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.
"Artsy Fartsy pudding eating homosexual cowboy movies do not put butts in the seats."
Where DO they put butts? ;-)
Pathetic.
Hollyweird is getting further and further out in LaLa Land.We ought to tar and feather the whole bunch of em/sarcasm intended:)
the field is crowded with potential winners: "Munich," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Syriana," and "The Constant Gardener."
It will be some satisfaction when this steaming pile of a movie will lose money and be a total flop.
I can't imagine any friend or acquaintance paying money to see this.
I did fantasize that if it came to a nearby town (which I doubt) I would only go if I could do a loud running commentary.
;-)
Hollyweird has become the porno industry they once scoffed at.
Cheap, no plot, goat sex movies with pre-school dialog.
Isn't it amazing that the MSM is telling us what a "bomb" King Kong is going to be because it is earning money by the truckload instead of by three truckloads, but "BareBack Mountain" is earning a few thousands here and there and the MSM is so excited they are typing with one hand to tell us all how wonderful this is?
LOL! They have no shame. I'd be ashamed to be such a fool/perversion promoter. I'd be ashamed to be so transparent. Shows how off the cliff they are.
Hehehe..
As I understand this movie, the plot is a message movie that tries to justify the gay men, leaving their families for their homosexual love affair. I have seen this happen to friends and it is so personally destructive to spouse that is left behind and the children. I have also seen many men who make a joke of their marriage by staying with their wives, while frequenting Gay bars, picking up hitchhikers and other types of homosexual behavior.
i saw that "brokehole.com" is a domain name for sale on ebay; maybe this could be a winner
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