Oscars
Posted on Monday, March 6th, 2006 at 14:05.
Academy Awards Night at Emerson is the biggest religious holiday on campus. I think it’s mostly self-loving Hollywood having a collective orgasm for itself, but hey, I’d love to win an Oscar some day! And I had a blast watching the show with Liz and Julie.
Jon Stewart was hysterical, but his jokes weren’t received well judging from the laughter. Hollywood lives in its own bubble, so that isn’t too surprising. Even with the king of comedy, ratings dropped 10%.
Perhaps America-at-large doesn’t care about the movie industry. Stewart intelligently quipped about increased piracy, theater attendance decline, attitudes towards Hollywood elitism, and the banality of Oscar montages.
The ceremony’s central lesson: Play a real person enmeshed in wrenching drama, win an Academy Award.
Capote wasn’t that great, nor was Memoirs of a Geisha or King Kong, and yet they kept winning. I am ecstatic that Crash won for Best Picture, though I felt it should have also won for Best Director. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Brokeback Mountain, but I feel that Crash was a stronger story and presentation of social issues to a wider audience.
The issue-based themes of this year’s best movies might have isolated half of America, but I am glad that Hollywood decided to be a hammer and not a mirror for the first time in a long time.
Music: Travelin’ Through by Dolly Parton
Jeremiah, I respect your opinion, but I would have to disagree with your focus on being politically correct. Crash will simply not hold the test of time.
“Crash†is a decent movie, but not one that will be remembered as ground breaking. Crash was so contrived and forced, not to mention hardly original. In fact, the whole movie is just a patronizing hodgepodge of one happy ending after another.
“Brokeback†is the film people will remember 20 years from now when “Crash†has faded from sight. But, that’s often how the Oscars work: the real best efforts rarely win.
Crash winning best picture over Brokeback was the equivalent of “Shakespeare In Love†winning Best Picture over “Saving Private Ryan.†In both cases, studio marketing wins out over films that truly stand the test of time.
I work in the industry and live in L.A. Political correctness aside, “Crash” winning Best Picture is by far the worst mistake by the Academy in recent memory.
I disagree. Crash wasn’t about happy endings. There is resolve, but you still hate the characters at the end. Crash is the greatest commentary (and more) on race and economic class relations since Do the Right Thing.
Nothing is original. Originality is a lame concept to judge greatness upon. I could make a movie of just bars and tone and call it , but that wouldn’t make it good. Brokeback Mtn is a basic Romeo & Juliet love story, just with gay guys struggling with social norms. Sure, it’s the first to be done with good actors and excellent cinematography, but many independents have tried this similar story many times. Crash built upon the past, but definitely brought a new presentation to relevant socio-economic issues and did so to much greater distribution.
Jeremiah, I believe I know what you’re trying to say about appealing to a wider audience, but I think you missed my initial point.
When you compare the two films back to back, you simply can not ignore which film was artistically superior regardless of subject matter.
Brokeback was not entirely perfect, but at least the characters felt genuine. With the exception of Thandie Newton, the cast of “Crash” felt like caricatures acting out an implausible plot. It simply felt forced and hardly genuine.
But my biggest gripe of the Academy Awards is how heavy handed marketing has increasingly taken over the Awards over the years.
Crash was released from the same indie studio that hyped and distributed Farenheit 9/11. This year, they sent out over 115,000 copies of Crash to the Academy (more so than any other movie in history). This is mind blowing considering Academy membership is just under 6,000.
Heck, if I received free DVD’s to pass out to friends and family, they may have bought my vote as well.
My point is agressive marketing doesn’t make for a great movie. “Crash” was simply seen as a “good enough” alternative to Brokeback Mountain.
As movie historians debate what really happened Sunday, there’s always going to be the lingering question whether subject matter played a part.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not mad that a gay themed movie didn’t win, but I’m more concerned that the better movie lost due to its subject matter.
The unfortunate outcome is that a mediocre movie passed over a great one, not due to artistic merit, but through personal bias and aggressive marketing.
A better movie didn’t lose because of its content matter. Crash was a better movie.
Seriously, you’re the first person I’ve heard not like Crash.
“Artistic” quality arguments are questionable. If movies are the art of telling a story, Crash’s story is stronger. Brokeback Mountain’s story lacked development in areas. If movies are a visual art, both were visually beautiful. If movies are a performance art, both were great. Some (like Arthur) found Heath rather flat and Jake coming through too much in Jack.
I am aware of Crash’s marketing campaign. It’s just show “business”.
Zap2It has a great summary on Joan’s red carpet blunders.
I’ve not yet seen Brokeback, so I can’t compare the two, but I’d just like to say that I agree with Jeremiah that Crash was great for all the reasons he already said, but I’m gonna have to agree with Armen that much of it did seem forced. I don’t think that took too much away from the movie, though. Heck, Meet The Parents was the most contrived thing I’ve seen in my life, yet everybody seems to love it. Okay, maybe that’s a terrible example…