Of course, the real roller coaster excitement, those thrilling ups and downs, came with the awards. There were pleasant surprises, such as George (I guess I’m not winning for Best Director) Clooney’s award for Best Supporting Actor (for Syriana), and the inevitable disappointments (Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride walking away without the Best Animated Feature Oscar).
Riot on the Streets — Almost
But the post-Oscar talk of the town is unquestionably the evening’s major upset; Crash winning the Best Picture Oscar instead of Brokeback Mountain. The kerfuffle even has a name, the “Crash-lash,” as Brokeback Mountain’s indignant supporters chomp at the bit (rightly, in my view) to understand the unexpected loss. (Jim Emerson’s blog at www.rogerebert.com sheds some light on the whole controversy, if you really want to subject yourself to more sound and fury.)
The L.A. Times’ Kenneth Turan wrote: "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. 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."
At IGN Film Force, Jeff Otto answered a surprised reader’s mail with: “The fact that so many people bought into this shows just how out of touch many of the critics and Academy-members are with reality. I’d have to say without hesitation that ‘Crash’ is the least deserving Oscar-winner of recent memory.” And that’s just the tip of his disdain for the movie.
Backlash to the “Crash-lash” comes by way of Roger Ebert who, in a strange fit of defensiveness, wrote, “Were supporters of ‘Brokeback’ homophobic in championing the cowboys over what Oscarcast host Jon Stewart called the "effete New York intellectual"?
“Of course not. ‘Brokeback Mountain’ was simply a better movie than ‘Capote.’ And ‘Crash’ was better than ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ although they were both among the best films of the year. That is a matter of opinion. But I was not ‘discomfited’ by ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ Read my original review. I chose ‘Crash’ as the best film of the year not because it promoted one agenda and not another, but because it was a better film.”
As for me, I believe that by giving Brokeback Mountain its Best Drama award, the Golden Globes revealed bigger and more golden globes than the timid Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. I have to wonder if Emerson isn’t correct when he writes that “to argue that bigotry didn’t figure at all into the Academy’s voting for (or should I say ‘against’) ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is, I think, as ridiculous as to say it was the only consideration.”
The Hidden Upset
Homophobia aside, it’s rather telling that, whatever the real reason for snubbing Brokeback Mountain is, Crash was the dark horse out of all the Best Picture nominees. As Ebert said, it’s a matter of opinion. But, in my opinion, Crash is a milquetoast movie not really worth thinking about or discussing. Why it has garnered so much attention is beyond me.
Which brings me to the hidden upset of the evening, namely, that Good Night, and Good Luck was completely shut out — not a Best Actor award for David Strathairn, whose performance easily equalled Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s in Capote, not a Best Original Screenplay award, not even a Best Cinematography Oscar. Nothing. For a film that received the highest critical accolades of all the Best Picture Nominees (rating ninety-four percent at www.rottentomatoes.com, compared to eighty-six percent for Brokeback Mountain, seventy-eight percent for Munich, and seventy-seven percent for Crash), I have to wonder how the Academy could be so criminally negligent of a film that is not only technically and artistically outstanding, but just as topically relevant as Brokeback Mountain — if not as revolutionary.
If the Academy really was too squeamish to give Brokeback Mountain the Best Picture Oscar it deserved, Good Night, and Good Luck was the next best choice. It would still have been an upset, but a less objectionable one — particularly since, unlike Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck received no recognition elsewhere.
So why Crash? Why not a film that uses an important historical event as a pointed, necessary, and timely critique of today’s media and political climate? Perhaps to acknowledge Good Night, and Good Luck is to painfully acknowledge the miserable state of our media and government.
Maybe Turan is on to something after all. I don’t know if the reasons for Crash’s win can be so easily or glibly reduced to “liberal but not too liberal” credentials. But it’s certainly hard not to suspect that race, as one of the few politically correct hot-button issues, made Crash a safe, comfortable choice.
A Final Thought
A letter to Roger Ebert makes a moving case for the greater human significance of Brokeback Mountain, one that Crash simply does not achieve. You can read it here: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060308/LETTERS/60309001
All I can add is that in the murky world of film criticism and appreciation, beneath the controversy that keeps Brokeback Mountain as much at the forefront of cultural consciousness as Crash, an opportunity was also lost with Good Night, and Good Luck. Like Brokeback Mountain, the film raises important issues. Unlike Ang Lee’s masterpiece, it has languished in relative obscurity. And the Oscars, regrettably, haven’t done much to change that.
