Was Brokeback Mountain really that good?

[Sammy Pepys]

I see lots of folks upset over the Oscars because BBM didn't win Best Picture. Look, I thought it was a great picture as did my wife and many of my friends, and it was certainly worthy of being nominated for Best Picture, but I don't know anyone who thought it was a shoe-in to win other than for "groundbreaking" purposes, nor do I know anyone who was impressed with it enough to say it was worth Best Picture. Frankly, I liked Capote better. And it wasn't like BBM was shut out altogether. Did Munich or Cinderella Man even win anything?

I haven't seen Crash but my wife has, and she thought that was the worst movie out of all of them, so she was shocked to see it win....but we were both pulling for Capote.

[NVMojo]

1. it was a beautiful, painful film but the message would have been the

same if it was about a black man and white woman in the early 60s.

[TahitiNut]

28. "Guess Who's Coming To Pasture"??

:silly:

[imperialismispasse]

32. .

:rofl:

[WCGreen]

49. My Screen is full of spit.......

[serryjw]

54. One of my all time favorite movies

n/t

[vi5]

2. I thought the Academy got it right....

I thought a big part of Brokeback mountain was the direction. From the scenery to the way the shots were set up, to the no doubt difficult role of "directing" heterosexual actors to become comfortable enough in the roles to be convincing. That's why I think Ang Lee deserved to win.

I thought Crash was the better overall film. From the casting, to the acting, to the writing, to the pacing. But the direction was not really that great or that difficult I thought. But as a whole package it was a really good picture.

[RubyDuby in GA]

3. I thought BBM was okay - maybe a little boring actually

I felt that Munich deserved to win Best Picture. To me, that film was what a BP should be: all-encompassing, engrossing, epic in scale with a great story.

Crash was a pretentious, contrived bit of fluff compared to the others and didn't deserve to even be nominated, much less win.

[sui generis]

7. munich was deeply flawed historically

it was the last one on my list for Best Picture.

[LostinVA]

9. Cinderella Man should have been there instead of Munich

For the reason you listed, plus some problems with the script.

[kentuck]

20. That was my favorite.

:)

[LostinVA]

21. Great movie -- stayed quite true to fact, too

[xmas74]

47. My brother moderates a movie board

and writes reviews for them. He gave CM a better review than Munich-thought Munich strayed a bit from historial fact.

(On edit: he loved BBM but thought the best movie of the year should have been Good Night and Good Luck. He said that Crash probably got it because it was an ensemble, which can be quite hard to pull off in a decent fashion. He said that BBM was excellent and in other years would have won but that GNaGL should have won-it blew him and so many others away.)

[im10ashus]

15. I agree.

I thought if any move would upset BBM it would be Good Night, and Good Luck. Crash was good but not the Best Movie of the year. Just my opinion. :shrug:

[RubyDuby in GA]

22. Yes, it was flawed historically, but I still felt it was far more worthy

thank freakin' Crash. I have a degree in History. Munich didn't bother me. What did bother me was that the Academy felt it necessary to give the biggest award of the night to a bit of fluff. Several other films were far more qualified than Crash.

And if we're going to start taking away Oscars on the basis of historical merit, Katherine Hepburn's is the first that comes to mind for The Lion in Winter. Very inaccurate portrayal of the life and times of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II and their children.

One of these days they'll finally ask me and everything will be alright then :)

[mattclearing]

4. If you saw it, you should know.

I thought it worked really well on a lot of levels.

Crash would have been a great movie in 1992.

[SheilaT]

5. It was that good.

Oddly enough, the only one of the nominated movies I have not seen is Crash, so I can't really comment on it. But I have also heard some very negative stuff about it, such as it's far too heavy-handed in its message.

Brokeback Mountain is about two men who spend the summer together and fall in love. It's about what it's like when your true love is someone forbidden to you. Especially for Ennis, the Heath Ledger character. It's not about two men who are gay, but two men for whom the love of their life is another man. As a consequence each one lives a lifetime of deception and dishonesty, and wind up hurting the women who love them.

Capote was very good, and I liked Good Night, and Good Luck even better.

[hfojvt]

33. that was what I hated about it

The notion of "true love" and the notion of "falling in love" over a summer. And how do we know it was true love? because neither man could resist the urge to get together for sex. "True love" is apparently mostly about having sex, otherwise why don't they call or write each other between trysts?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

40. "Good Night, and Good Luck" was a KICK-ASS film.

