanks bbmlover for concurring.  And I am sure we are not the only ones...

Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #91 on: Mar 10, 2006, 08:29 PM »
I've seen "crash" and really like it! I dont remember thandie newton going mad when she was touched by the racist cop( matt dilon) so i dont understand the post above.. i dont see steroetypes there, or if is welle let s admit we are sometimes sterteotypes!
i know its not the subject here but if anyone had seen "crash" and disliked it please help me to understand... 

It's toward the beginning of the film, Quentin.  Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe are partners and stop the SUV with the African-American couple, Terence Howard and Thandie Newton.  Dillon is searching the wife (Thandie) and does it very thoroughly.   

Later in the film, Dillon's character just happens to respond to a vehicle accident and guess who the victim is in the car - Thandie's character and he saves her life when gas starts leaking.  Another coicidence, another contrivance - the film is full of it.   

A stupid film.  Don't waste your money renting it - we don't want to give Lion's Gate any more revenue. 

To quote that brilliant response by Kenneth Turan:

Quote

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.

[/b]


« Last Edit: Mar 10, 2006, 09:56 PM by hidesert »

Offline bnjmn3

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #92 on: Mar 10, 2006, 10:36 PM »
From E!Online
http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/Daily2006/060308.html
• Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences member who requested anonymity, when asked at the big shoo if she had voted for or against the defeated Brokeback Mountain: "[Several Academy members] didn't see it. We won't vote for a movie like that." GLAAD, you online right now?
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Offline frenchcda

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #93 on: Mar 10, 2006, 10:42 PM »
Collection of Articles or Critics Objecting to Brokeback Snub (from IMDB)



Kenneth Turin, LA Times, "Breaking no ground" (March 6, 2006):
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/oscars/env-turan5mar05,0,5359042.story

Awards Tracking Database, "A Smudge on Oscar History" (March 6, 2006):
http://www.awardstracking.com/

Erik Lundegaard, MSNBC, "Oscar misfire: ‘Crash’ and burn" (March 6, 2006):
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11700333/

The Brokeback Snub, Afterelton.com (March 7, 2006)
http://www.afterelton.com/movies/2006/3/snub.html

The Gold Derby, "And the Winner is . . . homophobia?" (March 6, 2006)
http://goldderby.latimes.com/

Stephen King, Analyzing Oscar, Entertainment Weekly (March 9, 2006)
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,1170378_1_0_,00.html

Gene Stone: Hollywood Hardly Hearts Homosexuals (March 7, 2006)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060307/cm_huffpost/016886;_ylt=A86.I2ABuA1EszAAsAP9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere, Different Enough?
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/archives/2006/03/for_shame_i_wan.php

Hollywood isn't being straight with gay community, Boston Globe (March 7, 2006)
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2006/03/07/hollywood_isnt_being_straight_with_gay_community/

San Francisco Chronicle, OSCAR ANALYSIS: Theories abound on why 'Crash' won best picture (March 7, 2006)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/07/OSCARS.TMP

Industry insiders comment on the result, NY Times, March 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/movies/redcarpet/07osca.html?hp&ex=114170760\%3Cbr%3E0&en=f9bcd4f56177090d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

More casual commentary, USA today "Intersection of events helped Crash" (March 6, 2006)
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/movieawards/oscars/2006-03-06-crash-postmortem_x.htm

General Associated Press Coverage, Was There a 'Brokeback' Backlash? (March 6, 2006)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060306/ap_en_mo/oscar_upset_3;_ylt=An9NcwRDxysmU1aCSR0Hyzt8FxkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--

London Times, "Uneasy Hollywood chooses race relations over gay cowboy drama" (March 7, 2006)
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19133-2072699,00.html

David Poland Blog on the subject, Hot Button (March 6, 2006)
http://www.thehotbutton.com/today/hot.button/2006_thb/060306_mon.html

A blog on the subject (March 5, 2006):
http://clydestuff.blogspot.com/2006/03/my-final-thoughts-about-academy-awards.html#links

Ebert's defenses of "Best Picture" Crash:

Roger Ebert lashes out at critics of Crash and names names! (March 6, 2006)
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060306/OSCARS/603070301

Strangely, Ebert seems to have taken Crash on as a cause. Earlier this year he again defended the movie against critics (January 18, 2006):
http://www.laweekly.com/index.php?option=com_lawcontent&task=view&id=12416&Itemid=47

Historial Perspective on Oscar mistakes:

This is far from the first "Academy" blooper. London Telegraph (March 4, 2006):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/03/04/bfoscars04.xml

And from earlier, bias and bigotry among "Academy" members:

Nikki Finke, LA Weekly, How Gay Will Oscar Go?" (February 1, 2006):
http://www.laweekly.com/deadline-hollywood/12564/how-gay-will-oscar-go/

Gore Vidal, in an Interview pre-Oscar, on Brokeback and other subjects (March 3, 2006):
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060303_gore_vidal_sex_oscars/

For reference, here are the two original New York Times reviews of the films:

Original New York Times Reviews of the two films:

Original NY Times review of Crash (May 6, 2005)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/06/movies/x06cras.html?ex=1146888000&en=ab9c464bf3c29946&ei=5083&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes

Original NY Times review of Brokeback Mountain (December 9, 2005)
http://movies2.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/movies/09brok.html?ex=1141880400&en=7757846e4a2865f9&ei=5070
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Offline chameau

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #94 on: Mar 10, 2006, 10:52 PM »
Thanks frenchcda, my printer will be melting when I will be done with all those links  :P

Don't get me wrong, just thank you!
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Offline scruffy

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #95 on: Mar 11, 2006, 01:36 AM »
The surprise that Jack dealt
By Xan Brooks



The 78th annual Academy Awards will be remembered as the Animal Farm Oscars. It was an event that decreed that four films were equal but one was more equal than the others.

Judged on numbers alone, Brokeback Mountain, Crash, King Kong and Memoirs of a Geisha were the night's big winners - all crammed onto the victor's podium with three statues apiece. But the moral victory belonged to Crash, Paul Haggis's potent yet portentous race relations drama. In the night's closing moments it conspired to sneak the crowning best film Oscar out from under the nose of heavy favourite Brokeback Mountain. If nothing else, this ensured that an otherwise sedate and soothingly predictable ceremony went out with a bang. Jack Nicholson, who presented the night's final award, looked momentarily lost for words.

Before the event kicked off, the word was that these would be - in the words of our own John Patterson - the Gayest Oscars Ever, a celebration of radicalism that would position Hollywood in direct opposition to Bush's America. Certainly the nominated movies were more explicitly political than anyone could remember, tackling everything from the oil industry (Syriana) to homosexuality (Brokeback Mountain, Capote) to racism (Crash) to right-wing demagoguery (Good Night, and Good Luck). Moreover, the Oscars had - in host Jon Stewart - a man who had made his reputation by poking fun at the current administration. The omens were intriguing, but the event fell flat. These Oscars were almost too well-behaved for their own good.

