"CRASH" or "BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN"??---this year's Best Picture- Page 2

[Plum]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 1:27pm

Oooh, Crash won a "best cast" award from those well-known Oscar predictors, the SAGs! This must make them a big bad dark horse!

Please. I'm not crazy about either of the movies here, but BBM is still a juggernaut. The fact that people are clinging to this one award as proof that someone! anyone! can defeat it is only proof of its dominance. It's going to win the Oscar.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 1:47pm

SIDEWAYS won the SAG. Was it a shoe-in to top MILLION DOLLAR BABY?

At Oscarwatch.com, they're obsessed with comparing this contest to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN vs. (last minute upset:) SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. But does anyone really think the dark and mostly underattended CRASH, with its ugly collision-course motif about race, is this year's equivalent SHAKESPEARE? Comparions are odious, but if that model is held up, surely the bittersweet nature of BROKEBACK's love story lines up more logically with voter sensibilities that awarded SHAKESPEARE.

[MarkCohen]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 1:53pm

"I know you all support it very much on here mainly because of the barriers it has broken for gay storylines."

I'm sorry to nitpick, and it's probably just because I'm annoyed at how often it is branded a "gay cowboy" movie, and nothing else. But that is a pretty stereotypical comment. I loved the movie because it was amazingly acted, directed, and shot; not because it is breaking barriers. If it had been a bad movie, I would not be pulling for it.

/end rant

That said, i am pulling for it to win, I found Crash highly overrated and uncohesive as a film.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 2:19pm

There were/are a ton of people who think Shakespeare in Love was a pile of crap. It won.

There are people on both sides of Crash--the question is which group is bigger and will they vote accordingly?

I still think Brokeback is a lock, but Crash winning is possible and for those of us who loved the film--who "got it"--it makes perfect sense.

[touchmeinthemorning]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 2:40pm

I think Crash has a real shot at it. Ebert and Roeper's show today asked the voters to vote for Crash over Brokeback.

I think Brokeback is a better made and more important (read: timely) movie, but...I adore Crash, as well. I'll be happy either way. I think Brokeback will be winning quite a few awards, though.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 3:23pm

The Best Ensemble win was long predicted. But I will say that the producers of CRASH have been doing some very aggressive campaigning: sending 100,000 screeners is unprecedented.

I do think much of the CRASH "momentum" is just the media propping up a paper opponent in what is really a one-horse race, so that there'd be something to write about for the month between the nomination announcement and the award telecast. If BROKEBACK doesn't win the Oscar, I think it will diminish the Academy's reputation (for being the only major awarding organization to overlook BROKEBACK and award CRASH, of all movies) than tarnish BROKEBACK's prestige.

Updated On: 2/25/06 at 03:23 PM

[broadway86]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 3:53pm

Crash winning is possible and for those of us who loved the film--who "got it"--it makes perfect sense.

What do you mean? Updated On: 2/25/06 at 03:53 PM

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:05pm

A better way of saying "got it" might be that it connected with them--they got it. They connected with what the writers and director were trying to say.

I only mean it as another way of liked it.

[Patronus]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:07pm

Yeah, I did like it. I love movies that take multiple story lines and weave them together. I was just really put off by that ending.

I guess it depends on the mood you are in, but it just seemed a bit silly and emotionally manipulative to me.

I love Thandie Newton and Terrance Howard in the film. They were the highlights for me.

[Plum]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:07pm

Maybe seeing it got you would be more appropriate. :)

[broadway86]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 4:50pm

I only mean it as another way of liked it.

Oh, okay. I see.
Updated On: 2/25/06 at 04:50 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 5:03pm

I'm with BlueWiz a hundred percent. CRASH was not even a contender anywhere but Chicago. Not really on the radar. Not an offbeat alternative like HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, or a popular red state root-for like WALK THE LINE, both of which failed to get BP noms. For it to pull ahead, with parallel Director/writing nods to Lee and McMurtry, will look like an industry slap at BROKEBACK. Scream all you want, that's how it will playout. Giving the Monday morning Oscar pundits something to write about, but also making Hollywood look rather silly.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 5:07pm

Who was screaming?

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 5:36pm

If Avenue Q can come through and beat Wicked despite everyone predicting a win for Wicked, then I'm still hopeful for Crash--not expecting it to happen, but hopeful.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 7:09pm

"got it" is not the same as saying you liked it though, it contains the implication that those of us who did not like it are stupid or duped in some way.

I "got it," it was not hard to "get." I did not like the way it told me about "it."

I understand that you did not mean it as an attack on those who liked the movie, but that is why I am against that phrase. It contains that connotation.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 7:16pm

I actually liked Crash - though it was a subtle as a brick. I also liked the message that in a city as sprawling and in some ways isolated among its various subcities, suburbs and urban crawl, that we are all still somehow connected.

And SP and Patronus - I was very entertained by the podcast.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 7:18pm

I think I do mean "got it" in terms of the style of the film. ::ducks::

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 7:19pm

It was the lack of any subtely at all that drove me nuts.
I liked the message and the general plot, I hated the execution.

(and thanks YWIW?)

ETA:
See Jerby that is where I really take issue then, I usually love that style of film. Interlocking stories, and broad and important theme, and great acting. This film failed me on all of those level. I will not accept being told I did not "get it" I got it and did not like what I was given.

Updated On: 2/25/06 at 07:19 PM

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 7:52pm

does it make it better that I think your penguin is really cute?

I don't really think that, btw.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 7:58pm

That my penguin is cute?
He is crushed.

I still love you Jerby. I am a huge proponent of the "it is good to disagree sometimes" school of thought.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 8:08pm

What adjective would penguin prefer?

And I like how you used crushed in a thread about crash!

And, yes, we greatly differ on Crash, but I would never question your intelligence!

Updated On: 2/25/06 at 08:08 PM

[Jon]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 8:09pm

You think Brokeback is subtle? Talk about manipulative tear jerkers!

[Wanderingchild5]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 8:09pm

Crash

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 8:12pm

Did I ever say BBM was subtle?
The answer is no.

Jerby: Exactly!

Updated On: 2/25/06 at 08:12 PM

[Luscious]

Posted: 2/25/06 at 8:14pm

"You think Brokeback is subtle? Talk about manipulative tear jerkers!"

We must have seen two different cuts of the film.