Didn't see any of the others, but I liked that one very much! The jazz in it was great!

:bounce:

[drmom]

6. I didn't like Crash...

...it just felt like it's all been done before. Nothing new or exciting, and only a couple of memorable performances. I agree that Munich or Brokeback should have won.

[Jim Warren]

10. Said to be a rip of 'Amores Perros'

according to my 17 yo son anyway.

[jonnyblitz]

39. I liked that movie. I haven't seen Crash yet though... nt

[progressivebydesign]

19. Have a hard time thinking Sandra Bullock and Brendon Fraser..

.. would be best film worthy. Must have been a helluva film, cuz some of the cast was pretty lightweight.

[shrike]

24. Fraser has done some great films

The Quiet American, and Gods and Monsters. Most people only know him by his "Mummy" movies, unfortunately.

Crash was a terrific movie.

[LynneSin]

36. Then using that criteria we should be slamming Rachael Weisz

who co-starred with Fraiser in the Mummy movies.

Everyone had duds in their movie portfolio. You've pointed out some of the great highlights of Brandon Fraiser's career which would include Crash

[mondo joe]

51. Brendan was in the incredible Gods & Monsters - though I must admit

he was just treading water there. But one role does not a movie make, in any case.

[sui generis]

8. BBM is a touchstone film for many

"lots of folks" related to it, and not just for its gay themes. Not winning the Oscar for best film does not make it into a lesser film.

It is ODD that a Best Director didn't get a Best Picture, but so it goes. The Academy was rooting for a film shot in LA with relevance to the sociopolitical climate of LA, and BBM had become "stale" to their attention deficit world.

For best male lead I personally believe it's a lot easier to pitch your voice a little higher and mince around without straying any distance from the stereotype, than to really act like a man in love, with another man.

I'm disappointed - but it's The Academy, and I certainly don't take it personally.

[LostinVA]

11. That has happened before

I think both Crash and BBM deserved it -- I have no problem with the choice.

[Sammy Pepys]

14. See, I thought BBM was good...

But just that. The things I liked most about it...Jack Twist, the western backdrop, and Michelle Williams' character made it especially enjoyable for me, but just not enough to take it to the next level. I thought Ennis was kind of a drag on the whole story, and I was sick of him by the end of it.

[sui generis]

17. I guess you have to have known a couple of Ennises

If he had been a brilliant man (character) he wouldn't have been living hand to mouth on ranch hand work. He wouldn't have been a burgeoning alcoholic, a lousy husband.

The character was actually remarkably self-consistent . . . and true to life.

Neither of the characters were particularly heroic or likeable, but they were realistic.

[Sammy Pepys]

27. Well, there are people in real life I don't like either :)

Either way, I didn't like Ennis, and it had nothing to do with whether he was brilliant or not. I thought he was basically a lousy, self-indulging guy who used two people who loved him very much.

[mondo joe]

52. If your gauge is how much you LIKE a character I can see this being a drag

for you.

I don't worry about that, personally.

[bigwillq]

43. I never felt like Heath

was playing a gay man.

I felt he was a man who was confused and conflicted about his sexual feelings. His perfomance was amazing, touching and moving.

[xchrom]

31. hmmm -- and there's annie p. with a pulitzer prize in her

back pocket and ang lee with best director.

brokeback could hardly have been brokeback with out ennis being ennis.

pretty hard to make your point of view ''happy'' with your qualifications.

hard to have street car named desire be street car without stanley.

might as well not write, read or make movies.

[melissaf]

35. Yes, but then

I thought Proulx's short story was fairly mediocre. The prose style was a cross between pulp western and Harlequin romance novel. The premise of the story is what caught people's attention--bursting the "Marlboro Man" as the ultimate figure of American heterosexual masculinity.

Also, just because someone has a Pulitzer doesn't mean they're the most brilliant writer ever. Writing awards can be just as political as acting awards. The publishing industry may like to give the illusion that book kudos are based solely on mert, but the truth is there's a lot of hype that goes into writing fame as well.