This year's Academy Awards were liberal in structure but not in content. They took pains to distribute their wealth as evenly as possible across the broadest number of films. They let Memoirs of a Geisha and King Kong have free rein with the technical awards. They split the four acting awards between four different films (Capote, Walk the Line, The Constant Gardener and Syriana). They installed a quartet of movies in joint first place. If it was hard to take offence at the choices, it was also hard to be excited by them.

For all that, I would still like to have seen Brokeback Mountain win the Oscar for best film. I think it is a far better picture than Crash. And yet I am forced to admit that, had this happened, it would have deprived us of the lone moment of drama in an otherwise uneventful night. So the final result was probably for the best. The Hollywood establishment rarely makes the right choices, but they certainly know how to spring a twist ending. When even a national institution like Jack Nicholson seems taken aback, you know you've been bamboozled by the experts.


Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #96 on: Mar 11, 2006, 02:26 AM »

Thanks so much E&J for the link to Annie Proulx's article in The Guardian. 

Why let the Academy which is a self-perpetuating group of reactionaries dictate what is "Best" in motion pictures.  We all know it's money, politics and prejudice that dictates the Academy Awards and not the "best" in any category.  A group of self-perpetuating reactionaries don't reflect my views about films.  We should shun it in future years.

The Academy has been severely brused by the "Crash" affair.  Looking at their past patterns of voting, the Academy will try to make amends by honoring some gay themed film in the next few years. After all they see themselves as "liberal" and don't want their "liberal card" pulled, even though we know they are closet reactionaries.  The problem is that any gay themed films they honor to "make amends" for this year won't be BBM, the one film that deserved it. 

The academy is a totally irrelevant organization. They should do themselves a favor and disband.  I agree with Annie, the Independent Spirit Awards are the ones to follow.


Offline bnjmn3

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #97 on: Mar 11, 2006, 09:39 AM »

Thanks so much E&J for the link to Annie Proulx's article in The Guardian. 

Why let the Academy which is a self-perpetuating group of reactionaries dictate what is "Best" in motion pictures.  We all know it's money, politics and prejudice that dictates the Academy Awards and not the "best" in any category.  A group of self-perpetuating reactionaries don't reflect my views about films.  We should shun it in future years.

The Academy has been severely bruised by the "Crash" affair.  Looking at their past patterns of voting, the Academy will try to make amends by honoring some gay themed film in the next few years. After all they see themselves as "liberal" and don't want their "liberal card" pulled, even though we know they are closet reactionaries.  The problem is that any gay themed films they honor to "make amends" for this year won't be BBM, the one film that deserved it. 

The academy is a totally irrelevant organization. They should do themselves a favor and disband.  I agree with Annie, the Independent Spirit Awards are the ones to follow.


The Independent Spirit Awards are schizophrenic: they honor and introduce the audience to truly independent films that we would never hear of in the first place, and I appreciate that part. But, the show spends alot of time mocking Hollywood while maintaining the same format of the other awards shows (e.g., lame host, inane introductory remarks prior to handing out awards, and really insipid song parodies ). There appears to be a segment of the Independent Film audience who only want to send the big F**k You to the AMPAS. But, I think there are some sour grapes on their part, too. Honestly, Capote (Sony Pictures) and BBM (Universal) are questionable as independent Films anyway. GNGL and The Squid and the Whale seemed to be more of a match for that organization. The Independent Spirit Awards needs to define itself clearly, stop bitching about Hollywood, and behave with dignity--if you want the viewing audience to embrace your films, do not denigrate your own awards show. The Golden Globes did fall out of favor then reinvented itself. Also, don't forget to check out all of the Film Festivals..Venice out BBM on the map in a big way!
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Offline Sitaram

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #98 on: Mar 11, 2006, 10:12 AM »
http://film.guardian.co.uk/oscars2006/story/0,,1727312,00.html

You most likely have this already, but I noticed it posted at http://www.annieproulx.com, so if you do not yet have the interview, the carpe diem!
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Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #99 on: Mar 11, 2006, 10:44 AM »
The Independent Spirit Awards are schizophrenic: they honor and introduce the audience to truly independent films that we would never hear of in the first place, and I appreciate that part. But, the show spends alot of time mocking Hollywood while maintaining the same format of the other awards shows (e.g., lame host, inane introductory remarks prior to handing out awards, and really insipid song parodies ). There appears to be a segment of the Independent Film audience who only want to send the big F**k You to the AMPAS. But, I think there are some sour grapes on their part, too. Honestly, Capote (Sony Pictures) and BBM (Universal) are questionable as independent Films anyway. GNGL and The Squid and the Whale seemed to be more of a match for that organization. The Independent Spirit Awards needs to define itself clearly, stop bitching about Hollywood, and behave with dignity--if you want the viewing audience to embrace your films, do not denigrate your own awards show. The Golden Globes did fall out of favor then reinvented itself. Also, don't forget to check out all of the Film Festivals..Venice out BBM on the map in a big way! 

Ironic that the two biggies in films, Cannes and the Oscars - the first and last events of the film year, snubbed BBM in their own way.  Perhaps they have become too conservative - more the guardians of the establishment than groundbreaking.  The future of movies is with independent films.  When the big movie studios saw this trend years ago, they bought or developed branches   
that encouraged independent films.  Don't know if there is a definition of "independents" other than they are small budget films not that they necessarily have an "independent" streak.  Capote and BBM were small budget films.

I don't work in films so I can express my opinion about the irrelevancy of the Academy.  But to many people in the industry it is important recognition for their work, though I would think that the guild awards would have more value to them since they are from their peers.  Actors are the largest branch of the Academy and remember BBM got no awards from SAG - Crash got best ensemble.  Since BBM won other guild awards, it appears that its problem was with the acting branch of the Academy.

« Last Edit: Mar 11, 2006, 11:36 AM by hidesert »

Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #100 on: Mar 11, 2006, 11:18 AM »
Hollywood Circles the (unBroke) Wagons[/b]

Mar. 10, 2006  Peter Howell | The Toronto Star

Sunday's selection of Crash over Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture was the first time in memory that fear seemed to be the guiding impulse for awarding Oscar's top prize.

Faced with the choice between a feel-good movie about the evils of racism and a troublesome film that challenged prejudices about homosexual love, Academy voters grabbed their security blankets and started sucking on their thumbs.

They figured they were being progressive, as George Clooney so smugly stated Sunday night, but in fact they shunned anything that smacked of subversion. In an era of cowboy conservatives, they wanted real Marlboro men, not sensitive males who collected dirty shirts as love mementoes.

Steven Spielberg's Munich, a brave and honest look at the roots of Middle East troubles, didn't get a single award because it was wrongly judged to be soft on terrorism — and probably wouldn't have been nominated at all, had it been made by anyone whose last name wasn't Spielberg.

