"And the
Oscar for Best Picture goes to Crash..."
Even before Jack
Nicholson handed the naked gold statue to the movie's
producers, cries of homophobia echoed from the Kodak Theatre
in Hollywood. What? No Brokeback Mountain? How
could this be? There is no doubt that Brokeback
was the favorite to win, and one would think a film
that had just won for Best Score, Best Adapted Screenplay
(go, Diana and Larry!), and Best Director would, in
fact, be the Best Picture. Well, not according to
Oscar.
Obvious
homophobia again, right? The Academy just couldn't
stomach awarding an unashamed love story with gay sex,
right? Those damn cultural elitists caved to the
pressure of Middle America and the religious right and
played it safe by awarding a movie about racism in the LAPD,
right?
Say it with me:
"Poppycock!"
That's too
easy an answer and one to which we all too often defer when
things like this happen. So what happened?
First,
Brokeback burnout, and for that we are all to blame.
In fact, gays are probably more to blame for
Brokeback not winning than almost any other
group (if there is one to blame). Why? Because we
allowed it to become a national joke. Oh, sure, the parodies
are funny. Oh, yeah, the jokes, including Billy
Crystal and Chris Rock at the beginning of the Oscar
show, got laughs. But at what expense?
Simple--ours.
Brokeback Mountain is a tragic story with a tragic
ending. I have yet to hear anyone explain to me what
is funny about two people who can never really admit
they're in love, a society that wouldn't
accept them if they did, and the possibility that one
of them dies by fag bashing (oops, was that a
spoiler?). It seemed like a laugh riot on paper, right?
But most gays and
lesbians have allowed Brokeback parodies to
flourish. Where was GLAAD when all the jokes were being made
and all the clips were being produced? Oh, no,
it's cool to laugh at gay people.Look how funny they are. And the thought of gay love?
Hysterical! Let's make it a joke. In fact,
in 2006, "Brokeback" became the
"Hollywood Word of the Year" as reported by
the nonprofit Global Language Monitor group. Hey,
it's good for the box office, right?
The problem is
that Academy members may not have wanted to vote for a
joke, and unfortunately that's what the media,
comics, and Hollywood have done--turned
Brokeback into a giant joke, a comedy skit.
It's a shame, because Diana Ossana and Larry
McMurtry's script is anything but funny and
Heath Ledger's and Jake Gyllenhaal's
performances are worthy of praise more than parody.
And then
there's Brokeback fatigue. By the time Academy
members got around to voting, they were probably tired
of hearing about the movie, especially in the new,
lighthearted way it's been presented. There was
no balancing voice from any gay group or organization to
refocus them or the nation on how important and
serious the discussions about this movie should be.
Dialogues that
should be happening are not, and that's a shame. For
instance, no one stood up and said, "Stop calling
this a gay movie!" Capote is far more
gay than Brokeback, including the characters. I
believe Ennis to be straight and the affair to be
situational. What a great dialogue to have: that sexuality
isn't cut-and-dried, that sometimes you can
fall in love with a person and not a gender, and that
just because you're straight and have sex with the
same gender doesn't make you gay. Just as if
you're gay and have sex with the opposite
gender doesn't make you straight. I'm legally
married to a woman and haven't had sex with
anyone of any gender since July 2005. Does that make
me straight? Trust me, no one believes that.
Why not talk
about how being gay is a way of life, a lifestyle, an
essence of being, and not about gay sex? There are
gay celibates, for goodness' sake. Straight men
have gay sex. I know--I've had it with
them. And gay men have straight sex (yes, I've had
that too). Sexuality is complex, love is unexpected,
and sometimes we enter into unexpected relationships.
That's the thing to be talking about. Talk about
breaking down barriers so straight men might feel more
at ease to explore their sexuality. But instead, we
get a Brokeback to the Future parody--and
laugh.
And then
there's the question of which nominee is simply a
better movie. But gays don't want to address
that because Brokeback is a holy grail now.
Look, you
can't compare art. Van Gogh or Cezanne? And the
winner is? Please, I'd take a work by both or
either. Each film is unique. But in terms of
complexity of story line, the way the story was told,
subject matter, and all that goes in to a film, if
pressed, I'm forced to admit that Crash
and Capote were actually better films. I love
Brokeback and all it says and does, and I
can't thank everyone enough for their labor of
love, a labor that will lead to much better things in
Hollywood for gays and lesbians when it comes to film. But
when you compare it to the other nominees, while it
certainly deserves to be nominated and deserves every
single award it has gotten, was it the best picture
made last year? Well, the Academy didn't think so,
and in reality, many nongay people don't think
so either. We must remove ourselves from our emotional
attachment to the film and simply judge it as any
other piece of celluloid. How many of you even saw Crash,
Capote, or Munich? We run a very dangerous risk
of blind allegiance to anything, films included.
The star of the
night was Brokeback, no doubt. It got three
statues. Why can't that be enough? The fact is that
10% (or so, depending on whether or not there's
alcohol involved, or in this case, isolated men with
sheep) of America loved this film. Ninety percent of America
didn't have that much of an investment, so they
liked it. Many liked it a lot. But many also
couldn't relate. Racism, on the other hand?
We're still fighting that, as we have for
thousands of years as humans. Everyone has a stance on
that. And a troupe of talented actors weaving multiple story
lines that all collide in one explosive place is not that
easy of a feat. In this case the Academy thought it
made for a better movie.
Brokeback Mountain is a serious, wonderful movie
about serious, forbidden issues. If it's
your best picture of the year, fine. But leave
Oscar alone. As an icon with no genitalia, he's got
enough problems. And not everything that happens to
gay people or gay-themed products has a direct
relationship to homophobia. As a mainstream talk-show
host, I've had to learn that. We have to be more than
gay; we have to be good. Being fired because
you're gay is wrong, but being fired because
the straight guy next to you is just a little better at your
job isn't homophobia; it's just a fact
of life.
So the Academy
didn't think Brokeback was the brilliant work
millions of others thought it to be. To scream
homophobia is to yet again prove that we want to blame
everything on something else and take no responsibility.
Maybe if we took ourselves--and our movies--more
seriously, others would too. Maybe things would be
different if in our quest for acceptance, we
didn't allow ourselves or our media to become a
parody. Not just on the Oscar stage, which is all
make-believe anyway, but in real life.
I was fine with
the Oscars. Every movie won something, and as a gay
person, I'm willing to share. Congratulations to all
the winners, and especially Ang Lee, Diana Ossana, and
Larry McMurtry. And congratulations to Paul Haggis and
his wonderful group that raised important social
questions as well. We're not the only ones struggling
for equality: blacks, Hispanics, Persians,
women...hell, almost every minority still is. And
I'm glad Hollywood tackles it all.
Oh, and by the
way, it's an award, not a social statement. Which
film won Best Picture last year? Bet you had to think,
or maybe you don't even remember. But when
Crash is in the $5.50 bin at Wal-Mart or Target
it will still be a great film, while Brokeback will,
in fact, become a classic spoken about for many years
to come. So we win after all.
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