And I'm going to have to jump on the Ennis-dumping bandwagon as well. For me, Ennis was excrutiatingly passive and noncommittal. I think Jack could've done far better. But I'm also not as much of a romantic as I used to be, so I'm no longer into the Long-Lived Doomed Romance storyline.

[xchrom]

37. hmmm? you thought the short story was mediocre?

i haven't read much pulp western or romance so i guess i have nothing to compare it to.
but since that's what you're reading -- you should know.

you're also aware that it's a little harder to get pulitzer than what you've just described -- so i call disingenuous bullshit.
you may not understand the writers who get pulitzers since you read pulp westerns and romances -- but that's a personal problem i'm sure you work hard on.

and stanley was someone who brutalized women other than stella -- who he suddenly turns to jello for.

and odysseus was a mass murderer, and eugene o'neil wrote beatiful passive characters, and on and on.

there's a way to apply real critical thinking and a critique of a movie or a book.

otherwise you should stick to expressing an opinion and say that's what it is.

[melissaf]

38. actually

I have a Masters degree in creative writing and teach creative writing and literature in an MFA program. And I've had pieces published in literary journals. And I'm getting a PhD in English literature. So maybe the next time you decide to smear a total stranger on a web board because you can't come up with an actual rebuttal to a critique, you'll think twice about what you think _you_ know.

And by the way, here's a list of what's been on my reading list over the past few years:

"The White Devil" and "The Duchess of Malfi" by Webster
Anything and everything written by Shakespeare
"The Alchemist," "Bartholomew Fair," "Volpone," and "Every Man in His Humour" by Ben Jonson
"The Fairie Queene" by Spenser (yes, "Queene" is spelled with an "e" on the end of it)
The Old and New Arcadias, by Sidney
"The Blazing-World" by Margaret Cavendish
"Manfred" by Byron
"Prometheus Unbound" by Shelley
The collected poems of Keats
"Castle Rackrent" and "Ennui" by Edgeworth
The collected poems of Anne Sexton
The collected poems of Robert Lowell
"Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko
"Love Medicine" by Louise Erdrich
"A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" by Michael Dorris

So, is that reading list good enough for ya? Read any of these titles? Have you even heard of half the writers on this list? Because I can spit out a whole lot of other things if this isn't comprehensive enough for you.

And before you go and say, "Meh--anyone can have 'credentials.' How do they give you a right to critique something?", why don't you enlighten the world with the basis for _your_ authority on the literary world or the publishing industry. Do you have any ties to a publishing house? Or a literary agency? Do you teach English at any institution? Do you write?

Oh, wait, I'm sorry. I forgot that _anyone_ with a computer and a keyboard is clearly qualified to comment on any subject he or she has formed anything resembling an opinion about. My mistake.

[xchrom]

42. you're the one in an extraordinarily off handed fashion

and with an mfa and an almost phd{but no, NO pulitzer} decided to deride annie p's work.

if you're going to set an amateurish critique in the middle of the room -- expect to get treated like an amateur.

with all that supposed edumakation about you -- you should know better.

you made this about yourself -- so if you can't stand the fact that you showed your ass -- pull up your damn pants.

[melissaf]

44. okay

If you can explain to me how my critique is "amateurish," then maybe I'll agree with you. But I have no idea what you're talking about. How is it "amateurish" to say that someone's prose style is mediocre? Isn't that a valid criticism? Am I supposed to like someone's writing simply because she's "got pulitzer," as you so eloquently put it?

And, pray tell, how many pulitzers have *you* won? You still haven't discussed your qualifications for having made me show my ass. In fact, I'm not even sure how you think I've "shown my ass." You anonymously attack strangers on a web site, I defend myself, and you think _you've_ earned the moral high ground? Please.

P.S. Please also explain what "you're the one in an extraordinarily offhanded fashion" means. Seems like there's a word missing in this statement.

[xchrom]

60. ok

i didn't offer a critique of annie p's. work.

you did -- you were off handed and dismissive of her work while a heavy weight body of evidence exists that would certainly call that into question.

here's a sampling.

richard eder has a pulitzer for his work as a critic -- and is certainly not in the habit of convincing people that a cross between pulp westerns and romance make for good reading.

http://www.latimes.com/services/newspaper/mediacenter/la-mediacenter-pulitzers,0,6930216.story
1987 Criticism Richard Eder for his book reviews


a list of annie p's reviews and her qualifications
taken from: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0684852225/103-0881007-6136666

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
With the very first sentence of the first story in this remarkable collection, Annie Proulx demonstrates what makes her great: images sharp as paper cuts conveyed in language so imaginative and compressed it's just this side of poetry; a sense of character so specific it takes only a sentence to establish a whole life; and the underlying promise of something utterly unexpected waiting just up ahead.


