Crash as best picture?!? Really??!!?? Oh well. I think Academy got it wrong this year. I would personally like to see Brokeback Mountain get it because it was a well made film but I realize it does not have the mass appeal that Crash has. My probelm with Crash was it was a good movie but not great. When did best picture go to movies that were just okay. What happened to the days of Braveheart, Silence of the Lamb, Lord of the Rings, and Titanic? I think Walk the Line and Cinderella Man should have gotten nominations. Oh well.
Addendum: So I have been doing a lot of Oscar reading about people's reaction to the best picture win and some good points have been made. The best one I heard was from 980 AM this morning. A writer/reporter from the LA times gave his outlook. It breaks down like this - Crash was marketed better than Brokeback. Crash cast members went on every talk show circuit and promoted the movie. Crash was send to over 1,000 people to be viewed for consideration. Crash writer and director Paul Haggis got no credit for writing Million Dollar Baby last year so the Academy gave him the honor this year. Crash had the lady who did the marketing campaign for the Miramax company when the Weinstein people were there so she knew how to market the movie i.e. best picture Shakespre In Love. It all makes sense. I agree though the best reason is because Hollywood is not making good films anymore.
4 comments:
I was very shocked by this film winning as well. However, it's the way the game is played. Ang lee got a lot of slack as a director for making Brokeback Mountain and so I think they gave him the honor of Best Director for his acheivement with that film. Therefore, I figure the people sorta then decided to give Best Picture to another movie. A lot of times if you win best director they won't also give you best picture. I haven't seen Brokeback so I don't know how good it is, or isn't. I however though Crash was OK, not Best Picture worthy. There were only two parts that stuck out to me, the fire rescue and the one that stood out the most was the situation when the girl went to give her dad the invisible cape of protection.
I was somewhat shocked when Crash won as well, as I thought it was kinda a throw in when I first heard it announced. I think its a pretty good movie, and has some really strong scenes ( I think when Matt Dillon tells Ryan I can't act my way out of a paper bag Phillippe that he has no idea who he really is, and the invisible cape of course). I think its weird when the best picture doesn't come from the best director, cause if its the best picture how did it get that way...from the director!!! The producers pick up the best picture award but the director did all the work to make it so good. I also haven't seen brokeback so I can't really compare, all i know is from that scene they play on kevin and bean in the morning, and from that it doesn't seem best picture worthy.
I agree with Darth. How can you win director and not get best picture as well. That is like only being awarded for half your work. Quite puzzling. In addition, Brokeback didn't win any of the other major catorgies like best actor or supporting roles. I think more movies should have been nominated for best picture.
It's politics. I know what you're saying about the Best Picture and Best Director should come together. I don't know, the first movie that comes to my mind though is Gangs of New York. You have Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill The Butcher which was one of the best performances I've ever seen in my life. You have the film directed by Martin Scorsese (who I think has still never won an award), and it was nominated for Best Picture. Now, I don't think it was the Best Picture by any means... but if he directed Daniel Day-Lewis, he did it amazingly. Best Picture that year was Chicago and though entertaining I don't think the acting was amazing, therefoe I don't think the picture should have won best director (and it didn't). Best director went to Roman Polanski who did an amazing job with the Pianist, yet it didn't win Best Picture (maybe they didn't want to make another Holocaust movie win Best Picture after Schindler's List won, and between the two I think Schindler's List was better).
Anyway... I think it's Politics... when George Clooney accepted his award he said, "I guess this means I didn't win Best DIrector" and he was right and he knew he would be because that's how the game is played in Hollywood.
Like you Darth, I thought Crash was just thrown in with the Best Picture nominations when they compiled the list. It was almost like a joke to me that it was nominated.
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