Posted on 03/07/2006 9:22:24 PM PST by george76
The divide between conservative and liberal America was on full display at the Oscars, with both the winners and losers championing social and political topics heralded by the left.
Across the United States, in blogs and on call-in radio talk shows, conservatives seethed that their point of view was not represented in the choice films honored with nominations -- let alone among those given awards.
"This year's Oscar nominees include stories of homosexual sheep herders, a transvestite and Japanese prostitutes," ...
American conservatives are accustomed to frowning at liberal Hollywood, but they were more disaffected than ever by the left-of-center themes of this year's Oscar nominees.
the conservative Concerned Women for America (CWA)...complained that the few Hollywood films it approved of had loads of popular appeal and impressive box office, but "got the cold shoulder from Hollywood elitists."
Conservative America long has been at odds with liberal Tinseltown, championing films with religious overtones like the blockbuster "Passion of the Christ," which was snubbed at the 2004 Oscars.
This year another hit with Christian overtones was the film "The Chronicles of Narnia...which has raked in more than 637 million dollars in ticket receipts around the world...
Narnia's ticket sales nearly equaled those of the five best picture Oscar nominees combined.
"This year's anticipated Oscar-winning movies, reviewed in light of their box office appeal, reveal Hollywood's true motives.
They are far less concerned about entertaining people than they are with trying to shape the culture and advance a political agenda."
"If you want to be truly courageous and take actual risks then make a movie that gives conservatives a fair shake or, God forbid, make a movie where a Liberal is the bad guy."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
An Oscar now has as much meaning as a Nobel Peace Prize.
When you take into account the gazillions of dollars spent "promoting" this waste of celluloid, (they're STILL selling it here, BTW) I'd think the profit on "Bareback Mountin'" is marginal, at best.
Brokeback was a "proof of concept." Low budget movie with high production values and "name brand" talent aimed at a relatively small demographic.
It's called "The People's Choice Awards." Ratings for it peaked in 1977.
1977 4th People's Choice Awards
Favorite Movie
Star Wars
Favorite Movie Actor
John Wayne
Favorite Movie Actress
Barbra Streisand
Two out of three ain't bad.
To give McMurtry is due -- he's written some of the finest modern western books around. Last Picture Show and Horseman, Pass By (made into the movie Hud w/Paul Newman). he also wrote Terms of Endearment (also made into a movie) and All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers.
Don't forget "Lonesome Dove"
Rastus already mentioned it. Not his best work, in my opinion.
GOOD answer.
I hadn't considered THAT angle of attack.
I still pity them. They "coulda been contenda's".
Such is life.
I had the smiley because it was meant sort of tongue-in-cheek. That said, the man has gone around the bend. I've read interviews with him long before he was involved with Brokeback, and he's sort of a jerk. During the last election, he was saying how ashamed he was that George Bush is associated with Texas. And Lonesome Dove is not so impressive after you read Andy Adams' Log of a Cowboy and any biography on Charles Goodnight and see how unoriginal the McMurtry work really was.
Yeah, I missed the previous mention. Have to confess I never read the book, but I consider it one of the finest western movies of all time, if I can stretch "movie" to include a TV miniseries. Casting has a lot to do with that, though.
It was also kind of a personal wish. I may be old, but I'm also tired of big budget movies where the CGI have more personality than the actors. That's probably one of the reasons Brokeback was popular. It might have been a gay story, but at least it was about actual people and not computers performing visual tricks.
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