In the long unfurling of his life, from tight-wound kid hustler in a wool suit riding the train out of Cheyenne to geriatric limper in this spooled-out year, Mero had kicked down thoughts of the place where he began, a so-called ranch on strange ground at the south hinge of the Big Horns.
"The Half-Skinned Steer" chronicles elderly Mero Corn's journey back to Wyoming for his brother's funeral. As he drives west, details of his eventful trip are interspersed with recollections of his youth on the ranch--most notably a tall tale he heard told long ago about a sad-sack rancher named Tin Head and a butchered steer. This is vintage Proulx, a combination of isolated landscapes, macabre events, and damaged people that adds up, in the end, to a near-perfect story. It's no surprise that "The Half-Skinned Steer" made it into John Updike's Best American Short Stories of the Century.

Proulx achieves similar results with many of the other stories in Close Range, including another prizewinner, "Brokeback Mountain," the bittersweet story of doomed love between two cowboys who "can't hardly be decent together," yet know "if we do that in the wrong place we'll be dead." But Proulx is careful to add some leavening to the mix. In "The Blood Bay" she indulges her taste for the gruesome with a morbidly amusing retelling of an Old West shaggy-dog story, while "Pair a Spurs" is the sad-funny rendering of divorce, Wyoming style. The author is a true original in every sense of the word, and her evocation of the West is as singular and surprising as that of Cormac McCarthy or Ivan Doig. Close Range is Proulx at her best. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Pulitzer Prize-winner E. Annie Proulx forays through the underside of America's beloved Wild West in Close Range, a collection of stories about hardship and more hardship in Wyoming territory. Understanding that the West's infinite spaces tended to inspire neither introspection nor contemplation, but a violent and insatiable restlessness, Proulx's eight stories are dark reflections on the lives of a handful of characters striving to define themselves against the unforgiving landscapes. The three professional actors chosen to read the text give strong, resounding interpretations of the macabre tales. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --Natasha Senjanovich --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
From Library Journal
This marvelous collection proves that Proulx's Pulitzer Prize for The Shipping News was no one-shot deal. Set in Wyoming, the 11 stories "feature down-on-their-luck ranchers, cowboys, and working men who watch helplessly as the modern world leaves them behind." (LJ 5/1/99)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
The New York Times Book Review, Richard Eder
This is splendid material, set out with pain and compassion but above all with a shrewdness of observation... --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
The Times, London, Peter Kemp
With her second set of stories, Close Range, Proulx trains her gaze on the state where she now lives: Wyoming. The results are magnificent, but unlikely to elate the region's tourist board. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
The Wall Street Journal, Michael Knight
Ms. Proulx writes with all the brutal beauty of one of her Wyoming snowstorms. Her people not only "stand" the bad luck and heartbreak that comes their way; they stare it down with astonishing strength, and sometimes they manage to triumph. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
Why should you read these stories, then, if their characters' lives are so mean and their fates so inevitable? You read them for their absolute authenticity, the sense they convey that you are beyond fact or fiction in a world that could not be any other way. And you read them for their language, not lyrical but a wry poetry of loneliness and pain. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From AudioFile
Annie Proulx shapes a story like Andrew Wyeth paints a picture: simple, clear, realistic, and stunning in its revelation. And William Dufris brings Proulx's stories to the ear with the same elegant ease, layering fine washes of tonal inflection over strong individuals and the unyielding landscape of Wyoming. Dufris misses none of the stories' flatness or emotionality, lending dignity and insight to dysfunction, love, and desperation. The relentless battering of the wind, the mysterious allure of a pair of spurs, the shame of forbidden lust come together in sometimes breathtaking blends of sound and silence. Unfortunately, the audiobook's editors have crowded the stories together, shattering the listener's sense of closure after each one. Still, Dufris's performance places Proulx's characters strongly within a sense of place. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Kirkus Reviews
A vigorous second collection from Proulx (after Heart Songs and Other Stories, 1988): eleven nicely varied stories set in the roughhewn wasteland that one narrator calls a 97,000-square-miles dog's breakfast of outside exploiters, Republican ranchers and scenery.'' The characters here are windburned, fatalistic westerners stuck in the harsh lives they've made for themselves in this bitter demi-paradise. They include: hardworking, luckless ranchers (in the painfully concise ``Job History,'' and the sprawling ``Pair a Spurs,'' the latter a wry tale of divorce, sexual urgency, and sheer cussedness that bears fleeting resemblances to Proulx's Accordion Crimes); aging hellion Josanna Skiles (of ``A Lonely Coast'') and the lover who can neither tame her nor submit to her; a sagebrush Bluebeard and his inquisitive wife (in the amusingly fragmentary ``55 Miles to the Gas Pump''); and an itinerant rodeo cowboy (in ``The Mud Below'') whose vagrant spirit stubbornly kicks against memories of his disastrous childhood. Two stories are, effectively, miniature novels: ``People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water,'' about memorably dysfunctional feuding families; and ``The Bunchgrass Edge of the World,'' which begins as a collection of random eccentricities, then coheres into a grimly funny parody of the family saga. ``The Blood Bay'' retells a familiar western folktale, adding just a whiff of Chaucer's ``Pardoner's Tale.'' And two prizewinning pieces brilliantly display Proulx's trademark whipsaw wit and raw, lusty language. ``The Half-Skinned Steer'' wrests a rich portrayal of the experience of unbelonging from the account of an old man's journey westward, for his brother's funeral, back to the embattled home he'd spent decades escaping. And the powerful ``Brokeback Mountain'' explores with plangent understated compassion the lifelong sexual love between two cowboys destined for separation, and the harsh truth that ``if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.'' Gritty, authoritative stories of loving, losing, and bearing the consequences. Nobody else writes like this, and Proulx has never written better. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
The New York Times

