Oscar, Old Bags 'N Haggis

Annie Proulx recently wrote an essay slamming the choice of the Paul Haggis film Crash over Brokeback Mountain (adapted from her own short story) for Best Picture from the AMPAS. I could not disagree with her more – what a surprise, eh? Heavens help me, having to defend something as unctuous as the cash-and-politics motivated Academy…  but really, it isn’t that I feel that what they do most of the time is correct. It’s just that having seen both films, I think they actually got this right for a change.

I don't want someone jumping down my neck calling me homophobic or anything else either. I'm not gay, so I don't have an agenda, but I am frequently one of the people who gets into disagreements with bible thumping fascists and my family and friends about gay marriage and equal rights. I support everyone's right to be what they are, and to live their life how they choose as long as it is not at anyone else's expense. Oh, well, one caveat - I never support anyone's right to be stupid or bigoted. I am totally against stupidity and I see bigotry as an extension of that.

Ok... all the qualifications done? Great. Oh, maybe one more. Let's remember, now, that everyone has different opinions of films. Some people love Star Wars, some people hate it, some people only like the original trilogy - and that is only ONE movie series! When you consider the diversity of what is "out there", it is perfectly understandable that people have their own tastes and their own opinions.

Brokeback Mountain was a visually stunning film - even if some of the scenery was "cheated" visual effects rather than cinematography (as a photographer, I always feel like I cheat if I have to clean up a picture even a little bit, although that is part of the art). Heath Leger did a fantastic job in his role, but I can't compare him to Hoffman because I have not yet seen Capote. I did enjoy the movie somewhat - but I didn't feel it was worthy of winning best picture. To me, it was maudlin melodrama... maybe it’s because I already believed that who you love is your business and no one else’s, so I didn't need the "schooling" provided? When I watched it, the feeling I kept having was - I saw this movie before, only it was different genders. One version was a man and a woman who met every year to carry on an affair. Another version was when a black man and a white woman had a forbidden ongoing affair. The only significant difference between Brokeback and a couple of other movies in the last 30-40 years was that the couple both had the same genitalia. It just was not something witty, original or unique other than the sexual preferences. Sure, getting it made in what is still essentially a homophobic society in America was something to be admired - but the movie didn't have the emotional depth it should have. At times, I felt manipulated watching it. At times I felt almost like it was mocking straight relationships and pulling a nudge nudge, wink wink at us. It came across as being almost a backlash against "the boys" trying to fit in. Maybe because it was adapted from a short story, but I felt it just didn't address the real depth of the issue. I also felt it was muddled and unclear in some places, leaving some things so ambiguous that you weren't sure exactly what was supposed to have happened. Did they get married and "pass" for straight because it was simply fear, or was it because that was what was expected of them from society/parents/etc.? Do gay people stay in the closet because they are genuinely afraid for their lives at all times, or is it a multilayered problem of expectations, society, obligations, and so on?

I'm not actually ASKING questions there, I have a pretty good idea of the answers and that is my point. I felt that BBM didn't even try to touch on many of these things, and in order to garner the praise it has, it SHOULD have. Or maybe, it was just done so subtly that my inferior mind didn't grasp it? It felt more like someone was trying to tell me it is bad to kill people just because they are gay, something that I thought we had more or less agreed upon as a society with few exceptions. And I express the concept that way <i>in direct response</i> to people who have said that Crash just tells us racism is bad and therefore isn't innovative or original. Consider this: people hear that the movie is about gay cowboys. People who are open-minded or curious are going to see the film. People who are closed minded and prejudiced will NOT see it. Doesn't that mean that BBM is basically preaching to the choir? The people who NEED to see BBM are exactly the crowd that refuse to, so if you fail to get your message to the people that most need to hear it, isn't that a problem? The message of BBM was that love transcends all - gender, race and all other obstacles - that was the point, wasn't it?

Ugh, I almost wrote half of that in non-sequiturs. I am sure it will get worse, being 4am and all.

When I watched Crash (tonight, in fact), I couldn't help but draw comparisons in my mind about which movie was better. I had already seen Brokeback... I already knew the outcome of the Oscar voting, and I already knew about Annie Proulx's little tirade and I was really prepared to sit through an inferior film that was all hype. I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. In spite of the "obvious" theme of racism, I felt it was innovative because it showed us not only white-on-black racism, but that all of us, no matter our ethnic background, even those with the best intentions, have prejudices and racist beliefs at times. During Crash I laughed, I felt horrified, I felt sickened and I felt immense sadness. I don't think I ever found myself pulled in so many directions by a film. For almost every character, there was an evolution of your connection to them... at times you were revulsed by their actions, at times you felt immense compassion for them... and it ran the gamut. Hate 'em, love 'em, pity 'em, worship 'em - at different times in the movie I felt one of those ways about most of them. I'm usually a person who hates the blatant attempts by the entertainment industry to manipulate my feelings but when it came to Crash, it was so witty and well done that I didn't find I resented it at all.

Of the two films, I enjoyed Crash a lot more. Is it because I couldn't stand the man-on-man love action in BBM? No, that doesn't enter into it at all - I didn't feel uncomfortable watching Brokeback. What I felt was a little bored, and gypped out of what I expected from the film. Now this is my opinion, and my taste, and nothing you say can change how I feel in my gut about the two films.

Let's put it this way: I often use Rotten Tomatoes as a guideline (and ONLY a guideline) to decide which movie to rent or see in the theatre. I don't think there has been a film with more than 100 reviews that has achieved a rating of 100%. That means that no matter how good something is, there is always someone out there who doesn't like it. 95% "Fresh" reviews means there are 5% "Rotten" reviews, and neither Crash(71%) nor Brokeback Mountain(86%) comes close to being loved by everyone. Capote rates 91%, higher than both films discussed here, but that still means that 1 in 10 critics don't like it. So, if I call BBM maudlin melodrama remade from some 70s romantic movie, that view is based on MY experiences with movies (and life) and my tastes. It doesn't mean I hate gay people or I am prejudiced or that I am afraid watching it will turn me gay or my kids gay - it just means I didn't enjoy it the way others did.

Obviously, enough people at the AMPAS had similar feelings or at least arrived at a similar conclusion by whatever method they chose to use when deciding on the award. And that's why it didn't win best picture, in spite of Annie Proulx's senile and vitriolic ranting.

Annie, I love your writing, I loved the Shipping News, but at 70 I hardly think YOU are the guardian or spokesperson for "what was stirring contemporary culture" any more than the "conservative heffalump academy voters". Maybe its time to put away your keyboard/pen/slate and take up knitting. Or maybe kickboxing, considering the barely-contained fury?