David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, a rich and nuanced appraisal of the insidious nature of our baser human impulses, was also shut out of the winner's circle. Expressing justifiable frustration with the Oscars in an interview with me this week, Cronenberg voiced the opinion that perhaps the movie's message was too "ambiguous" for the limousine liberals of Hollywood. How could a film be anti-violence, while at the same time recognizing the deep human attraction to it?

"It's hard for me to feel that they didn't get it," Cronenberg said. "Maybe they did get it and they didn't like what they got, you know?"

Exactly. And there's more at play in Hollywood than the disturbing homophobia at the root of Brokeback Mountain's defeat by Crash. The fact is the entire town is in ostrich mode, its pampered denizens terrified of many things: dwindling audiences; technological change; runaway productions; and the possibility many of their cherished preconceptions aren't as sure as they once seemed.

Another of the reasons why Crash triumphed is that it provided so much job security to so many Academy voters in a time of economic uncertainty, being the only film amongst the five Best Picture nominees to be shot entirely in Los Angeles and area. Oscar host Jon Stewart wasn't kidding when he looked out at the multitudes inside the Kodak Theatre and asked for anyone who hadn't worked on Crash to raise their hand.

Filmmaking is supposed to be an art, but that increasingly seems to be less of a concern even to people who normally champion the ideal. I had an email argument last week with American critic Jeffrey Wells, a usually sensible guy, who commended Lionsgate for denying critics an advance look at Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, the urban comedy that shook off the February blahs and found a big audience.

Wells stated in his Hollywood-Elsewhere.com blog that Lionsgate would have been "dumb" to pre-screen Madea's Family Reunion because it "would have gotten killed by critics." His argument struck me as not only completely wrong — there are many easily pleased scribblers out there — but also rather sad. Has the business of making movies turned into such a factory enterprise that even critics are now applauding their own irrelevancy to the assembly-line tide of flickering widgets?

When Lionsgate started up a few years ago, with its roots in Canada, I wrote a story about how fearless the company was in taking on such controversial projects as Dogma, American Psycho and O, all films that other distributors had been reluctant or too fearful to handle. Has Lionsgate now joined the herd of braying sheep?

It would seem so, and the flock is growing. There have been more of the Friday Dreadfuls this year than in years past — films like Aeon Flux, Grandma's Boy, Date Movie and last week's Ultraviolet — that were released straight to theatres without advance critical scrutiny. More and more these days, studios are judging their wares to be so awful as to be unable to garner a rave even from the likes of Larry King, a wannabe critic who'd applaud the opening of a car door.

They seem to think the Friday Dreadfuls strategy is a smart business move, contemptuously believing that the audience is also composed of sheep that will happily bleat their way into anything that comes with popcorn.

I beg to differ. Making your product look cheap, disposable and not worthy of serious critical attention is a dangerous way to proceed in an industry that relies on the collective belief that movies are more than just another form of entertainment.

Movies matter, or so we keep telling ourselves on Oscar night — and perhaps the sharp drop in Academy Awards viewership reflects disillusionment with Hollywood's breach of faith.

Imagine how directors and actors feel about having their films dumped on the market without advance critical screenings. The sci-fi thriller Aeon Flux starred Academy Award winners Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand, and it was directed by Sundance sensation Karyn Kusama. Yet Paramount had so little confidence in their work, it dumped the film sight unseen upon the masses, fearful of a critical backlash.

The ironic thing is that critics are more likely to champion a difficult movie than anyone else. I don't have to resort to Google to know that somewhere out there in cyberspace, someone is extolling Aeon Flux as a misunderstood cinematic masterpiece. Which is similar to what happened with Blade Runner back in 1982, which was famously panned by Siskel & Ebert (who later recanted), back in the day when Chicago thumbs didn't jerk skywards quite so obligingly or often.

Blade Runner did disappointing initial box office, but it went on to become a classic of sci-fi cinema. Entire books have been written about films that were panned by critics but later became popular or cult favourites.

And whatever happened to the brave notion that a bad review could be used for positive spin? When the first Scary Movie came out in 2000, I recall ads listing all the negative comments (mine included) that were published about this disgusting-but-amusing hybrid of horror and humour. The movie was designed to offend people, and it worked so well, the Scary Movie factory is about to belch out Scary Movie 4.

But the same people were afraid to let critics see the romance spinoff Date Movie last month, losing the considerable grudging kudos they would have collected for being daring enough to thumb their noses at the thumb jerkers.

The Friday Dreadfuls strategy is backfiring. In the age of the Internet and the blog, it is impossible to keep word from getting out on opening weekend. And all attempts to do so merely flag to increasingly jaded moviegoers that studios don't respect them enough to make informed choices about which movies to see. Last summer's failure of the aptly named Stealth was an example of the audience refusing to swallow obvious garbage, a trend that is sure to accelerate.

Hollywood is fearful about the many threats it faces, and understandably so. Yet the choice of Crash as Best Picture and the peek-a-boo release strategy for problem films suggest that the pursuit of excellence is no longer a virtue in a Tinseltown, where dreams aren't quite as big as they once were.

« Last Edit: Mar 11, 2006, 11:37 AM by hidesert »

Offline chameau

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #101 on: Mar 11, 2006, 11:31 AM »
thanks Hidesert, very good article.
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Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #102 on: Mar 11, 2006, 11:59 AM »

What Did I Tell You?

Nikki Finke's Deadline Daily
LA Weekly  | March 5, 2006


Way back on January 17th, I decided to nominate the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Bunch of Hypocrites. That’s because I felt this year’s dirty little Oscar secret was the anecdotal evidence pouring in to me about hetero members of the Academy of Motions Picture Arts and Sciences being unwilling to screen Brokeback Mountain. For a community that takes pride in progressive values, it seemed shameful to me that Hollywood’s homophobia could be on a par with Pat Robertson’s. So in the February 1st issue of LA Weekly, I warned that, despite the hype you saw in the press and on the Internet about Brokeback, with its eight nominations, being the supposed favorite to take home the Best Picture Oscar, Crash could end up winning.

Well, turns out I was right. Hollywood showed tonight it isn’t the liberal bastion it once was. That’s pitiful if you’re a progressive, and pleasing if you’re a conservative.

After my column came out, it was picked up by the Drudge Report. Hundreds of angry emailers accused me, and Hollywood, of trying to promote “the homosexual agenda” by somehow “forcing” them to see a movie they found sexually reprehensible. What those emailers failed to comprehend was that the Oscar voters shared their distaste for it.

At the time, I explained that the real Best Picture issue wasn’t which film was better. The real issue was which movie was seen by the Academy. I found horrifying each whispered admission to me from Academy members who usually act like social liberals that they were disgusted by even the possibility of glimpsing simulated gay sex.