Powerful...Read for their absolute authenticity and their language, a wry poetry of loneliness and pain.


The Boston Globe

Few writers feel equally at home in the novel and the short story... are tough as flint and on occasion breathtaking; together they stand with Proulx's best work.


People

As she rips away our romantic notions of the West, Proulx asks how capable any of us are of outrunning our origins. Her fatalistic answer, in these stories, adds up to some breathtaking reading.


Outside magazine

A major achievement in American fiction -- a gorgeous, deeply affecting adventure in stylistic plenitude, prose clarity, and hearts laid bare.


Richard Eder

The New York Times Book Review

Geography, splendid and terrible, is a tutelary deity to the characters in Close Range. Their lives are futile uphill struggles conducted as a downhill, out-of-control tearaway. Proulx writes of them in a prose that is violent and impacted and mastered just at the point where, having gone all the way to the edge, it is about to go over.


Review
Richard Eder The New York Times Book Review Geography, splendid and terrible, is a tutelary deity to the characters in Close Range. Their lives are futile uphill struggles conducted as a downhill, out-of-control tearaway. Proulx writes of them in a prose that is violent and impacted and mastered just at the point where, having gone all the way to the edge, it is about to go over.
Book Description

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short-story collections of our time.

Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in these breathtaking tales of loneliness, quick violence, and the wrong kinds of love. Each of the stunning portraits in Close Range reveals characters fiercely wrought with precision and grace.

These are stories of desperation and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both stark and magnificent -- by an author writing at the peak of her craft.


Card catalog description
Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in this collection of stories about loneliness, quick violence, and wrong kinds of love. In "The Mud Below," a rodeo rider's obsession marks the deepening fissures between his family life and self-imposed isolation. In "The Half-Skinned Steer," an elderly fool drives west to the ranch he grew up on for his brother's funeral, and dies a mile from home. In "Brokeback Mountain," the difficult affair between two cowboys survives everything but the world's violent intolerance. These are stories of desperation, hard times, and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent. Enlivened by folk tales, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming's traditional character and attitudes - confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, persistence in the face of difficulty - with the more benign values of the new west. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Annie Proulx has held NEA and Guggenheim Fellowships and residences at Ucross Foundation in Wyoming. Her first short story collection, Heart Songs and Other Stories, appeared in 1988, followed in 1992 by Postcards, which won the 1993 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The 1993 novel The Shipping News won the Chicago Tribune's Heartland Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the National Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Accordion Crimes, Proulx's most recent novel, was published in June 1996.

