Ann Coulter predicted that “Crash” might not win the Oscar for Best Picture because filmgoers actually enjoyed it. I was sorry when it won, even though it is based on a work by J.G. Ballard, an author I admire.
I was pulling for “Brokeback Mountain.” Not that it was a great movie-I had to stifle giggles. But I always love to see Hollywood show how alienated it is from the rest of us. But they lost their nerve.
That, at least, is how Reuters sees it (and how I see it):
“The Oscars opened the closet door to gay-themed films but shut it almost as quickly.”
In other words, because some straight-themed movies won, Hollywood isn’t doing its duty to advance the cause of sophisticates who want to be different from the close-minded citizenry that doesn’t go for such heady fare.
It’s is quite possible for a “gay-themed” movie to be a great work of art. Contrary to the zeitgeist of ill-educated Hollywood, “gay-themed” works of art are nothing new under the sun (Latin poets, call your office.) But Brokeback was not a good movie.
Despite a shot of an otherwise naked Heath Ledger wearing nothing but his cowboy hat, Brokeback is so obviously propaganda that it is boring. It is bathos rather than pathos-as indicated by the numerous parodies it has engendered.
In accepting the award for Best Director, Brokeback’s Ang Lee said the movie is about “the greatness of love itself.” But this is the one thing the movie is not about-hot sex on the mountain, yes. But Ennis and Jack don’t seem to make much connection. The Other Charlotte has suggested that this is because actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, Ennis and Jack respectively, who are straight, didn’t manage to convey passion.
But I still wanted them to win.