The forces that hate Hollywood salivated for Brokeback to win Best Oscar. But that it wasn’t the favorite was foreshadowed at the Screen Actor Guild awards, when Crash topped it for best picture and Philip Seymour Hoffman won over Heath Ledger. The excuse given was that Crash only won that award because the producers had sent the film to every SAG member, which is something of a rarity. But, still, Brokeback fever continued unabated. It became part of America’s lexicon, it generated a nightly joke or two on Leno and Letterman, it spawned innumerable parodies. But just how did it measure up as a movie? I found Crash and Brokeback both good, if flawed, films. Oscar-worthy since they were about something, a prerequisite. Crash makes up in aesthetic bleakness what it lacks in subtlety — Los Angeles is a city of minorities divided but colliding, duh! — but it’s also gripping and powerful. Brokeback gives us closet-case sheepherders tastefully presented so they redefine the notion of love. But it’s also slow and ponderous.

I sounded a note of extreme caution about Brokeback’s Oscar chances because, in Hollywood, the cowboy has been an iconic figure in motion pictures through the ages. Many geriatric Academy members not only worked on oaters, but also worshipped Audie Murphy, Gene Autry, John Wayne and other saddle-sore celluloid heroes. And I noted that only an equally iconic figure like Clint Eastwood could redefine the genre in Unforgiven in a way that didn’t turn off the old-timers. I wasn’t just talking geezers. I was talking baby boomers and younger Academy members sketched out about seeing Brokeback.

I knew there was a chance that, even without seeing the movie, Oscar voters could feel guilt-tripped or succumb to a herd mentality to vote for the “gay-cowboy” movie and strike a blow against Republican wedge politics and extremist religious hatemongering. But they didn’t, and Brokeback lost for all the Right’s reasons.

So, red-staters licking their lips to give Hollywood a verbal ass-whooping will be chagrined tonight. I’ve been keeping a running tally on just how political were the 78th Academy Awards. And the answer is overwhelmingly hardly at all. GOP politicos hoping to use that old saw of “Boy hidey, those show-biz folk are just a homo-promotin’, liberal-media-embracin’, minority-lovin’, devil-worshippin’, pimp-hustlin’, terrorist-protectin’ bunch of pansies, commies and traitors” are going to have to find another way to discredit Hollywood’s actor activists when they campaign come the midterm elections in November.

Turns out Hollywood is as homophobic as Red State country. In touch, not out of touch.

I was right about Rachel Weisz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Reese Witherspoon, Ang Lee, and Crash. Only Clooney’s win I didn’t anticipate. I thought the ugly guy, Paul Giamatti, would bag it. Damn that Supporting Actor category: trips me up.


Offline scruffy

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #103 on: Mar 11, 2006, 12:37 PM »
After flirting with diversity, Oscar goes back to the closet
By Joe Williams
POST-DISPATCH FILM CRITIC
Friday, Mar. 10 2006


"Stop the presses!"

If the interview room at the Oscars had been a movie set, that's what you would
have heard on Sunday night when "Crash" was named best picture. Instead, there
was a collective gasp and then the mad clacking of a hundred reporters
e-mailing revised versions of their stories to newspapers around the globe.

Many of the reporters backstage at the Oscars had already written that the gay
love story "Brokeback Mountain" would win best picture. That's not because it
was their personal favorite - although in my case it was - but because the
bookies who do this stuff for a living said so.

And that's why I was already starting to analyze what that victory meant when
the prediction came crashing down. I was going to write that the storyline at
this year's Oscars was diversity. Ang Lee was the first non-white guy to win
best director. "Tsotsi" was the first South African production to win best
foreign-language film. Another contender in that category was from a new
country called Palestine.

And while an Oscar for a rap tune was diversity of the low-brow sort, I was
heartened that an actor acquaintance of mine named Grant Heslov, who's been
typecast as a swarthy sidekick or an Arab terrorist, had been nominated for his
brainpower, as the co-writer and producer of "Good Night, and Good Luck."

But the Academy Awards are decided by a vote of a specialized electorate, and
it seems that enough of the 5,800 members of the academy were squeamish about
giving their top prize to a movie in which two men make love. If all those
voters had actually seen "Brokeback Mountain" and still preferred "Crash," an
overcooked drama about racism in contemporary LA, I would have to respect that
decision. But it's been reported that many of the older voters opted not to see
"Brokeback Mountain," while DVD copies of "Crash" were mailed to every member
of the Academy as well as all 110,000 members of the influential Screen Actors
Guild.

Even in Hollywood, a place that wouldn't exist without the gay community,
there's still an unease about homosexuality that can't be discounted.

Last year, on the day before the Oscars, I stopped for a beer at the Snow White
Cafe, a bar on Hollywood Boulevard decorated with murals painted by Disney
animators. The old gent on the stool next to me introduced himself. He was a
retired fireman named Frank. After a couple beers, Frank revealed that he had
just buried his wife of 30 years. She was his best friend, he said. And in all
that time, she never knew he was gay. In a few days, Frank was going to visit
their grown daughter in Florida, and he wondered how much longer he would have
to keep his secret.

I didn't have an answer for him, but I suggested that on his drive east he
should visit New Orleans, a city with a tradition of tolerance.

I thought about Frank after New Orleans was wiped off the map, and again after
I saw "Brokeback Mountain" and started getting letters from readers denouncing
a movie that they refused to see. The assertion in many of the letters was that
you had to be a pervert to even watch the movie - and you had to be a member of
the international gay cabal to write about it in the newspaper.

Which will come as a big surprise to my fiancee.

Even though the Oscars are still the biggest television event outside of the
Super Bowl in the United States, even though thousands of people line the
limousine route to cheer for the passing celebrities, the TV news was filled
this week with stories asking "Is Hollywood out of touch with America?"

Maybe by picking a movie like "Crash," with a self-evident message like "racism
is bad," Hollywood can sidestep that question for another year.

But as I was leaving the ceremony and walking toward the Snow White Cafe, I
looked back at the red carpet and saw a man who might know the answer. Standing
alone in a tuxedo jacket and blue jeans, waiting for a ride home, was Larry
McMurtry. He had just won an Oscar for writing "Brokeback Mountain" with his
partner, former St. Louisan Diana Ossana. In the backstage interview room, they
said the award was bittersweet because the film itself had been bypassed.
Maybe, McMurtry said, some people in America still need to cling to our myths,
even when they're hurtful. But he figures that good stories will always have
the power to open doors and soften hearts. That's why he's building one of the
world's largest bookstores, in tiny Archer City, Texas.

You can find it on the way to New Orleans.

Offline quentin751

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #104 on: Mar 11, 2006, 12:48 PM »
I've seen "crash" and really like it! I dont remember thandie newton going mad when she was touched by the racist cop( matt dilon) so i dont understand the post above.. i dont see steroetypes there, or if is welle let s admit we are sometimes sterteotypes!
i know its not the subject here but if anyone had seen "crash" and disliked it please help me to understand... 

It's toward the beginning of the film, Quentin.  Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe are partners and stop the SUV with the African-American couple, Terence Howard and Thandie Newton.  Dillon is searching the wife (Thandie) and does it very thoroughly.   