She began working on the stories collected in Close Range in 1997. "The Half-Skinned Steer" was selected by Garrison Keillor for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories 1998 and by John Updike for The Best American Short Stories of the Century. "Brokeback Mountain" won a 1998 O. Henry Short Story Award and a National Magazine Award through its publication in The New Yorker.


gail caldwell won a pulitzer prize for her work as a critic, a short bio here: http://www.lannan.org/lf/bios/detail/gail-caldwell/

more on gail caldwell: http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/awards/alumnus/awardpages/g_caldwell.html
GAIL CALDWELL, chief book critic at The Boston Globe and winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, received her master's degree in American Civilization from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980.  Ms. Caldwell has been a member of The Boston Globe staff since 1985, serving as staff writer, book editor, and chief book critic.  Her reviews and essays also have appeared in the Village Voice, the WashingtonPost, the Atlanta-Constitution, and other publications. 


here's walter kirn in an interview with a fellow princeton graduate{kirn also attended oxford} and also give an overview of some of his qualifications.
http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_old/PAW99-00/04-1103/1103irtx.html#story1

Since his graduation from Princeton summa cum laude in 1983, Walter Kirn '83 has studied at Oxford University, worked as an editor at Spy magazine in New York City, published an acclaimed collection of stories, My Hard Bargain, and a novel, She Needed Me, and freelanced for various publications. Six years ago, he left Manhattan for Montana, attracted by the silence and the barking dogs that keep one from going "too deep into the verbal jungle." He became New York magazine's book critic and continues to write regularly for several New Yorkúbased national publications from Montana, where he lives with his wife, Maggie-the daughter of actress Margot Kidder and writer Tom McGuane-and their 10-month-old baby, Maisie.


my own thoughts of annie p's work fall pretty much in line with these folk.

but obviously she doesn't need me to defend her writing.
her awards and the thinking of her peers seem to back up my thoughts.

the new yorker won the national magazine award for it's publication of brokeback.

as far as the movie goes -- brokeback has piled on an awards list that few -- if any -- have ever achieved.
pretty good for a story that is a cross between pulp westerns and romance.

it's obvious to me -- and i would think to these folks -- that something more happened with brokeback than your short winded critique.

[mondo joe]

50. I like how you dismiss the Pulitzer but consider your own credentials

meaningful.

Keep it up! LOL

[melissaf]

53. yo, Joe

I'm not dissing the Pulitzer necessarily. I'm just defending myself from someone who accused me of only reading romance novels and pulp westerns. And maybe I shouldn't have bothered, because that implies that anyone who only reads romance novels and pulp westerns is a total idiot, which I don't think is true, either.

But hey, if my wacky antics make you laugh, chuckle away, friend.

Plus, I have a fine ass and I don't mind showing it. ;)

[mondo joe]

56. Ew. I didn't want to see your private areas.

I'm getting enough laughs as is! :-)

[melissaf]

57. hey now

You laugh at the ass, you gotta look at the ass.

[Dorian Gray]

12. The only movie of the five I have seen

was Crash. Personally, I liked it. But, it definitely lacked in subtlety. I was shocked that it won, though I can't say that I am unhappy as I haven't seen any of the others to even compare.

I've had many friends who saw Brokeback Mountain, and their reviews fun the gamut. Some loved it. Some thought it was a little slow and boring. I'm not a huge Ang Lee fan. I hated The Hulk, and I am not a fan of Westerns, so both of those proclivities kept me from running out to see it, despite the word of mouth.

I do want to see Munich, Good Night and Good Luck, and Capote very much. I've heard mixed reviews of Munich, though I've heard the other two films are excellent. I only know a few people who have seen Capote, but they all seem to have thought it was fantastic. Plus, my love for Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Along Came Polly, not withstanding), makes it that much more attractive to me.

I didn't have a bone in this fight at all. I know a lot of people thought that Crash was horrible because of the contrived way in which the message was hammered over the heads of viewers. But, I bought into it, hook, line and sinker. I'm happy that it won, as I thought it was a good film. Perhaps, after I eventually do watch the other four films, I will change my mind.

