All night, the Oscar telecast noted the social issues brought up by this year’s nominees. Just looking at Best Picture, you see films that confront homophobia, racism, censorship and terrorism. But with Crash’s win, the Academy took on its own issue: L.A.’s inferiority complex.
The Los Angeles Times’ The Envelope says the vote was borne out of homophobia. But Brokeback Mountain took Best Picture at the “British Oscars”, and scored similar awards from 7 of the 12 organizations that make up IMDB’s “Road To The Oscars”. If voting for Brokeback is such a tough pill to swallow for homophobics, shouldn’t we have seen or heard of such a backlash from at least one of the lower profile, less progressive award shows? Are we really to assume that all of the homophobic minds in cinema worldwide are concentrated in the Academy?
One thing we can assume most Academy voters have in common is a home base in Los Angeles. Indeed, when New York Times Oscar guru David Carr spoke to our class, he commented that, while he didn’t find Crash to be the best film of the year, its L.A.-centricity could strike a chord with the voters.
The very fact that Crash was in position to win demonstrates this well enough. Of those twelve organizations recognized in IMDB’s “Road To The Oscars” coverage, none gave their highest award to Crash. Rotten Tomatoes’ compilation of reviews showed Crash to be the relative worst of the five nominees.
Yet, in the days and weeks leading up to the Oscars, all you heard was “Crash could be the spoiler.” Gambling site Bodog.com listed Brokeback as the favorite at 1/10, Crash at even money, and the three other nominees all at 20/1 or worse. In layman’s terms: it was a two-horse race, with a clear favorite between them.
That’s some major buzz, for a movie that had nothing approaching that level of support at any other awards show. What happened here was special. And what could speak to the Academy that didn’t get through to anyone else? Homosexuality? Racism?
Or homerism?
Zack Barangan @ Wed, 03/08/2006 - 2:29pm
I'm not usually one to wax scandal on the Oscars. But I think this is a special case. I'll say it: Brokeback Mountain was robbed.
It was a much more important movie than that overrated, glorified after-school special Crash. I mean come on, forget all the social implications that Brokeback had, it was simply just the better-made movie. The Academy had a chance to solidify Brokeback's place in history, but it blew it in favor of a little self-indulgence. But hey, these are the same guys that voted for Forrest Freakin' Gump over Pulp Fiction. Wily bunch that Academy.