Later in the film, Dillon's character just happens to respond to a vehicle accident and guess who the victim is in the car - Thandie's character and he saves her life when gas starts leaking.  Another coicidence, another contrivance - the film is full of it.   

A stupid film.  Don't waste your money renting it - we don't want to give Lion's Gate any more revenue. 

To quote that brilliant response by Kenneth Turan:

Quote

I
[/b]




thx for answering but still i do remeber the scene with the two cops int the street, but unlike what a critic said, the character played by t.newton didnt go mad when she is been searched so i think the scen was very good and credible ( believable?)...anyway i like this film very much ( altough i LOVVE bbm)

Offline rikcub

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #105 on: Mar 11, 2006, 01:11 PM »
Hey Brokies....just found this link throught boxofficemojo.com.....check it out....some interesting thoughts and ideas.

http://theenvelope.latimes.com/movies/boxoffice/env-box-office-analysis,0,1331899.columnist
« Last Edit: Mar 11, 2006, 02:02 PM by rikcub »

Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #106 on: Mar 11, 2006, 01:45 PM »
[size=11]Good Show, Silly Controversy says Sid Ganis[/size]

LA Times, March 9, 2006


"I think this is the nonsense of all time," says Sid Ganis. "The academy, homophobic? It's beyond absurd, in my opinion."

Ganis, the first-term president of the academy, was responding to the widespread criticism that the best picture victory of "Crash" over the more critically acclaimed "Brokeback Mountain" was a sign that Oscar voters were at best conservative, at worst homophobic.

"The academy is made up of 6,000 artists of one craft or another," says Ganis. "These are men and women who love and appreciate art, and if they voted for 'Crash' over 'Brokeback Mountain,' it's not about the fact that 'Brokeback' deals with a couple of gay guys."

Ganis even bristles at the idea that the academy might be a cautious body: "The last thing you would say, from looking at the artistic expressions of these members, is that they're conservative."

The remarks came a couple of days after "Brokeback" director Ang Lee told a press conference of Chinese journalists that he didn't see his film as rebellious or groundbreaking, but simply as "a very ordinary movie" about two scared people in love.

For Ganis, the tempest over "Brokeback" hasn't spoiled an Oscar ceremony that left him, he says, "spent, but absolutely satisfied."

The president liked Jon Stewart's performance, loved the enthusiasm 13-time producer Gil Cates brought to the job, liked the large number of film clips ("My guideline going in was 'let's make it a show about the movies'"), and is pleased with the comments he's been hearing since Sunday night.

"Professional critics aside, the feedback I'm getting is that the show sparkled," he says. "We're 78 years old. Nobody expected us to sparkle."

Sitting in the theater, Ganis didn't hear the much-criticized music that was played during acceptance speeches. "If it was a problem, that's easy to solve," he says. "We won't do it next year."

Now he's back to work on the lot at Sony Pictures, where he's readying the film "Akeelah and the Bee," among other things. And he's finding the aftermath of the Oscars to be a completely new experience.

"This is the first TV show I've been involved with, and it's very different from anything I've ever done," he says. "When you finish a movie, you still have to market it, and open it, and then you have video.… At the end of the Oscars, it's the end."

He laughs. "The end."

_________________________________________


Ok, Ganis has to tow the party line in public and defend everyone. I'm just wondering what is being said by the Governors behind closed doors - shift their PR department into high gear to defend them, order a recount, award a special Oscar to BBM as co-Best Picture.  Most likely is  that they're just praying that all the controversy goes away and will be forgotten by next year.


« Last Edit: Mar 11, 2006, 02:22 PM by hidesert »

Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #107 on: Mar 11, 2006, 02:02 PM »

The Best Picture Misses the Big Picture[/b]   

Steve Lopez, LA Times | March 8 2006


Standing cautiously but bravely at the intersection of Beverly and Normandie, I could feel the racial tension in the air.

The place was about to blow.

A white woman walked into Video Hot, which is run by Koreans, and an Asian man bought flowers from a Guatemalan woman. Given the boiling hatred that pumps through L.A.'s veins, as depicted in the Oscar-winning movie "Crash," could ethnic violence be far behind?

I used to think we could all get along, more or less. I believed that despite its many flaws and obvious divisions by race and class, Los Angeles was one of the more successfully integrated cities in the world. And so to me, "Crash" felt like an artless, dated and manipulative morality tale on the evils of the sprawling metropolis, shot with a long lens from behind the bars of a gated seaside community.

But that was before the all-knowing wizards of the academy set me straight, choosing "Crash" as the best picture of the year. Could so many kabbala and Bikram yoga practitioners have been wrong, even if it's been years since any of them ventured east of Robertson except to hand out Oscars or cruise for hookers?

I think not. All I can figure is that in my own travels across the city, I must have sped past one powder keg after another without seeing the fuses. And so I ventured back out there to see what I could see.

Beverly and Normandie. Can you get any more L.A. than that?

The corner businesses tell the story: Subway, Chinatown Express, Tokyo Sushi Academy, Pizza Hut, Chicken Wok, El Chipilin Salvadoran and Honduran restaurant, Green Village Acupuncture & Herbs Clinic, La Nueva Flor Blanca Salvadoran and Guatemalan restaurant, Yoshinoya, Dr. Julio Guzman Medical Group and Pacific Market, owned by a brother and sister from India.

As I pulled into the parking lot, Latino, Asian, white and black patrons were coming and going without apparent incident, but it was early.

I got out of my car, looked both ways, and dived for cover when I saw an Asian driver enter the parking lot.

Whewwww!

Still in one piece, I spied a suspicious black man standing in the parking lot next to a car.

Burglar?

Or was it worse? Was he reaching into the glove box for a pistol, planning to knock off Yoshinoya and pistol-whip customers for their teriyaki chicken bowls?

You know it's hard out there for a pimp.

I walked into Hermano's Flowers, where Ana Ramirez claimed she has gotten along with her neighbors for 10 years, no problems. A man walked in to say hello. They chatted amiably. He walked away.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"A friend of mine."

"He wasn't Latino," I said.

"No. He's Japanese."

"And you get along?"

Two Latinos walked in after that. Gangbangers? I left the store for my own safety.

Kyung Suh, 34, was getting into his car when I asked where he lived.

Koreatown, he said. He moved there from Korea 10 years ago.

And where does he work?

South-Central L.A., he said. He's got a cellphone shop, and his customers are black and Latino, and against all odds, none of them have attacked each other or beaten him over the head. If you can believe him.

At Pacific Market, Micky, who grew up in India, sells her customers phone cards so they can call home to Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Africa and the Philippines.

"Crash?" she asked. Never heard of it.

I saw a white woman walk into Subway and followed her inside to make sure she wasn't mugged. She got a sandwich and made it out OK. I got a soda, and when the Latino clerk took my money, he said, "Thank you, señor."

