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March 6, 2006So… what happened?
Really, I want to stay as far as I can from "I told you so" speeches. We already have more than enough of them… and it's only been an hour or so since Crash won Best Picture.
First, let me give credit where credit is really due -
Pete Hammond was really the first Oscar know-it-all to see the big step up by Crash, back in January. He never quite locked in to being sure of the win, but he knew Crash was going to be a nominee when others doubted it and he has had Crash in the #2 Gurus o' Gold slot consistently.
Sarah Greenberg and her team at Lionsgate (which was still Lions Gate when all this started) worked their asses off on this film since September 2004, when the studio picked it up at Toronto. As I have written since, no other studio would have given this movie the kind of love, money and endless attention… so no other studio would have made this an Oscar winner.
Cynthia Swartz exited Miramax, joined The Dart Group (should the new name they have been struggling to find now be The Swartz Group?), and was on the Crash case since last June. I believe, if my calendar is correct, that we first sat down to discuss the film on July 12. She insisted then, as my eyes rolled, that Crash could be nominated for and win the Best Picture Oscar. She would later point out the stat that no film had won without a Best Editing nomination in 25 years. The stat would be proven out yet again. (And mine, which pointed out that no film had won without being in release or re-release post-nomination in 25 years became a broken streak… though the 100% inability of Venice Film Festival winners to take home the Oscar continues.)
And Tom Ortenberg, who led the way for the Liosngate executive group, pushing this movie uphill without fear or restraint (except for a brief hiccup around Christmas) and spending the money that was necessary to keep the film in play as others fell away.
You can decide how to order this list in terms of power priority for yourself. But one thing you can never say is that Lionsgate bought the win. They did what the winner usually does… they stayed in the game and let the voters decide for themselves. This strategy was also true of Brokeback Mountain and the other three nominees this year, except, to some degree, Munich, which suffered from the December strategy from which it never really re-emerged.
And now, a little I told you so…
Back on December 22, in a column in which there was no mention of Crash, which I (and the studio) then thought to be dead, I wrote about the danger zone that Brokeback Mountain was already entering.
Brokeback Mountain… starts as an upstream swimmer. No matter how much some people adore the film, it has the popularity boundaries of most Ang Lee movies. It is deliberate. It is languorous at times. The characters are not terribly verbal. It is absolutely gorgeous to look at, but the last visual feast to win Best Picture was The English Patient, a decade ago. And like it or not, there is a significant percentage of Academy voters who really aren't interested in a gay love story.
Brokeback Mountain has another major problem at this date… too much love. Nothing ruins a movie experience more than dramatically heightened expectations.
Another problem is that supporters of Brokeback Mountain are understandably unsure whether "their film" can win the Oscar. And the tone of the discourse about it seems to be getting a wee bit strident. If there is one thing you can be sure of with Academy members, they do not want to be lectured about doing the right thing. That doesn't mean that they won't fall into line. But never let them see you finger wag.
But later, I developed another theory… which is that Crash is a valley movie. It is a film that was made by people who are, for the most part, longstanding members of the Hollywood (literally, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Burbank) community and the Academy is made up mostly of people who can also be described as the same. And in specific, all politics are local and the Academy race is nothing if not political. And with Cheadle-Dillon-Bullock-Fichtner-Esposito-Fraser-Howard-Phillippe-Sirtis-David-Danza-Tate-Ludicris-Newton all in play for longtime TV vet and recently film vet Paul Haggis on Crash vs. an Aussie, a young actress who worked mostly in North Carolina, a young New Yorker, and an even younger actress, who has made two films all working for a Chinese director who works with a guy in New York on Brokeback Mountain… well, you can add up the votes even better than people in Florida.
To make it about homophobia is, in my mind, tragic and terribly unfair, both to people that genuinely love Crash, to the film and filmmakers, and to those of us who have quite another set of issues with Brokeback Mountain. (I have more problems with Crash than Brokeback Mountain, though I have had more problems with BBM supporters than with Crash supporters.) This is not to say that some homophobia wasn't involved. But I don't think it was the biggest factor by a long shot.
And it wasn't just local politics either. My favorite cliché' (is it a cliché' if I'm the only one saying it?) lately has become, "You can't vote against Movie X." It doesn't matter how many people hate Crash… or Brokeback… or Munich, for that matter. What counts at the Academy is how many people love a movie. You can take the position that a vote for Crash was a vote against Brokeback Mountain if you like… but I think it would be a silly position to take, with some exceptions.
In the end, Brokeback Mountain was very much in the same boat as Sideways was last year. It needed all the attention to assure box office and awards, but all the early attention gave people plenty of time to fall out of love and to find another. BBM's box office success in December gave it awards life. But as Focus clearly understood, they had milked their best cows before the first of the year and everything that would be national/non-urban would pale in comparison. But first and last, they maximized business for the film. Well done.
And now, something that struck me and struck me hard tonight…
What a fucking nasty Oscar year this has been.
I'm not talking about the boredom. Or even the spin merchants and studio machinists who sometimes get out of hand. But when I think of the crap thrown in my direction all season… and I am just one example… for suggesting there was support for this film or that film. All these people are out there claiming to be objective observers, but when things turn out to be different than they imagine, there are all these angry excuses. (Tomorrow morning's, I suspect with dread, is the theory that homophobia killed Brokeback Mountain.)
I remember being mocked for thinking Memoirs of a Geisha would not make it to Best Picture, that Capote would make it to Best Picture… and Munich… and Reese Witherspoon… and Joaquin Phoenix… and Rachel Weisz… and when Crash started getting stronger, I was endlessly accused of trying to create excitement in the race and not offering sincere, objective reporting on what was going on out there.
Please note, I missed completely on Good Night, And Good Luck. And I was not a Crash believer until it survived the first round intact.
But my point is… God, the rage got boring after a while. What ever happened to having a civil disagreement? Why does every option have to be so firmly held that the only answer to another point of view is a harsh accusation and the assumption of bad intentions?
Trying to find some excitement in this race was predicting Amy Adams, who had no shot whatsoever, but is a lovely and talented young actress. Trying to find some excitement in the race was thinking that "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" could win Best Original Song... even if it turned out to be the right call. But suggesting that Crash was in the race was not n act of desperation... obviously. And had Brokeback Mountain won by a small margin - which I suspect that Crash did - we would never be able to defend the position... and it would be just as heinous an accusation.
And I would not be above pointing the finger at the most strident of Brokeback Mountain supporters for having some effect on the voters who were not as excited about the film. First, the expectation bar was raised awfully high. Second, tell a proud person that they "have to" feel a certain way and they tend to rebel. And people who have made it into the Academy are not generally shrinking violets.
And Oscar coverage certainly reached the tipping point this year. Every outlet in site was suddenly blogging and Oscar blogging at that… all while decrying "bloggers" in print at every turn. But more importantly, there were suddenly so many swimmers in the pool that not only was it not much fun, but it also started getting nasty as people tried desperately to find some open space.
So it's got to get better next year, right?
Congratulations to Team Crash on a race well run. And my sympathy for the pain Team Brokeback is going through. Premature ejaculation is embarrassing… but remember, it's more fun than no ejaculation at all.
Really, it's quite sad that Brokeback Mountain could do the business it's done, win the awards and accolades its won, and Diana Ossana still looked like somebody kicked her dog to death in post-show interviews. Brokeback Mountain is a huge success story… as is Crash (the only true indie in the group and the cheapest made of the five nominees)… as is Capote… as is Good Night, And Good Luck. And I still believe that in the folds of time, Munich will be the best remembered of this quintet.
Take heart. And move along… nothing to see here… move along…
