03/08/2006
The Only Logical Explanation, Dammit!
It was the butterfly ballot!
This obviously is not the real Oscar ballot but a humorous mock-up. I'm going to try and not prolong the pain of speculating about why Brokeback lost for too long, but folks seem to still be talking about it, so here are a few relevant items. The folks over at Dave Cullen's site are putting money out for an ad to go in a publication, thanking the filmmakers.
There's a brief, interesting piece over at USA Today offering glimpses of what you didn't see on Academy Awards night, or might not have caught, like Jack Nicholson confiding in shock that he voted for Brokeback, or a disappointed Ang Lee in the backstage wings: "He silently walks away as the Crash producers begin their acceptance speech, a wan smile on his face."
Finally, there's Gore Vidal, who despite what you might think about his politics, always gives good interview. Here he chats about the Oscars:
On BBM: "I liked it, I thought it was quite moving, obviously thematically it’s important to do a picture like that about two ordinary men, seized at a time in which all this is forbidden and so on."
On America's ridiculous attitude towards sex and homosexuality: "Look, homophobia is fed into every child in the United States at birth. It is unrelenting, it never lets up. They asked a whole raft of high school boys across the country a couple years ago, one of those polls about what they would most like to be in life, and what … they would hate to be, and so forth, and what they would most hate to be was homosexual. There wasn’t anyone, not one, who just skipped the question. They all said 'oh no, that’s the worst thing you could be.' To get over that training, that’s generation after generation. And it has not done the character of our nation much good. And that’s why we are a joke to the rest of the world, because we carry on about sexual matters everyone else has forgotten about.
On Truman Capote: "[Sighs.] I spent half a century trying to avoid him, in life, and now suddenly I’m surrounded by him. He was a pathological liar. He couldn’t tell the truth about anything, and he’d make it up as he went along. He always wore dark glasses, and his eyes would drop behind the dark glasses, and he would seem to be looking down at his nose, and then as he got more and more frenzied—the lies really very frenzied, they were orgasmic—you would start to see the eyes begin to roll up to see if you’d fallen for what he was saying. "
(ballot via nick starr)
Posted 8:58 AM EST by Andy Towle in Film & TV | Permalink
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Is it remotely possible that this has anything to do with it?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11714540/
I would really be interested in your opinion.
Keith
Posted by: Keith | Mar 8, 2006 9:16:44 AM
Oh for God's sake... butterfly ballots? Next we'll start hearing about hanging chads and supreme court intervention. Oy vay... let's be good sports and move on.
Posted by: Brian | Mar 8, 2006 9:27:41 AM
Thanks for linking to the first part of the Gore Vidal interview. The second part can be found here:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060308_vidal_terrorism_propaganda_war/
Posted by: Bill | Mar 8, 2006 9:28:31 AM
I just got the joke. Never mind... it's early yet. :-)
Posted by: Brian | Mar 8, 2006 9:29:13 AM
Link to 2nd part of Gore Vidal interview was too long to post, and got broken, so here's a shortened snipurl link to it:
http://snipurl.com/nbla
Posted by: Bill | Mar 8, 2006 9:31:04 AM
Very strange how Ang Lee did not do Jay Leno last night as scheduled. Anyone got any scoop about his no show? Gotta be a story there.
Posted by: Molasses Onassis | Mar 8, 2006 9:44:54 AM
Yes,
Of course. The new spin is " move on" and allow this to pass. After all, it is "just an award" and it "would not have ended Hollywood Homophobia" and bla-bla-bla-bla-bla.....
Well, I disagree. The Right Wing have been successful in gauging the timeframe for dissent from the enfeebled American left wing that bends to the centre right.
I believe that it is your Karl Rove who said that the attention span of the fractured and disemboweled American left wing is about 48 hours or less.
Connect the dots. Yes, Steve Sandvoss' character, Aaron, was right. It may appear blurred and disconnected. But the dots connect.
The LGBT struggle is a connection of dots that all make up the kaleidascope of our lives. Whether you are speaking about reality or surreality - the perception or thoughts are things.
It matters for all time that Crash won and Brokeback lost. It matters whether projects will be attempted on a virile or feminine reality where gays and lesbians are concerned, or whether we see repeat after repeat of the stereotypic masculine female and effeminate male.
