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.
The Hollywood crowd deserves everything they get... and less...
"I was strongly advised against seeing it. [King Kong]"
I got the same advice from people who saw it. They said it was too long and very dull - no interest in the characters, and the special effects were pretty obvious and so-so.
Hollyweird (or is it Hollow-weird?) is driving normal people away. Fine with me.
I don't have a TV and very rarely watch movies. I'm not deprived, I'm fortunate.
Why do you think Elia Kazan was denied a Lifetime Achievement Award for so long?
It certainly wasn't because he didn't deserve the honor.
*rolls eyes*
Every one of them anti-American agitprop. Seriously, each of these movies could have been shown in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era.
It's the Passion of the Christ backlash effect. Hollywood is reminding the rest of us who's really in charge of the culture.
MamaDearest wrote:
" They're just preparing you for the harder version once they've "softened up" the market."
--And how do they expect to "soften" up the market? Force everyone to swallow X-Lax? hehehehehe /sarc
This might shock most, but, folks go to the movie to forget. To take a moment to walk in the shoes of another or for entertainment.
Now if the gay community needs a movie for their entertainment than fine. But, call a spade a spade, this is about pushing an agenda. Not about a cowboy movie. Not about a love story.
If there is good acting in it ... I will never know because I will not see it because I do not want to see a guy with a guy.
Frankly, I am modest and really do not like to see any over the top stuff with a guy and a gal.
Movies where you do not need to cover my eyes is my kind of movie.
Just my 2 cents.
Another oscar winner few will see? They might as well buy themselves a trophy and grip it as they like...
I just have one question, so here goes...
How does a gay cowboy sit on a horse the next morning after a night of man love??
FReepmail me and little jeremiah if you want on/off the ping list.
This will do to the Oscars what the strikes have done to major sports -- only more so. The disgusted public will simply tune out and find better things to do with their time.
The Left is gnawing away at our society and spitting it out ruined, one piece at a time.
It's Ellen Degeneres, isn't it?
Gay Mafia gets it's way with Bareback MountHim.
There's already been a precipitous drop in the per theater box office receipts between weekends 1 and 2. ($109,485 - $38,354.) Oh yeah, this one has legs. LOL.
It's Ellen, huh? Guess I wasn't too far off with my initial guess.
Well, the Oscars have for some time been the repository of self-absorbed, self-congratulatory ego monsters air-kissing one another and basking in the reflected glory of the roles they play. Bareback Mountin' is no worse and certainly no better than all of the other secular morality plays served up by the shallow, the self-righteous, and the arrogant. Afraid I'll be missing the awards again this year.
I was being facetious. I don't think they have picked the host yet and if they have, they are keeping it a secret. I went to the Oscars website and there is no mention of it.
Probably Elton John and his new boywife will have shared duties.
What else is on that night?
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