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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2006)
46 lU StOUt APRIL 7, 2006 The Brokebacklash Hollywood to homos: "Whoa, cowboy!" SPI KIT MOUNTAIN CASINO 1¿lk A mkua I know what you’re thinking: Get over it. But with the April 4 release of Brokeback Mountain on DVD, 1 still find myself trying to wrap my head around the film’s shocking ending. And I'm not talking about Jack’s untimely death. Leading up to the Academy Awards ceremony March 5, every indication was that Brokeback would be named Best Picture: It received the most nominations, it won the top prize at the Golden Globes, and it swept the Producers/Directors/ Writers Guild awards. BY JIM RAD0STA Of course, leading up to the 2004 election, every • The gay thing. My worst fear is that the suf indication was that Americans would fire Dubya, so fering of gay people simply doesn’t elicit sympathy my crystal ball must be foggy. But this is Tinseltown! from homophobes. I figured those Hollywood liberals would proudly Conservative academy members like 89-year-old embrace this moment to tell 1 billion viewers Ernest Borgnine didn’t even bother watching their worldwide that the year’s best film was about two screeners: “I know they say it’s a good picture, but 1 cowboys in love. don’t care to see it. If John Wayne were alive, he’d Instead, the academy honored Crash, be rolling over in his grave.” a supremely mediocre melodrama about a topic that Spike Lee handled much better 16 years earlier with Do the Right Thing. I explained this to my straight friends using terminology they could understand: Imagine the Pittsburgh Steelers going up against the Peoria Podunks, lead ing 72-0 until the fourth quarter and then losing the game on a bad call from the ref, who didn’t even see the damn play. Did homophobia kill Brokeback Mountain's shot at Oscar gold? Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan was more-direct: “For people who Or perhaps these vapid celebs watched it and were discomfited by Brokeback Mountain but want thought: “Eh, 20 years in a loveless marriage? Tough ed to be able to look themselves in the mirror and shit—I’ve been in a loveless marriage for 40!” • None of the above. A Hollywood insider feel like they were good, productive liberals, Crash provided the perfect safe harbor. They could vote friend of mine—who happens to work for a recent for it in good conscience...and not feel that there Oscar winner—insists the upset had nothing to do was any stain on their liberal credentials for shun with queers. She says Lionsgate orchestrated a ning what Brokeback had to offer.” shrewd campaign to basically buy itself an Oscar: The studio seduced academy members by mailing Annie Proulx, who penned the novella that 130,000 DVDs—a $4 million effort for a film that inspired Brokeback, responded to the snub with a scathing Guardian column about clueless film indus cost $7.5 million to make. try voters, “many living cloistered lives behind Ultimately, this is what you get when you seek wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest homes, out of validation from an awards show. Good cinema is good cinema, and Brokeback Mountain certainly touch not only with the shifting larger culture and doesn’t need a trophy to prove that. Besides, now it the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but can join the ranks of other Best Picture losers like also out of touch with their own segregated city.... Next year we can look to the awards for controver Citizen Kane, The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction instead of being listed alongside overrated crap sial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway like Shakespeare in Love, Braveheart and Gladiator. And technically the awards season ended with slaves and the debate over free silver.” a victory March 27, when Brokeback was honored So what went wrong? There are several by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against possibilities: • The rural thing. Academy members can -Defamation. Director Ang Lee’s classy acceptance relate to Los Angeles (Crash) more than Wyoming speech exuded warm fuzzies instead of sour grapes. (Brokeback). “To end our Brokeback journey here tonight is like • The hype thing. Brokeback came with coming home,” he said. “The fact is this: that months of tremendous expectations, so voters Brokeback Mountain has helped to change the might have been underwhelmed, while Crash came world..... When the world is made better for one gay or lesbian person, it’s made better for everyone.” © out of nowhere. Jim’s Closet fri & ¿AMfrdVrü, WOG 1X:(?(?pFH lo 11:00f>M Oriàon.Conv^nllc>K Ce-iAer fbrlbW Ori’àoH . C\ a £^ 5<& a I 4jV¿ 4ku$lc -¿:00fw ¿:00pm $6.00 wujw.^rluái’í^^l.óow tdaæT Sdsss PortlandTribune <** tltViCt •* «BVM Spring Beer & Win« Fest, Inc. Is a registered non-profit organization supporting scholarships Tony Curtis, 80, who seemed to have no prob lem with cross-dressing in Some Like It Hot, sniffed: “This picture is not as important as we make it. It’s nothing unique. The only thing unique about it is they put it on the screen. And they make ’em [male gay lovers] cowboys.... Howard Hughes and John Wayne wouldn’t like it.” Watch the 17th annual GLAAD M edia A wards 9 p.m. April 15 on Logo and 11 p.m. April 16 on VH1. Arts and Culture Editor J1M R a DOSTA needs your feedback. Write to jim@justout.com.