It matters whether or not you fight as if your life depended upon the outcome of the struggle, or merely reacted like sheeple to the eventual oven.
It matters whether or not the Right Wing is successful in removing MA legal marriage, or denying it in NJ and CA.
It matters when the incremental ruse is played, and today the attack is marriage, and tomorrow it is adoption rights, civil unions and any domestic partnerships.
Blogs like Towleroad are barriers in the way of the Right Wing spin tank. Whether it is a ditch or a little pothole easily patched up by the theocons is our job.
No, it is our duty to support these voices.
Posted by: Raymond | Mar 8, 2006 9:54:21 AM
it's not as if anyone is any more free now that there is a movie of "brokeback mountain"
Posted by: whitney houston | Mar 8, 2006 10:02:35 AM
Whitney, we're also not anymore free because of the amount of crack you smoke and the number of times your husband gets arrested... do us all a favor and focus on your own issues. I hear they're casting for the new "CrackBack Mountain" and thought you might be interested.
Posted by: wayne | Mar 8, 2006 10:19:23 AM
Whitney Houston: I would disagree with what you say above. All GLBT are a little freer since Brokeback Mountain, because it mirrors our reality back to us in some ways, and it allows that moment of recognition: that, "Ah, yes, others like me do exist, and have hid their love, and have been ashamed of their love". So yes, we are indeed all a little bit freer because of the film.
Posted by: gordon | Mar 8, 2006 10:19:57 AM
Sheesh, it's just a movie, move on.
You Americans, you funny.
Posted by: protogenes | Mar 8, 2006 10:48:36 AM
Listen... "Crash" won because it was filmed in and around LA, and the majority of the voting body (not to mention the cast) for best picture just happens to be from there. I never heard of the movie much before the Oscar hoopla, but it was nothing more than voting for the home town hero.
BBM won and lost for all the right reasons. Jake and Heath, though the best of the dreck that made up the 2005 movie season, just were not compelling enough to win. Great direction, superb story, excellent score. All the best reasons to win.
There was no conspiracy, there was no "Right-wing" onslaught (Hell, "Narnia", a Christian-centric CGI heavy movie won as many oscars as BBM!).
It's time to move on.
Posted by: Rad | Mar 8, 2006 10:53:25 AM
Please read this article! It is the best explaination of what went into the Crash win and why it has a lot more to do with it than it just being a movie. It shows how disturbing and wrong the Crash win was.
http://www.awardstracking.com/
Dave, it would be great if you put this in one of your pots. It should be read by everyone.
Posted by: NYCer | Mar 8, 2006 11:04:30 AM
A butterfly ballot!? CRACK ME UP!!
Look folks, these are this is the same Academy who gave the 1976 Best Picture Oscar to "Rocky" over "All the President's Men" and "Taxi Driver."
"ROCKY!"
So, come on! This "upset" shouldn't surprise you all that much.
"Brokeback" won a ton of critics awards and, in the end, Ang Lee and cast & crew should be just as proud of those as they would have been with an Oscar.
Posted by: Wayne | Mar 8, 2006 11:07:27 AM
During the next Oscar ceremony, I'm watching Brokeback Mountain. Goodbye academy. Glad your ratings fell another 8% this year.
Posted by: huh@huh.com | Mar 8, 2006 11:09:43 AM
I think one of the major problems we face in the glbt community is that we are the only community that is made up of every race, religion, and gender. With that range it is often difficult to focus on any agenda. Then there is the pc factor, that if the subject does not pass that test, we fight about it to distraction or distruction, which the right takes full advantage of.
BBM has changed the lives of many, mine included. That is one thing the Oscar lost can not take away. I also think we should move on because most people do not give a shit about the Oscors. People will soon forget Crash, but the effects of BBM will be felt for a very long time, including other films about us being made.
Posted by: patrick nyc | Mar 8, 2006 11:11:48 AM
Has anyone ever considered the possibility that traditional, conservative values as they apply to families in our society are simply 'baked' into our collective psyches?
For the cause, for the cause, for the cause. But it will forever remain a 'cause.' Gay cowboys may be lauded by a certain subset of the population, and the story of BM may have had real value, but to think that it could possibly live up to the hype machine of Hollywood and the movie's limited following, is simply to have your head shoved comfortably up your ass.
