The Oscars

I was pleasantly surprised when, a few weeks ago, Crash was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Pleasantly surprised, because for every person like me who enjoyed it, there seemed to be at least one person who hated it with a passion. With that in mind, I sat down to watch the Oscars early this morning with modest expectations that Crash might win anything, especially in competition with that awards-slurping juggernaut, Brokeback Mountain.

When Brokeback's Ang Lee took the Oscar for Best Director, everything seemed to be going according to preordination. In fact, with less than an hour left until I had to start getting ready for work, I considered shutting the show off to take a short nap. Shoving that idea aside, I decided to stick it out, and I'm glad I did, because the announcement that Crash had won the Academy Award for Best Picture ranks as one of my lifetime's truly startling Oscar moments.

Such was the perceived certainty of Brokeback's victory that volumes have already been written trying to explain why the Academy went with Crash instead. Is it because Crash is set in contemporary Los Angeles, where a large portion of the Academy's members live? Or is it because so many Academy members are actors, each of whom probably knows at least one member of Crash's ensemble cast? Pointless speculation, to be sure, but I prefer these explanations to the idea that Crash's victory was somehow a rejection of Brokeback Mountain -- a position expressed thusly by Brokeback co-scripter Larry McMurtry: "Americans don't want cowboys to be gay."

Clearly McMurtry has let his subscription to Variety lapse, so I'd like to take a moment to point out what a phenomenal success Brokeback Mountain has been with audiences. Since its release in December, this $14-million movie has grossed almost $80 million in North America, and it will end its run as one of the top 25 grossers of 2005. Furthermore, at one point it was playing at more than 2,000 theaters, which means it was playing in red states and blue states alike.

McMurtry shouldn't fret. It seems that not only do Americans want gay cowboys, they've been starving for them.