[senaca]

13. What a year for the movies.

This year best picture nominees could have all been best picture's in other years. The competition this year was in my opininion raised the bar. The Constant Gardener should have been in contention also. I think the academy had a hard choice in many of the categories. This has not been the case in prior years. Best actor rightfully went to Phillip Seymour Hoffman and yet the other performances by the other actor's were outstanding. The same holds true for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor/Actress. I have a feeling that 2005 for best movies will resonate in the years to come. It was the year that offered us a reflection of who we are as a society and in each of these movies we were offered originality. With these movies, the story triumphed over special effects.

As far as Brokeback Mountain not winning, as just a plain movie goer, I made the mistake of hearing the hype first and then going. I was expecting a movie that would far outpace an already strong field of movies and I was disappointed that it didn't meet those expectations. I could not have voted which picture was best. I liked watching all of them for different reasons. In the end isn't it pretty much subjective when they all were equally strong?

[baby_mouse]

16. My take, as a queer, is this

I was annoyed at the number of people who said it wasn't a gay movie and then got upset with me for thinking it was too long because I was supposed to support it cos it was a gay movie.

Also, I was mildly freaked by the number of people who magically converted to the idea that "gay is OK" after seeing a damn flick. All that has to happen is for some rich homophobe to finance a flick portraying gays as weird and creepy and corrupt and these weak-willed types will swing straight back.

Frankly, I don't like the idea of huge swathes of people being *brainwashed* into thinking "gay is OK". I'd rather they worked it out by deealing with REAL gay people, not fictional ones.

[progressivebydesign]

18. It was that good. I didn't expect the industry to award the top prize.

I lived in L.A., and traveled in the circles that vote... I didn't expect it to win.

[Village Idiot]

23. BOOOO-RING!

Nice cinematography, and beautiful scenes and wide pan shots - but I nearly fell asleep a couple of times. The "tent scene" really woke me up, however!

[TahitiNut]

25. I think I'll go on a mini-rant here ...

:banghead:
(1) The Academy Awards are the opinions of people within the film industry, not some objective assessment according to empirical set of scientifically-testable criteria. Those people who agonize and gnash their teeth over the choices seem to me to be abysmally insecure - not only lacking in calm acceptance that they have an inalienable right to form their own preferences but apparently walled-off from exploring ways to develop a broader basis upon which to form such preferences. It seems to me that too many of us obsessively seek some external substitute for developing our own opinions, are incapable of describing the basis for our opinions, and feel threatened when others either request such a rationale or disagree. All of this is, in my opinion, a debasement of our individual perspectives and our ability to own them.

(2) Until I went through two iterations of producing my own 'documentary' (music) video, doing the camera work (underwater Hi-8 scuba diving), editing, and background music, I had very little appreciation for the process - both the art and the perspiration inherent in this activity. After more than 100 hours of camera work and more than 300 hours of hands-on "post-production," I have a far more visceral appreciation for filming, editing, and scoring than I ever imagined. With the current availability of digital camcorders and reasonably-priced computer-based tools, far more people should try it. It's an eye-opener.

(3) Controversy is a poor substitute for excellence - and creates a fog that obscures the substantive elements. In 1968, "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" was nominated for TEN Academy Awards, winning two of them. Today, it's regarded by many as a classic - and one of those 'social benchmark' films that conveys a social perspective of the times. Nonetheless, I think it's noteworthy that neither Sidney Poitier nor Katharine Houghton were nominated for an award, despite the fact that they portrayed the 'issue' of the film. Perhaps they should've behaved more amorously? After all, what's the big deal? They acted like friends, not lovers!! Don't get me wrong - I love that movie (mostly because I lived through that era and experienced those issues personally). But I don't regard the central theme of the movie to have been aptly portrayed at all - probably because it would have been banned in even more communities than it was. Here's a mental exercise for y'all: How many times did the lovers even kiss (on the lips!)??? If these people were the same color, who the hell would really believe they were passionately in love?

Now, some may believe that the political overtones are appropriate considerations in assessing deservedness of an Academy Award. If so, then why wouldn't the very politics of the Academy itself be incorporated in the Awards? How can we applaud the one and condemn the other?

