Crash
#27re: Crash
Posted: 3/5/06 at 11:50pmI dunno, I'd consider "Shakespeare in Love" winning over "Saving Private Ryan" to be a bigger upset. My dad still bitches about that one.
"Shut up! It's been 29 years!!!" --the incomparable Patti LuPone in her MUCH DESERVED Tony acceptance speech for Gypsy.
Kitzy's Avatar du Jour: Kitzy as Little Red Ridinghood in her college's production of "Into the Woods"
#28re: Crash
Posted: 3/5/06 at 11:50pm
Here comes the gay boy...
Yes, race is important. Yes the movie "Crash" was remarkable. I loved it. Watched it twice back to back. Powerful lesson especially for young people.
But as far as cultural significance, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that homophobia is a much LARGER and IMPORTANT issue today than racism. Racism has a name, has a face, has a huge library of books, movies, music, and historical moments...
But homophobia is TODAY'S social epidemic. Unspoken, hidden, and current political fuel. There is no class or group of people today other than homosexuals who are having LEGAL legislation being written and passed to BAR them from human rights.
Ergo, I would have liked "Brokeback" to win over "Crash" because the message would have been that much louder. But yes, I do believe that when 20 years pass, we will be remembering "Brokeback" more than we will remember "Crash".
Still, both are remarkable award-worthy films.
#31re: Crash
Posted: 3/5/06 at 11:53pm
Regardless of the 'issues' in any of the movies, there are lots of reasons why movies win or don't win the Best Picture award.
It usually boils down to the business of Hollywood (Shakespeare in Love, for example).
Cruel_Sandwich
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/30/05
#33re: Crash
Posted: 3/5/06 at 11:54pm
I remember when I saw Crash in theaters. The audience suuuuuuuucked. They had no idea how to tell dramatic moments in a drama from comedic moments in a drama. In addition, they:
- Read the subtitles aloud
- "Oooo Don Cheadle! He is going to get an Oscar!" after he had the monologue about "Mexicans parking their cars on the grass" or whatever he said
- Loud gasping whenever someone made a racial comment like "f***ing black people". As if they were surprised to see depictions of racism in a film ABOUT racism.
- They thought the entire opening scene in which Jennifer Esposito fights with the Asian woman was the funniest thing they've ever seen in their lives
#34re: Crash
Posted: 3/5/06 at 11:55pmAuggie...I think this is the first time I disagreed with you. Crash moved me in a way a no film has in years. While I found Brokeback Mountain well made and wonderfully acted...overall I thought it was bore and after watching I though I've seen other movies with the same theme done much better.
SweetQintheLights
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/12/05
#36re: Crash
Posted: 3/5/06 at 11:58pm
I actually just watched it again last night on DVD, and found it far less persuasive than I did last year in the theater. But what the hell, it's a year when everyone will say Hollywood congratulated itself. They would've said that no matter who won, so long as KONG wasn't in the running.
If we step back, it was a year when every "little" movie scored by being at the table. We should probably all back off from our personal sense of disappointment and remember how art mostly triumphed in the nomination process this year. I will hold onto that. It wasn't a year when a lot of dumbing down entertainmet got pumped up with undeserving nominations. And the nominations were more critical to defining the year than the winners.
#37re: Crash
Posted: 3/6/06 at 12:00am
Crash was good, but will be quickly forgotten. Like Star Wars, the most memorable (and most likely to be a classic) film of the year will not be awarded Best Picture simply because the Academy wants to thumb its nose at the critics (and refuses to watch to men kiss). Therefore, the least criticially acclaimed nominated film walks away with Best Picture and the Academy is ok with the fact that many of its members refused to see Brokeback. I guess the only concession is that Crash wasn't as boring or average as Out of Africa, The English Patient or A Beautiful Mind. But for me, Brokeback was not only the clear winner on every level (screenplay, cinematography, direction and perfomance), but would have been an important win as well (no matter what cynics on the board may say). At least it has already achieved the accolades it deserves - international acclaim. Yay Crash.
The Academy doesn't need anyone to promise them a national tour for an award. Just don't show gay men having sex.
"HOW MANY TIMES have I heard that stupid 'I wish I could quit you line'?? "
Probably never before Brokeback opened. Which makes it pretty original. Crash's originality was making an Altman film depressing. Oh wait, Boogie Nights and Magnolia already sorta did that. But with more originality. And Magnolia (best picture of the year and far more original than Crash) wasn't even nominated. Huh.
Don't get me wrong, I liked Crash, but BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR? No. The Constant Gardener was better than Crash as well.
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#38re: Crash
Posted: 3/6/06 at 12:05am
"Crash is still trite and overdone."
And "Brokeback" was SO original. Christopher Marlowe didn't write anything remotely similar hundreds of years ago with Edward II.
HELLO?? What, are you saying these are the same story? Or are the "gays" only allowed to have one story every 500 years?
Marlow's story of a gay king who gets overthrown and tortured to death has little to do with Ennis Del Mar's life as a poverty stricken ranch hand in 1960s Wyoming.
Cruel_Sandwich
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/30/05
#44re: Crash
Posted: 3/6/06 at 12:13am
"I highly doubt Brokeback didn't win because it dealt with homosexuality."
Then it must have been the near unanimous favorable reviews and 90% awards sweep that killed it. Seriously, it was either the number of Academy members that refused to see the film or the Academy snubbing the critics. Never have the reviews and the awards ever been so generous to a single film not to win the Oscar for Best Picture. It doesn't add up.
Thesbijean
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/9/04
#47re: Crash
Posted: 3/6/06 at 12:15amOh szycat, that was the first real upset of the night. And the second biggest. But then, Best Original Song has always been an iffy category. Remember when I Love the Nightlife won from Love at First Bite?
#48reality check
Posted: 3/6/06 at 12:15am
Before we all get crazy...
I just talked to a friend who's a bonafide voting member of the academy. The consensus out there is, the movies were neck and neck, and that CRASH won by anything but a landslide. There were several camps this year. CRASH won by a handful of votes.
Anyone remember Kathy Bates winning for MISERY? No one called that, but everyone knew, it was by a literal handful of votes.
We should probalby cautiously back off. My friend rememinded me that many people voted for MUNICH and GOOD NIGHT. We had a very divided academy, not just between two movies. Only the critics saw it that way. The voters voted for all 5 films. Honestly.
#49reality check
Posted: 3/6/06 at 12:19am
"So this is the first time that critical opinion doesn't match up with popular opinion."
Since when does Crash as Best Picture equal popular opinion? And since when do the Oscars represent popular opinion? The Academy represents themselves and no one else. Tonight they made that very clear. They went for the more commercial film most likely to sell DVDs.
"cinematic storytelling at it's best."
That's exactly how I felt about Brokeback.
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