Yeah, from reading some posts you'd think that Crash was worst than Battlefield Earth, which makes all the whining and silly hyperbole even more ridiculous.

Sounds like a Disney film. I smell celebrity voices for the monkey and the turtle... Perhaps Eddie Murphy and Whoopie Goldberg? Phil Collins on the soundtrack?

Lee deserved his Oscar. I would think it is more that Robert Zemeckis and Ron Howard have Oscars but Scorsese doesn't.

Again, it seems to me the sour grapes are on both sides.

at all the ado about nothing. Have the Academy Awards ever been anything other than a Hollywood circlejerk (Well, since the inception of home video, perhaps they are more of a marketing exercise.)? As has been noted many times in this thread, the comparative quality of movies is subjective to say the least. Heck, we tend to look about until we find one who seems to have the same taste in flicks we do, and tend to follow their recommendations for what to spend our cash to see at the AMC this weekend, adn even then, there are frequent "WTF, Mate?" moments when we disagree with even our most favorite and trusted critic. It was mentioned that members of the Academy were carpet-bombed with Crash DVDs and that it was probably a major factor in its selection. I dunno about that, but the chaotic free-for-all surrounding the whole process certainly brings into question whether the Academy should ever have been taken seriously in the first place. I do miss the good ol' days when I attended or even hosted Oscar parties, though.

Back OT: Yeah, this rant just makes Ms. Proulx sound like a loon (which she probably isn't, she's just seventy freakin' years old).

I don't understand all the fuss over the screener dvds. If your film was released in May, well before the other nominees, what option do you have to use to remind voters about your film other than flooding them with dvds? What they did was perfectly legimate and normal. LionsGate were well prepared for this race and it paid off.

Can I post what I thought of Brokeback here?

Brokeback Mountain - 4/5

Very good film, was really surprised how much I liked it. Slow moving in places but its not boring, its' quite a gentle film.
The acting from both Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger is excellent, it may be a strange thing to say but the make up is convincing as well and really made be belive they had got older over time.
I really think the film is a love story first, then it is about homosexuality. I don't think the two men mention they are homosexual/bi/whatever (they don't use any term) through the whole film.
Whilst this issue is important in a way because a) it shows the homophobic attitude by some of small town America at that time towards homosexuality and how their affair affects the men's families and b) also shows ultimately why they can't be together, I would submit that the film would have worked without the two characters having feelings for each other, it would still have worked if it was about a man and a woman. Maybe it wouldn't have been quite the SAME movie but I think most plotpoints in the film could apply just as well, thus I really dont understand why some people called this movie "a gay issue" movie, its just about 2 people who are in love with each other.
(surprise surprise my mum - who I watched it with - thought I said it would be the SAME film if you ignored the two characters sexuality but I did not!) She ended up accepting what I said eventually - "Ignore the men's sexuality, you would still have a good film"
I noticed that most of my mum's friends said they were uncomfortable with the love scenes between Jake and Heath in the film. Apart from the very first one I guess (because I didnt know what was going to happen) I was OK with them, those scenes arent very strong at all IMO and you don't really see anything, hell, there are straight sex scenes in the film that are more explicit than that.

Oh I wasn't trying to say that I don't think that Lee deserved it. Just the fact that Scorsese has had so many chances, where he has really deserved it, and then here we have Lee winning it like this.

It's just very weird to me.

"I ain't queer you know." -Ennis

I remember that one because it was kind of funny considering the previous scene...

It probably would have been better in the other thread. This thread is mostly for the Brokeback Whiners, and the Whiners Who Like to Whine About the Brokeback Whiners. Posting something positive about Brokeback here is just inviting the WWLTWATBW to whine some more.

Fixed.

Hey!

The only one I put in my mouth is my own.

the first gay cowboy movie and all this shit going on about it, kinda makes you sick of it all

Now THAT, my friend, is talent.

Really? I thought that line defined the mood of the entire film.

He was but was in denial about it.

Oh yeah, I remember that line.
Maybe he was but was in denial - maybe he wasnt. They could be bi or have gay tendancies.

Reposted it in the other thread "Brokeback Mountain - a Modern Classic"

That's debateable.

I agree, he could have been in denial but maybe not. Apart from that one line, nothing is said about their preferences as such, they might be bi or even have gay tendacies - later on they seem to be enjoying their wives quite a bit, no?
BTW Jake Gyllenhaal's wife was HOT!

I felt dirt seeing her naked, after watching the princess diaries with my niece...

Is this section in Roeper's column about you?

Oh, hell no, that can't be art -- that really has Duality all over it!