:rant:

[serryjw]

59. I think everyone is over analyzing the Crash win

Crash producers spent millions sending out DVDs to the academy members for consideration. They wanted this win. The producers of BBM didn't do this. NOW, with the schedule of academy members that are really working actors many may not have seen BBM and many may not have wanted to deal with the lines in LA to see it.
As for Ang Lee? Well, the Best Director is NOT voted on by the entire academy but rather ONLY directors( probably in special showings)

[tjwash]

26. I don't know, I think the people ranting about BBM not winning...

...sound a lot like the people that ranted when "passion if the christ" didn't win.

Everyone had a million reasons that it should have won, and everyone thought it was some kind of conspiracy when it didn't.

I didn't see either one. Neither one was my taste in entertainment. I thought that "good night and good luck" should have taken it.

[sui generis]

29. just funny that

so many people who haven't seen all five have an opinion about what should have won (talking about the larger group of posters here).

that's my two cents.

No conspiracy - just food for thought.

[Catfight]

46. I saw all five and Good Night Good Luck was probably the best, however,

my favorite was "Capote," wonder why it wasn't up in that category? "Crash" was okay, no outstanding acting or anything, story line was confusing and predictable. "Walk the Line" was purely mindless entertainment and I remember thinking, how many movies have to be made about some f'k up famous person until we get bored with it? The acting in that flix was boring and the film will gather dust on a shelf somewhere by this time next year, it's easily forgotten. "Munich" I really liked, yet it had long draggy points and didn't really need to be that long, but watching the lead character made it easy to watch it that long.
That's why I really think "Good Night Good Luck" should have taken it home. The movie told a fantastic story in the exact amount of time it needed to be told. I thought it was the best movie I spent money on because I didn't feel like it was dragging out just to appease the masses to get their money worth. If a great story can be told in 15 minutes and I have to pay regular price, I'm ALL for it, because I'll go to dinner and talk about it throughout dinner.

But...Reese winning the best actress award? NO WAY...that just sucks, she played herself, a cute little whimsical girl from Tennessee, big f'n deal. TransAmerica deserved it and Felicity should have that Oscar.

[ecstatic]

55. best analysis I've seen

The constant talk of this movie, and how the right wing is trying to suppress it, yada yada yada is definitely coming across as obsessive. At least in my opinion.

[Radio_Guy]

30. Best I've seen in 12 months

But I haven't seen Munich yet.

[dback]

34. "Brokeback" had 15+ "best picture" awards going into the Oscars

From all over America, Europe, and the world.

It won Best Picture from critic's groups coast to coast. It won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, the Producer's Guild, the Director's Guild, and the Independent Spirit Award.

"Crash" had one Best Picture award from the Chicago Critics (Roger Ebert adored it). It also won Best Acting Ensemble at the Screen Actors Guild awards.

"Crash" was a very good movie. "Brokeback" was a major work of art, and a significant cultural watershed.

No film--REPEAT: NO FILM--in history has ever been as lauded and awarded as "Brokeback" was, and then lost Best Picture at the Oscars. And when you have academy members like Tony Curtis mouthing off to the press that not only was he not voting for "Brokeback" but WOULD NOT EVEN SEE IT, there is only one conclusion to make.

I turned off the TV at 8:30 and went to bed feeling sick; I still feel sick today.

I am, and for the foreseeable future will continue to be, a second-class citizen, and one of the things which makes me an outlaw in society. And one of the most significant cultural institutions (for better or worse) in this country--in the world--agrees.

And that is all I will say.

[bigwillq]

41. YES

I thought it was a very well-done movie on all accounts--acting, writing, directing, music..etc....
It was my fave movie of the year for personal reasons. It's a haunting, powerful, moving film, imo.

[Catfight]

45. I'm fine with Crash winning, BBM was way over-rated IMHO, however,

Reese winning SUCKED...that belonged to Felicity, hands down.

[mondo joe]

48. I thought BBM was the best of the nominated, and NOT because it was

"groundbreaking" - just for the masterful storytelling.

[Zomby Woof]

58. I haven't seen it

But it has a great pedigree. I read the moving short story by Annie Proulx some years back, and I am a huge fan of Larry McMurtry, the co-screenwriter (and author of "Lonesome Dove"). Plus Ang Lee is a solid director, and the soundtrack sounds good too.

I imagine I would enjoy it.