Michael Medved and the rest of the "Hollywood Hates America" ideological bottom-feeders are going to be dining out on this year's Academy Award nominations for years to come. Each and every Best Picture nomination is a big middle finger extended at the wingers: Crash (depicts racism, criticizes police, makes gun ownerhip look bad), Capote (gay protagonist, peripheral anti-death penalty message), Good Night, And Good Luck (anti-McCarthy, pro-American values, may remind the veal calves on cable news of the days when reporters actually had guts), Munich (target of rabid neoconservative pre-emptive strike), and Brokeback Mountain (Marlboro men doing . . . doing . . . well, doing that thing they do).
With two kids and a ridiculously tight schedule cutting into my time, I now tend to wait for grownup movies to come out on video, so Crash is the only BP nominee I've seen. Frankly, I'd be surprised if it won. It's tremendously impressive on first viewing, and I still admire the ingenuity of its construction and the passion of its acting. But the writing is way too pat: every character has a bad trait neatly balanced out by a good trait, so a guy revealed as a sexually abusive, racist creep in one scene has a redeeming moment of heroism down the line.
It's also one of the most crassly manipulative movies I've ever seen. I realize that's hardly a disqualifying trait with the Academy Award voters, but the fact that the film came out on DVD so far in advance of the voting may allow what I've come to think of as the Crash effect to settle in: initial admiration giving way to scorn at the cheapness of some of the film's moves. The scene with the little girl and the gun had my heart in my mouth when I first watched it, but over time I've come to despise the director for pulling such a cheap move.
Race, religion, politics and money are the four cornerstones of life that Hollywood films almost never deal with honestly for fear of offending somebody. The Crash formula — offend people but then pat them on the head — isn't much of a solution. When it touches on something real, the truth gets smothered in manipulation; when it goes for something cheap and grandstanding, the fraud is made all the worse by the glimpses of truth we've been given.
****
Originally posted at The Opinion Mill.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
And don't forget last year's winner, Million Dollar Baby, a look at euthanasia
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Rule of thumb: If I haven't seen it, then a bunch of "movie experts" love it.
3 - El Bicho
Rule of thumb: If a bunch of "movie experts" love it, then Suss won't get it. (i.e. A History of Violence)
4 - Matthew T. Sussman
Rule of thumb: I know you are, but what am I?
5 - Silas Kain
Poor Mike Medved. He's a nellie queen trapped in a self-loathing right winger's body.
6 - Chris Beaumont
Two thumbs up for this exchange.
7 - Bliffle
Of the half dozen I've seen, I'd pick "Syriana".
8 - Chelsea Snyder
Suss, what you doing with this nonsense of thinking before I tell you what to think?
Last time I let you out of the basement...
9 - Nicholas Stix
Well, Crash wouldn't have won, in any event, because it was released early in the year. The last time an early release won for Best Pic, it was Silence of the Lambs, and that was a sensation that remained in theaters for months and months, and had people discussing its "sexy" serial killer, Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter even longer. Crash didn't cause any of that sort of box office, civilian buzz, or media fascination.
In any event, it's been clear for some time that Shepherd's Pie is going to win.
10 - Steven Hart
You're forgetting "Annie Hall," which had been released so early in the year that it was even on television before the Oscars. An early release nowadays means Oscar voters have more chances to catch up with it.
11 - Nicholas Stix
El Bicho #1: "And don't forget last year's winner, Million Dollar Baby, a look at euthanasia."
How could I forget? MDB was brilliant. Your remark is a superior-sounding attempt to sound knowing, while saying nothing of substance.
12 - El Bicho
Little Nicky, I wasn't attempting to sound superior. I was simply pointing out that last year's winner is in line with the article's thesis about Hollywood flipping right-wingers the bird. Did you not notice conservatives up in arms about the subject matter last year?