Kyle Anderson, a black pharmaceutical rep, was visiting the office of Dr. Guzman just upstairs from Subway. Anderson lives in Mid-City, where his nearest neighbors are black, white and Persian. He's traveled far and wide in the United States and feels more comfortable in Los Angeles than anywhere else.

"You can go where you want," he said. "It's a multicultural environment. In the city of Los Angeles, you can visit a different country every day."

Sure, if you enjoy being carjacked.

Nick Shipp, a chef, walked into Dr. Guzman's office for a checkup. "I Love Lucy" was on TV, and most of the clients were Latino.

I pointed out to Shipp that he happens to be white.

He shrugged.

I mentioned the movie "Crash."

"My experience in L.A.," he said, "is the complete opposite."

Maybe so, but Lucy and Ricky looked like they were about to have a fight on TV. Those interracial marriages are doomed from the moment they cut the cake.

In the parking lot, I worked up the nerve to approach the black man standing near the BMW, which he couldn't possibly own. He claimed he was sealing holes in the cloth roof with a silicone gel.

What did he take me for, a nitwit?

"Where you from?" I asked the stranger.

Cameroon, George Louis said, calling himself an accountant and resident of Hollywood. Yes, he said, he did see "Crash."

"You do have problems in Los Angeles, but not as big as that," he said. "People aren't looking for trouble. They're too busy working and trying to make it."

Negative media influences are a dark force and a distraction, Louis said. He frees himself from those influences by focusing on positive energy and trying to live a spiritual life.

He shook my hand firmly and gave me a warm gaze, and I felt like Sandra Bullock in "Crash." I didn't buy her sudden transformation when she embraced the Latina maid she had repeatedly insulted, but now I could see the truth in it.

I realized the black man is not my enemy, but my friend.

Thank you, "Crash."

Thank you, Academy.

« Last Edit: Mar 11, 2006, 02:27 PM by hidesert »

Offline chameau

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #108 on: Mar 11, 2006, 04:49 PM »
Ballots for different palates

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2006/030906/aaa.html

>> Readers choose their favourites in our 10th annual Alternative Academy Awards   


Welcome to the 10th annual Mirror Alternative Academy Awards. In this parallel universe, Tom Cruise can’t hide behind studio spin doctors, Quebec talent is acknowledged, and well-endowed women named Jessica get the props they so desperately deserve. Here’s the rundown of how Mirror readers voted...

Movie Most Overlooked by the Academy

No big surprise here. Shutting out Jean-Marc Vallée’s masterpiece was a f***-you to Canada that outraged moviegoers nationwide. And the Academy should know: Giving Ontario-native Paul Haggis an undeserved Oscar for best film in no way makes up for this injustice.
47% C.R.A.Z.Y.
21% Sin City
12% Kung Fu Hustle
12% Mysterious Skin
8% The Aristocrats

Most Overlooked Performance

Jeff Daniels may be tops here. But if he wants to impress the real Academy, he’s gonna have to play a legend, preferably a dead one with leftist leanings and/or with multiple addictions. Good luck.
36% Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale
24% Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson, Wedding Crashers
18% Emily Mortimer, Match Point
16% Paul Kaye, It’s All Gone Pete Tong
6% Harry Reems, Inside Deep Throat

Best Soundtrack

Britpop, crunk, Ibiza rave and southern-fried rock can’t hold a candle to outlaw country. But we already knew this.
58% Walk the Line
24% Hustle & Flow
12% It’s All Gone Pete Tong
4% 9 Songs
2% The Dukes of Hazzard

Best Male Bod

Nothing says sexy like using a big Santa hat as a loincloth. This could explain why Pitt’s pecks, Chiklis’s biceps, Usher’s abs and Brosnan’s gunt all came up short against Jake’s snake.
55% Jake Gyllenhaal, Jarhead
25% Brad Pitt, Mr. & Mrs. Smith
9% Pierce Brosnan, The Matador
8% Michael Chiklis, Fantastic Four
3% Usher, In the Mix

Best Female Body

Our polling results prove what the scientific community has been saying for years now: Women named “Jessica” are inherently sexy. Anyone here remember that scorching-hot scene in Cocoon where Tandi strips down to a one-piece? We rest our case.
44% Jessica Alba, Into the Blue
23% Jessica Lange, Broken Flowers
14% Elisha Cuthbert, House of Wax
11% Jessica Simpson, The Dukes of Hazzard
8% Jessica Biel, Stealth

Worst Performance

Apparently, pretending to stomach Tomcat’s nauseating shenanigans wasn’t Katie Holmes’s only unconvincing performance of 2005.
31% Katie Holmes, Batman Begins
22% Orlando Bloom, Elizabethtown
22% Dakota Fanning, War of the Worlds, Hide and Seek and Dreamer
16% Jim Carrey, Fun With Dick and Jane
9% Heath Ledger, Casanova

Most Overhyped/Overrated Movie

These results may have less to do with the War of the Worlds as a movie and more to do with its star. See above.
29% War of the Worlds
26% Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
17% King Kong
17% Brokeback Mountain
11% Batman Begins

Movie That Never Should Have Happened

Considering Monster-in-Law is the first film that Jane Fonda has made in almost 15 years, this category could also be renamed the worst comeback for a once-respected actress. Not even the sight of Jennifer Garner roller-blading around in red pleather horrified our readers as much as J.Lo and J.Fo’s two-hour cat scrap.
35% Monster-in-Law
25% Elektra
17% The Pacifier
16% Be Cool
7% Memoirs of a Geisha

Best/Most Gratuitous Violence

This is a bit of an upset. Oldboy comes in at a disappointing third place, this despite a scene in which its star Min-sik Choi slowly and graphically cuts off his own tongue. There’s just no accounting for taste.
47% Sin City
34% Saw II
11% Oldboy
5% The Devil’s Rejects
3% Land of the Dead

Best Choreographed Sex Scenes

The competition was stiff here: an NC-17-rated threesome, some lesbian love scenes, spurting cocks and a little Toronto softcore. Still you can’t deny that Maria Bello more than earned this top honour. According to the History of Violence star, all that crashing and banging around on the stairwell with co-star Viggo Mortensen left her badly bruised.
51% A History of Violence
14% My Summer of Love
12% Where the Truth Lies
12% 9 Songs
11% Lie With Me

Most Annoying Non-Human

Poor Mr. Binks. You can’t say you didn’t see that one coming.
34% Jar Jar Binks, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
27% Herbie, Herbie: Fully Loaded
22% The Fog, The Fog
9% Foxy Loxy, Chicken Little
8% Fender, Robots

Worst Performance by a Pop Star

Even with all eyes on her Daisy Dukes, Simpson couldn’t detract attention away from her abominable attempt at acting.
43% Jessica Simpson, The Dukes of Hazzard
19% 50 Cent, Get Rich or Die Tryin’
15% Lindsay Lohan, Herbie: Fully Loaded
15% Hilary Duff, The Perfect Man
8% Usher, In the Mix

And now for the real Oscars...

