Art as Hammer or Ballot as Tire Iron?

Well after 48 hours of cycling through anger, resentment, indignation, shock and sadness, I’m beginning to feel a bit more clear-headed about what happened at the Oscars. 

I have to say at the outset that I’m a bit disappointed with myself. I’ve never cared about the Oscars. I’ve never watched it. Couldn’t care less about the glitz and “glamour”. Above all, I couldn’t give a flying fuck about Oscar “fashion”. The spectacle of so many women teetering down the red carpet, augmented to within an inch of their lives, momentarily pausing to show their ass and give a puffy-lipped pout to the camera is fundamentally revolting to me.

But this year it was different. I slipped up and allowed myself to care about what happened at the Oscars. It’s because I cared that I now feel the need to rationalize the outcome.

To answer my own question - it certainly wasn’t anything as noble as “art as hammer” (that’s as close as I’ll come to trashing Crash in this post) but neither do I think it was “ballot as tire iron”. Unfortunately, lots and lots of people are crying, “Homophobia!” Unfortunate because the charge is so incendiary as to prevent rational discussion. I believe that actual homophobia had little to do with the outcome. I think that what happened was the result of a coincidental convergence of three things: 1) the self importance of the Academy, 2) heterosexism and, 3) the extra time provided by the Olympics for Lions Gate to dump thousands of DVDs on the SAG.  (It should be noted that Nat over at The Film Experience disagrees with pretty much every one of my arguments.)

To elaborate…

1) I think it can be reasonably assumed that the Academy must be filled with a sense of self-importance.  And why wouldn’t they be?  The Oscars marks the end of awards season and is considered by pretty much everyone to be the final word on achievement in American film.  Academy members believe themselves to be final arbiters.  A person in such a position is probably going to have an attitude about it and will be resistant to what they might feel is overt pressure from outside forces (especially if such pressure comes without benefit of bribes or piles of shwag). I believe that the long train of awards and the volume and pervasiveness of Brokeback “hype” was perceived as a threat to the position of the Academy as being at the top of the heap.  Tom O’Neil reported outright hostility. So…

I believe that there was a reservoir of ambivalence, resistance and even resentment toward Brokeback.

2) Heterosexism - the sophisticated, complicated, blue-blooded cousin of brutal, uncomplicated, hot-blooded homophobia. It shows up on the face as the tight smile rather than the sneer. Heterosexism isn’t homophobia per se, but maybe it’s homophobia lite.  As an openly gay person this, rather than homophobia, is what I usually experience. It is why gay people often have the sneaking suspicion that, even by their friends, their relationships are not taken as seriously as those of their straight counterparts. It is why reasonable people are OK with it as long as you don’t call it marriage. It is why reasonable people are susceptible to confusing human rights with “special rights”. And I can’t really blame them considering the popular image that most people have of gay people; an image provided and confirmed by gay people themselves. It is why it is so easy to parody the “gay cowboy”; a parody that leaps immediately into the minds of gay and straight people alike.  It is a parody supplied by gay people.  Heterosexism allows people, both gay and straight, to trivialize a serious, truthful story about the love between two cowboys and not feel guilty or strange about it.  So…

I believe that people aren’t necessarily inclined to take stories about gay people, their problems or their love seriously.

3) And then there is the tactical part of all of this.  The Oscars was put off by almost a month so it wouldn’t have to compete with the Olympics.  SAG gave it’s version of best film to Crash.  Lions Gate saw its chance to dump thousands of DVDs on the largest voting bloc in the Academy in an attempt to shove Brokeback out of its place at the forefront of their attention.  And Crash had things going for it that made that task easier and made it endearing specifically to those people.  It had a large ensemble cast.  It was a production and a story that stayed in LA - their home turf, their backyard, the place where they fight life’s battles.  Crash said something about them and the people - friends and strangers - in their lives.  Lions Gate knew this.  So…

In the line of sight between the voter and the Oscar, Crash stepped in front of Brokeback and the voter liked that view better.

In summation: Crash won Best Picture because voting for it provided the Academy voters with a way to acknowledge a film that they took seriously rather than one that they didn’t and more importantly (in my mind) it allowed for a release of their resentment, reasserted their independence and gave comfort to their egos. Having seen Crash, nothing else makes sense to me.

Did homophobia play any role?  Some, sure, but not much… but the battle lines seem to have already been drawn.

As for me, I’m movin’ on.  Brokeback Mountain has already taken its place in history as surely as it occupies a large part of my heart.  I know that the people whose love for the story brought the film into being know what the film has accomplished. I know that they know that their love has been returned in kind by people everywhere. I don’t believe that Annie or Diana or Larry or Ang or Jake or Heath would want me to dwell on this any longer.  Neither would Jack or Ennis.

Brokeback Mountain changed the way I see my place in the world.  That is enough.

Comments

[Marc Mitchel]

Thank you. Ditto to very much of what you said. Like every other artistic triumph of human understanding which will belong only to the minority of thinkers to whom insularity never was affordable, it will not go away. Once upon a time it was said. And such as we are world-class experts on "making do".

[Charles Beene]

Brilliant. Although I don't think you can discount the overwhelming pervasiveness of sheer stupidity i.e. how the Academy (ergo America) swallows faux-controversy like its a caramel machiatto. Crash was the cinematic equivalent of the Laci Peterson/Natalie Holloway/Runaway Bride cases — bad entertainment masquearading as "relevant." As I said to you in my email, people were told Crash was "thought-provoking" and "ground-breaking" and so they bought it, despite all the weak cliches and contrived passion. I'm no Ebert, but even I can think of about 10 movies off the top of my head that were inifinitely more poignant on the subject of race relations and class divisions. Any comparisons that have been written to Do the Right Thing are a slap in the face of Spike Lee (which I'm guessing is how feels.)