I realize that we're all gay here (well, most of us). But the fact that BM did not win best picture in 2006 really doesn't change any of the facts regarding our population.
It's fascinating to me that because BM did not win the award there simply MUST be some sort of plausible explanation. Did anyone happen to notice that three other movies also tanked? Where's the outrage, the endless debate, the apoplexy?
We can push and scream and be as fierce as we want, but we cannot change human nature. We can ask to be treated with the same respect afforded other minority groups, and we are entitled to at least that. But to demand complete and utter understanding, acceptance, and embrace is just not going to happen.
Will we ever pass a Siamese twin strolling down the sidewalk without being somewhat taken aback? I doubt it. Put whatever politically correct spin on it that you want, but the facts are the facts: nature went wrong, but nature is, afterall, nature.
Tolerance? Sure, of course. Acceptance, yes. But if they wanted to begin their own societies of purposefully bred Siamese twins, I have to believe that some would say hold up. Would that be right? Who knows. But I have to believe that deep inside each of us, there would be a quiet moment of revulsion.
Some things just aren't meant to be because they are simply contrary to how are hardwired. Like the debate regarding the differences between men and women. Who knew? We really are different regardless of how loudly we scream INTOLERANCE.
Thoughts?
Posted by: Keith | Mar 8, 2006 11:17:25 AM
Ang was pissed alright. He confided to a Taiwanese reporter the next day that he couldn't sleep the night before, and that "Justice is in people's heart, it's only human nature that I would scold
a word or two, but I won't hold it in my heart. Who will still remember this two weeks later?'
More at (if you read Chinese):
http://udn.com/NEWS/ENTERTAINMENT/ENTS3/3200856.shtml
Posted by: max | Mar 8, 2006 11:31:58 AM
An outbreak of Brokeback Deranged Syndrome...
Posted by: Tom | Mar 8, 2006 11:32:50 AM
A pretty good summary of "Crash" success and "Brokeback" fatigue here:
http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/145#comment-208
Posted by: nyc2 | Mar 8, 2006 11:41:11 AM
Lets put our anger to work. Matthew Shepard also loved this story. He gave it to his mother shortly before he was killed. Donate the the Matthew Shepard Foundation in honor of "Jack and Ennis"--( send an email after you donate to let Judy Shepard know its for the movie)
http://www.matthewshepard.org/index.html
Posted by: James | Mar 8, 2006 11:50:08 AM
Keith wrote:
>It's fascinating to me that because
>BM did not win the award there
>simply MUST be some sort of
>plausible explanation. Did anyone
>happen to notice that three other
>movies also tanked? Where's the
>outrage, the endless debate, the apoplexy?
Keith, you're missing the point. Those 3 other movies did not receive a parade of awards over the past 6 months. It's perfectly legitimate to ask why BBM failed to take the last and biggest prize. If it can be so well-received in other countries it's sensible to ask why not in the US? Due to coincidence, Crash's fierce marketing to the academy, coincidence, homophobia, and so on?
Posted by: huh@huh.com | Mar 8, 2006 11:52:47 AM
I for one am grateful to Vidal for deglamorizing the Capote thing. Didn't know the man personally, but I read most everything he ever wrote, including all the (cough) autobiographical stuff. It always reminded me of Lillian Hellman's memoirs; you can actually trace the bullshit and the falsehoods.
More interesting is that Gore pretty much echoes Tennessee Williams' lifelong insistence that we are far more reviled than we even know.
Posted by: Jacko | Mar 8, 2006 11:56:28 AM
Re: Gore Vidal - Pray tell me in which country kids are NOT fed homophobia from birth? The idiot lives in Italy, which is a far worse place for gay people than the USA.
Posted by: alan miles | Mar 8, 2006 12:04:43 PM
Alan,
I can not speak to your visits to Italy but I found them far more free in all sexual attitudes, as have been most of my visits to Europe, outside of the three to Ireland, where my family is from.
No European countries are as repressed and homophobic as ours is. The main opposition overseas is from the Catholic church or other religious bigots, not the mainstream population, as it is here in the states. While they may not embrace gay rights as much as one would like, it is not unheard of for men to have lovers outside of marriage, both male and female.
Posted by: patrick nyc | Mar 8, 2006 1:05:37 PM