Not surprisingly, only one Mirror reader earned a perfect score in our Oscar contest this year. Olivier D’Amour correctly predicted the winners in the following six categories: best actor, best actress, best supporting actress, best supporting actor, best director and best film (how he guessed that one without hacking the Price Waterhouse database, we’ll never know). For his efforts, D’Amour wins first prize, 12 Ex-Centris/Parc movie passes. Nice work Olivier!

For second place, dozens of people guessed five out of six categories. However, only one contestant can walk away with the coveted runner-up prize, eight Ex-Centris/Parc movie passes. So the Mirror tabulation department drew a name from a hat of the people who guessed five of six. And the winner is.... Samantha Young. Congratulations!

Ballots compiled by Chloé Roubert, pithy commentary provided by Sarah Rowland

 
La dictature c'est ''ferme ta geule'', la démocratie c'est ''cause toujours''
 Jean-Louis Barrault

Offline Lost_Girl

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YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW BAD IT GETS !!!!

"There are places we can never return"
"When you ain't got nothing, you don't need nothing"

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Offline tpe

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #110 on: Mar 11, 2006, 08:15 PM »

Thanks so much E&J for the link to Annie Proulx's article in The Guardian. 

Why let the Academy which is a self-perpetuating group of reactionaries dictate what is "Best" in motion pictures.  We all know it's money, politics and prejudice that dictates the Academy Awards and not the "best" in any category.  A group of self-perpetuating reactionaries don't reflect my views about films.  We should shun it in future years.

The Academy has been severely brused by the "Crash" affair.  Looking at their past patterns of voting, the Academy will try to make amends by honoring some gay themed film in the next few years. After all they see themselves as "liberal" and don't want their "liberal card" pulled, even though we know they are closet reactionaries.  The problem is that any gay themed films they honor to "make amends" for this year won't be BBM, the one film that deserved it. 

The academy is a totally irrelevant organization. They should do themselves a favor and disband.  I agree with Annie, the Independent Spirit Awards are the ones to follow.



To Annie Proulx:  I have always loved your work.  And I love everything that you stand for.

Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #111 on: Mar 11, 2006, 08:46 PM »
http://articles.news.aol.com/movies/article.adp?id=20060310030609990002&ncid=NWS00010000000001

I don't feel sorry for her.  She's a big girl and walked into these business arrangements on her own two feet and will have to live with the consequences.   I hope she's thanked Bob Yari for not filing his law suit until Oscar voting ended or she might not have an Oscar statuette.  If she can't handle her own finances she should hire someone who can or not play in the big leagues.

« Last Edit: Mar 12, 2006, 10:30 AM by hidesert »

Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #112 on: Mar 11, 2006, 09:33 PM »
I just looked at the Oprah BBM cast interview again.  Someone mentioned earlier in one of these threads that Oprah didn't gush over BBM like she does when she's strongly behind a movie or a book. I don't watch Oprah so I didn't comment at the time, but it now reminds me of a piece in an article in this thread (Crash Plus Cash Equals Oscar):


Quote
And then there was the Oprah Winfrey factor. "Hey everybody!," she wrote on her website last summer. "I just saw Crash. Go see this movie. It's superb! I'm on 'vacay' - otherwise I'd be on the show telling everybody to GO SEE THIS MOVIE! It's so well done. So thought-provoking. I saw it a week ago ... and I can't stop talking about it!"

The film's writer-director-producer Paul Haggis duly appeared on Oprah's TV show to tell how his real-life carjack drama led to the film, while the key members of the cast also appeared to ask: "Are you a racist?" Oprah's O magazine also ran articles on the film. "I believe everybody should have this in their movie collection," Oprah told viewers.


While she didn't give BBM the kiss of death, she didn't give it the support she gave to Crash.  Hmmm...like she damned BBM with faint praise.     

Oprah and Roger Ebert are both in Chicago - wonder if it's a conspiracy.   ::)

 
« Last Edit: Mar 11, 2006, 11:46 PM by hidesert »

Offline frenchcda

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #113 on: Mar 11, 2006, 11:02 PM »
HIDESERT I couldn't agree more with you, she the lady O surely went out of her way in praising  "Crash " and little to propegate the greatness of BBM, you know why and wont say it, but I am thinking in the same mannerWhile she didn't give BBM the kiss of death, she didn't give it the support she gave to Crash.  Hmmm...like she damned BBM with faint praise.     

Oprah and Roger Ebert are in Chicago - wonder if it's a conspiracy.   
       what is a belief if not a lack of knowing


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Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #114 on: Mar 11, 2006, 11:45 PM »
HIDESERT I couldn't agree more with you, she the lady O surely went out of her way in praising  "Crash " and little to propegate the greatness of BBM, you know why and wont say it, but I am thinking in the same mannerWhile she didn't give BBM the kiss of death, she didn't give it the support she gave to Crash.  Hmmm...like she damned BBM with faint praise.     

Oprah and Roger Ebert are both in Chicago - wonder if it's a conspiracy.

Thanks frenchcda.  I'll just say that every race and both genders have racists and every race and both genders have homophobes.   


Offline ethan

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #115 on: Mar 11, 2006, 11:50 PM »
Thanks for posting these articles. We are witnessing the history and it is all because of BBM.
Remembering Pierre (chameau) 1960-2015, a "Capricorn bro and crazy Frog Uncle from the North Pole." You are missed

Offline jerasjr

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Minneapolis Star Tribune
« Reply #116 on: Mar 12, 2006, 06:31 AM »
3/10 In the Opinon Exchange, Syl Jones has a piece that trashes Crash as best picture.  At the end of his column he writes:

"Brokeback Mountain is an enduring story that accurately portrays the problems inherent in any love relationship: It's hard, it's painful, and the social context in which we love may lead to death and disillusionment.  Long after we are gone, future audiences will wonder how such a stunning achievement could have been overlooked for the Best Picture Award."

That is where our emphasis should be, making certain that BBM endures, not only in ourselves, but in others.
"A mountain with a wolf on it stands a little taller."

Offline hidesert

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Re: Minneapolis Star Tribune
« Reply #117 on: Mar 12, 2006, 12:29 PM »
3/10 In the Opinon Exchange, Syl Jones has a piece that trashes Crash as best picture.  At the end of his column he writes:

"Brokeback Mountain is an enduring story that accurately portrays the problems inherent in any love relationship: It's hard, it's painful, and the social context in which we love may lead to death and disillusionment.  Long after we are gone, future audiences will wonder how such a stunning achievement could have been overlooked for the Best Picture Award."

That is where our emphasis should be, making certain that BBM endures, not only in ourselves, but in others. 

Yes jerasjr, Sly Jones is right BBM will endure as have all those classic films that never won Best Picture.


Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #118 on: Mar 12, 2006, 12:32 PM »

After Oscar Night, My Back’s Broke[/b]

The Academy is more comfortable when we’re doing their hair and keeping our lives out of their sight.

