Posted on 12/21/2005 6:58:28 PM PST by wagglebee
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Gay and political films are dominating this year's Academy Awards race with some experts expecting that Oscar will wind up wearing pink, either for left-leaning politics or sexual preference.
As Hollywood starts its annual awards season leading to the March 5 Oscars, key front-runners in main categories are either gay-themed or political films, with Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," a drama of love between cowboys, leading the pack in the all-important best picture race.
"It could be the gay Oscars this year because gay-themed movies could win almost all the major awards," said Tom O'Neill, show business awards columnist for The Envelope.Com., referring to the sudden dominance "Brokeback Mountain" has gained so early in the race.
"'Brokeback' is going to be hard to beat. Rarely do we have this kind of award consensus for a movie, and its director (Taiwan's Ang Lee) is long overdue for an Oscar," O'Neill said.
"Brokeback," the first gay romance to make a bid for mainstream respectability, has already won the top awards handed out by critics in New York and Los Angeles and copped seven nominations for the January 16 Golden Globes, often a key indicator as to which way the Oscar wind might be blowing.
As for political films -- the field is crowded with potential winners: "Munich," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Syriana," and "The Constant Gardener."
Many experts predict that "Brokeback's" toughest competition could come from either George Clooney's "Goodnight, and Good Luck," a steely-eyed examination of the McCarthy era, or "Munich," Steven Spielberg's study of the price Israel paid for its reprisals for the murder of its athletes at the 1972 Olympics.
DON'T COUNT "MUNICH" OUT
Before the race began and before anyone had a chance to see Spielberg's movie, it was being touted as the odds-on favorite to snare the best picture award, namely because Spielberg is a revered figure in Hollywood and had chosen to make his most serious movie since "Schindler's List."
The film is an examination of the cost of fighting terrorism and whether a democracy can use methods like targeted assassinations without destroying or shaming itself.
The film was hit by a backlash as soon as it was shown to Jewish American and Israeli groups, who argue that Spielberg ignored arguments that Israel was justified in using the methods it does in the war against terrorists.
New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier wrote that "'Munich' prefers a discussion of counterterrorism to a discussion of terrorism; or it thinks that they are the same discussion. This is an opinion that only people who are not responsible for the safety of other people can hold."
David Poland of Movie City News said that "Munich" has to overcome the impression that it is anti-Israeli and possibly can do this "because the anti-Israeli accusation is a neoconservative one and not a mainstream Jewish one."
He noted that at screenings at the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, whose members give out the Oscars, "Munich" was well received.
Poland, himself, is optimistic, predicting that "'Munich will still win the Academy Award. I think 'Brokeback' will suffer when it goes into a wider viewing."
Other films with gay characters or gender-challenging themes that have won prominence this year include "Capote," thanks to its standout performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as writer Truman Capote, and "TransAmerica," with Felicity Huffman winning rave reviews as a man on the verge of completing a sex change.
In this movie, she's a woman playing a man about to become a woman and if that sounds easy, rest assured it isn't.
"Brokeback Mountain" is also doing well at the box office -- even though it is only in 69 theaters, it was last week's eighth-highest-grossing movie.
Fine, then the left can find out what it's like to have the lowest-rated Oscars ever. The movie is playing in few dozen carefully chosen theaters, I have a feeling it will be a major shock to Hollywierd when "flyover country" totally ignores it.
Homosexual agenda ping.
And they wonder why viewship dropping faster than a Prom dress.
I was thinking, And they wonder why Oscars ratings have gone down through the years. They shoot horses, don't they?
This is a hoot!
Here you have the Hollywood knobs wondering why their theatre take is lower than it's been in years, and then they trow some crap like "Broked**k Mountain" at us over the CHRISTMAS SEASON....
Are these people REALLY that Stuck On Stupid?
Give me a break!!
I don't think the faggots there would care. They got defeated last year over the gay marriage issue, so this is their consolation prize. Let them have a faggot-fest on TV and we will send them a message by not tuning in at all.
I hope they lose their shorts L0L
I'm gonna watch the Oscars to see if the cowboy from the Village People gets his lifetime achievement award.
Just another reason to avoid the most disgusting porn/pervert-hustlers on the planet. Maybe they will make a movie about the gay man having sex with the stud horse in the Seattle area and call it the love affair between Will and Trigger. Actually, Trigger really did break this perverts back.
And this surprises who??
"Apparently it is really a story about sheepherders, not cowboys."
There's something really ironic about a gay sheepherder. But sheep can't cook.
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=brokebackmountain.htm
And just who decides who wins Oscars and for what reason. It always seems to be just some sort of pompous circle-jerk to me.
It's number 8 on the list because all of the other crap coming out of Hollywood is bombing too!
Sorry, I have no interest in Breakback Mountain. Maybe they can muster up enough support in SanFran to make this movie a hit......
"a major shock to Hollywierd when "flyover country" totally ignores it."
I think flyover country should get a big dose of it. Every week. Keep telling them that the homosexual agenda is Hillaries baby.
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