Those Hollywood HomophobesGotta chuckle at the
controversy surrounding Brokeback Mountain not winning the Oscar for Best Picture.
No overtly gay love story had ever won a Best Picture statue and the critics immediately asked whether Oscar votes had not backed off from breaking that taboo.Uh, obvious question here: How many overtly gay love stories have ever been filmed/considered/nominated for a Best Picture statue? About the only gay love story I can remember was
Making Love with Kate Jackson, Harry Hamlin and Michael Ontkean; it was not seriously considered for any major awards.
The Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan saw Brokeback’s failure as a sign that Hollywood was not yet ready to grant the topic of homosexual love mainstream respectability.That's pretty ridiculous. Of course, Hollywood is ready to grant the topic of homosexual love mainstream respectablility; the only problem is that the rest of America is not. And of course Turan is not about to admit that perhaps the movie just wasn't good enough.
Kitty has an
excellent recap of Oscar night.
Kaus
adds:
But she says Brokeback was "slow and ponderous." Why, exactly, couldn't that be the reason it lost?Because there would be no opportunity to scold America if you buy the idea that
Brokeback lost for reasons other than homophobia.
