'Crash' Pulls Off Best-Picture Oscar

yahoo.com ^ | 3/5/06

[paudio]

The ensemble drama "Crash" pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Academy Awards history, winning best picture Sunday over the cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain," which had been the front-runner.

"Crash," featuring a huge cast in crisscrossing story lines over a chaotic 36-hour period in Los Angeles, rode a late surge of praise that lifted it past "Brokeback Mountain," a film that had won most other key Hollywood honors.

In a year of provocative films at the Oscars, "Crash" was one of the fiercest, a portrait of simmering racial and cultural tension among blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians and Arabs.

The other best-picture nominees emerged either out of Hollywood studios or their art-house affiliates. But "Crash" was a true Oscar rarity, shot outside the system on a tiny $6.5 million budget, then acquired by independent distributor Lionsgate at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, where the film premiered.

[goldstategop]

Exactly - if we're aren't homophobic, we white Americans are racist. That's exactly why I went to bed last night while the fools who watched keep trying to find excuses for that liberal crap show called the Oscars.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[goldstategop]

Gays, prostitutes and rednecks. Three liberal Hollywood tropes. Gee, I was so excited I almost tuned in. Did NOT.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Lee'sGhost]

"...since when does someone from China know anything about being a cowboy?"

Well, a couple of things wrong with this statement. One, they weren't cowboys, they were sheep herders. Two, Ang Lee directed one of the best War Between the States movies ever made -- Ride with the Devil.

Check it out.

[McGavin999]

Does anyone know what the ratings were last night?

[goldstategop]

I don't care. I didn't watch one bleepin' minute of Hollywood's exercise in pompous self-indulgence. Those spoiled brats are so brave they couldn't even stand up for gays and Palestinian terrorists. That's all I needed to know about liberals - hollow men without guts or convictions. Why I should respect these people when they can't even take the heat? Puhleeeaze.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[MplsSteve]

I didn't watch the Oscars either.

Took my mom out for her birthday dinner instead. Went to Outback Steakhouse.

A much better evening than watching the Oscars. When I got home, I went to Fox News' web site to see who won.

[brwnsuga]

I'm going to rent it today. Haven't seen it, but I'm a big Matt Dillon and Terrance Howard fan.

[longtermmemmory]

IOW Hollyweird Oscar voters paniced and tried to put the homosexuals back in the closet.

After watching the fox summary, hollyweird thought it was safe to bash the USA. They still don't get it.


This was an effort to save the viability of the show.

[I Drive Too Fast]

Yes, it's brutal because it is real and I wouldn't want somone too young to watch it either.

If you haven't bought it yet, I recently picked up Disney's 50th anniversary edition of "Lady and the Tramp". I love that cartoon.

[veronica]

I agree that rewarding Brokeback Mountain would have been a bad business choice, but it would have been a bad artistic choice too. It just wasn't the best picture.

Crash does not lecture. And it's not so much about racism per se as it is about the corrosive effects of hate, and the redemptive power of getting beyond that hate. It is a brilliantly written film, layer upon layer of subplot and character, all fully developed and interwoven. A very difficult form of screenwriting.

[Doc Savage]

I couldn't care less. The very fact that these pompous, sel-absorbed, self-indulgent, elitist, degenerate liberals that populate Hollyweird turning out agenda dreck refer to this as an "Academy" is absolutely ludicrous. Meant to imply sophisticated intellectualism it is actually a facade for crass stupidity and mental incompetence!

[Rte66]

It was confusing this year, because Madagascar was a kids' movie and it was about penguins, or a penguin, too. I didn't know the documentary one had anything "too real" in it, though. I thought it was supposed to be humorous.

[Corvair]

Yes, a lady from right here in Peoria won an oscar for her work on the make-up and costumes for the film. YEAH!

[usapatriot28]

Brokeback is not a commercial failure. People that want do argue with the message of the film need to stop saying that, it makes them look like fools.
It cost 14 million to make, and has already made upwards of 70 million, and that's just in domestic, pre-DVD dollars.

The $78 million that Brokeback has made is hardly impressive. Out of all movies released in 2005, 25 have made more money than it (includes money from both 2005 and 2006), including Cheaper By the Dozen 2, Fun With Dick and Jane, Are We There Yet? and Dukes of Hazzard. Sorry, but I don't consider that a box office success.

[Frank T]

Star Wars: The Empire Brokeback

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzJL4Cgc1OY

[William Terrell]

I don't think so. Probably because Ann Coulter predicted Brokeback would win and why.

[Borges]

'Shakespeare in Love' was literate and witty.

[Borges]

It's not that simple. Crash showed minorities as being racist as well.

[churchillbuff]

Did Brokeback win the "Best Simulated Homo Sex" Oscar, or did Capote take it?

[Borges]

The Academy (AMPAS) does a lot more then give out Oscars. They are engaged in film preservation and education. It's a good organization.