By TONY BRASWELL, The Washington Blade
Mar. 10, 2006


NOTHING KILLS AN Oscar party faster than an unexpected ending.

Whether a pleasant surprise or a shocking announcement, which customarily is credited to the disconnect between Hollywood and "the rest of America," most of the awards are telegraphed well in advance of March by the pre-Oscar orgy of award shows, studio hype and critical comment.

Oscars 2005 featured an abundance of gay characters and film themes. It was finally a year when gay women and men all over the world could revel in the unprecedented role of "favorite."

We didn’t have just one token award on which to place all our bets. We had multiple movies, roles and nominees to cheer. In almost every category we had a favorite, in some we had more than one nominee to support.

My God, they even told us that penguins affiliate with the same gender, and among the limited choice for Best Original Song, we had Dolly. What more could we ask for?

The movie that led the charge, "Brokeback Mountain," was not just our film, it was the odds-on favorite to win it all. Eight nominations, strong story and breathtaking cinema.

According to the pundits and odds makers it’s an excellent, star-studded and beautifully crafted film that happened to tell a gay story and would be named "the best." An Oscar winner, right up there beside "Gone With The Wind," "Sound of Music," "The Godfather" and "Titanic."

AS IS OFTEN the case in the movies, the story doesn’t end how we hope or expect. When Jack Nicholson gleefully announced "Crash" as Best Picture, in one moment my dream crashed.

I sincerely felt that Oscar would reward a movie that finally showed my life to the world, without use of a stereotyped supporting character, without brutality, pity, religious judgment or token acting that adapted to preconceived conceptions of homosexuality.

Finally, gays weren’t just there because we did great hair or wrote great music. We were on the front row. Hell, we held most of the first three rows!

What happened? I want to believe that I missed something. That "Crash" was the better movie. That, as will be stated over and over again, it was a year of great movies and all five pictures were truly Oscar worthy.

But I don’t believe that. In the end, the Academy, like much of America, is more comfortable if we’re doing their hair, building or decorating their houses, staying in our world and keeping our personal lives out of their sight.

Granted, if "Brokeback Mountain" had taken Best Picture, it would be construed as "gays and lesbians taking over Hollywood," or a "blue-state thing" or "further proof that Hollywood is out of touch with America."

But this was the year that momentum, sentiment and a very well made movie were on our side. Finally, we would be able to look at the list of 78 best pictures and say to generations to come that someone told our story.

WHO KNOWS IF that chance will come again in my lifetime. And if it does, can I still enjoy it? In one very shocking moment Sunday night, my back broke.

The party plummeted to earth. Funny how such a party ends. The gay people started trying to rationalize a "Crash" victory, and the straight people quickly leapt to statements that clumsily ended in, "I really thought ‘you’ should have won."

Many won’t understand my disappointment. Why did I need validation of a gold statue and a spot on the wall at the Kodak Theater? Because I’ve never had it.

Year after year, I keep taking partial acceptance of my history and my life "the best I can get." I want more. I am no longer satisfied with nominations, critical acclaim and straight people portraying my life.

After 40 years you would think I could wake up tomorrow and forget it all, blend back into the world. Not this time. Because for once I honestly believed it was going to happen. The landmark portrayal of a gay life would win. Immortalized with an Oscar. This "once in a lifetime" moment was my lifetime. And it didn’t happen.


Offline hidesert

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Re: Post-Oscar news coverage
« Reply #119 on: Mar 12, 2006, 12:46 PM »

DID HOMOPHOBIA STEAL 'BROKEBACK' OSCAR?[/b]

By David Bleiler, Centre Daily | March 10,2006

THERE WAS only one big surprise in Sunday's Academy Awards ceremonies - "Crash" winning best picture over favorite "Brokeback Mountain."

Gasps from Oscar parties across the country could be heard in unison with those attending the show. Even presenter Jack Nicholson looked stunned. (Not to mention apologetic.) He had good reason to be, as did everyone else.

How could a movie that had won more awards, been named on more 10-best lists, and had won the screenplay and directing awards been overlooked for the big prize of the night?

In newspapers and blogs from Boston to L.A., talk of homophobia is rampant, that many voters just couldn't give a "gay" movie its coveted best-film award. Anecdotal evidence, precedents and results certainly make it look that way.

Of course, film criticism is subjective, as is award-giving. But there is history and conventional wisdom to guide and give clues as to what usually will win best picture, what the academy and national critics are thinking, what a nation is thinking.

"Brokeback Mountain" was named on more 10-best lists than any other film in 2005 (twice as many as "Crash"). Critics from liberal cities, moderate suburbs and conservative rural areas gave "Brokeback" best-film honors. This long list includes the Utah Film Critics (the country's most conservative state), Dallas-Fort Worth Critics, Florida Critics Association, Southeastern Film Critics, St. Louis Gateway Critics, Iowa Critics, Las Vegas Film Critics. No hotbeds of liberalism here, this is the heartland. These are all red states.

Add to that awards from film associations in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, the Golden Globes, British Film Awards, Independent Spirit, Directors Guild, Producers Guild, Writers Guild - and praise for "Brokeback" is unanimous. Surveying the top awards from critics across the United States, no other film was mentioned as best film more than once.

There can be no debate that "Brokeback" was the most critically acclaimed film of its year. Financially, it certainly wasn't close as one of the biggest grossing films, but it was the highest-grossing film nominated and returned a huge profit on its relatively small cost. ("Crash" grossed $53 million. In terms of ticket sales, it is the least-popular best film in the academy's 78 years.)

"Brokeback" looks to end its run with about $90 million, a respectable gross for either an indie or Hollywood film. But there was a problem in getting many more patrons to the theaters to see it - and many were academy members themselves.

Prominent journalists like Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, Nikki Finke of L.A. Weekly and Tom O'Neill of The Envelope from the L.A. Times reported before and after the show that they had heard comments from academy members that they had no interest in seeing a film about gay cowboys in love or voting for it.

CAN YOU IMAGINE if they had said they had no intention of seeing "Hustle & Flow" because it as about African-Americans, or "Munich" because it was about Jews?

It is the duty of an academy member to see all the films nominated in a category, and if they hadn't, they shouldn't be voting in that category. Someone forgot to tell this courtesy to many, many academy members.

What about "Crash" itself? Reviews were mixed (most critics found it ambitious, sincere but flawed), but its subject matter and storytelling grabbed many.

There is a substantive case to be made that "Brokeback" was robbed of its best-film Oscar by a big dose of homophobia.

It's sad that Hollywood, which has always prized itself on being on the cutting edge of social issues (emphasized by George Clooney in his acceptance speech), could have gone one step further then it ever has.

And it is doubly sad that "Brokeback," which explores in heartbreaking detail the effects of homophobia, would lose its recognition as best picture to that same homophobia.

If you are gay, you have a right to feel bashed. If you're straight, and a film fan, don't think you haven't been bashed, either.