Well last nights live thread was a roller coaster ride.I have been catching up on post oscar reports.I watched Ang interviewed at the entrance to the vanity fair party.When questioned if he was pleased about the best director win he said this..."Pleased for me yes.For Brokeback.No" He was also asked if he was shocked they didn't win best picture.He said 'Yes'.I admire his honesty. A couple of U.S newspaper reports below.
Jennis.x
The post-Oscars debate: Why Brokeback lost
Reuters - Mar 06, 12:26
The Oscars opened the closet door to gay-themed films but shut it
almost as quickly.
"Brokeback Mountain," the much-ballyhooed favorite about two gay
cowboys, won best director for Ang Lee on Sunday but stunningly lost
the best picture prize to race drama "Crash." Additionally Philip
Seymour Hoffman won best actor for playing gay novelist Truman Capote
in "Capote."
The victory for "Crash" suggested Oscar voters were more comfortable
with a tale that exploited the seamy underbelly of racial conflict in
contemporary Los Angeles than with a heartbreaking tale of love
between two married men.
"Perhaps the truth really is, Americans don't want cowboys to be
gay," said Larry McMurtry, 69, who shared an Oscar for best adapted
screenplay with Diana Ossana for "Brokeback."
No overtly gay love story has ever won a best picture award and, as
of Monday morning, none has. The big question going into the Oscars
was whether Hollywood, often in the forefront of social issues, would
break another taboo.
"Film buffs and the politically minded will be arguing this morning
about whether the Best Picture Oscar to 'Crash' was really for the
film's merit or just a cop-out by the Motion Picture Academy so it
wouldn't have to give the prize to 'Brokeback Mountain,"' said
Washington Post critic Tom Shales.
Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan saw "Brokeback's" failure as a
sign that Hollywood was not yet ready to grant the topic of
homosexual love mainstream respectability.
"Despite all the magazine covers it graced, despite all the red-state
theaters it made good money in, despite (or maybe because of) all the
jokes late-night talk show hosts made about it, you could not take
the pulse of the industry without realizing that 'Brokeback Mountain'
made a number of people distinctly uncomfortable," he said, adding:
"So for people who were discomfited by 'Brokeback Mountain' but
wanted to be able to look themselves in the mirror and feel like they
were good, productive liberals, 'Crash' provided the perfect safe
harbor."
BROKEBACK, CRASH WIN 3
"Brokeback" led the field with eight nominations and ended up with
three prizes, also winning for original score.
Hoffman won for playing Truman Capote in "Capote," a story of the
archly gay writer going to Kansas to report on the murder of a family
of four for his classic book "In Cold Blood." Hollywood sweetheart
Reese Witherspoon won best actress for her performance as country
singer June Carter in the Johnny Cash biographical film, "Walk the
Line."
"Crash," which covers a 36-hour period in Los Angeles as the lives of
people of many races collide in a way that highlights bigotry, was a
close second to "Brokeback" in Oscar handicapping. "Crash"
writer/director Paul Haggis said he was "shocked, shocked" with the
victory. It also won three prizes.
"We're still trying to figure out if we got this," he said, clutching
his golden trophy in his hand. "None of us expected it. You hope, but
we had a tiny picture ... this was a year when Hollywood rewarded
rule breakers."
Following the plots of many of its message-themed movies, Oscar took
a decidedly political tone with winners noting causes, and freshman
show host Jon Stewart making wisecracks.
Stewart's performance seemed to divide the TV critics.
"It's hard to believe that professional entertainers could have put
together a show less entertaining than this year's Oscars, hosted
with a smug humorlessness by comic Jon Stewart, a sad and pale shadow
of great hosts gone by," said the Post's Shales.
"Brokeback Mountain" was released by Focus Features, a unit of NBC
Universal, which is controlled by General Electric Co. "Capote" was
released by Sony Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news).
"Walk the Line" was released by Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News
Corp.. "Crash" was released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate
Entertainment Corp.
