TedKoppel said:
Besides all that, though, if we break down story types, they're almost all essentially retreads of something.
True, but it's still a lot sexier to cry "victim!" than it is to admit the story is really just like any other love story Hollywood thrusts on consumers in a given year. BBM is just lucky it's in a position to cry victim, otherwise it would have long ago been forgotten as just more Hollywood romance movie crap.
saintverlaine said:
"do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law"
comes in handy no matter which side you are on
Somehow that AC statement has, at times, struck me like "the medium is the message." An Oh! thing followed by a huh? What did I miss in it? I got everything else Crowley ever said - really.
Right, apparently I am going insane. Or the Matrix has been edited. Because despite my clearly recalling a Larry McMurtry book called Brokeback Mountain, which, when I saw the trailer, I assumed was the basis of the movie, my research shows that there is pretty definitely no such book. Yes, he wrote the screenplay, but I didn't know that until this thread either.
Fayd said:
And why is anyone crying over one of the most RIGGED awards in all of Hollywood. Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys. I bet there is already a list of 2007 winners in a safe someplace.
I've heard people say this sort of thing before, and while I don't doubt awards like these certainly could be rigged -- pretty easily, even -- I'm always sort of puzzled when people state it as fact. As though it were a well-known fact, for that matter.
So where's the proof? Or at least all the smoke, suggesting the fire?
I think it could either be compared the 2000 election, popular vote versus electoral. Or we can go back to that wonderful time in history when "Midnight Cowboy" got screwed by the ratings board, and received an X rating, yet still won for Best Picture of 1969. Now look at the many movies nominated since then. They have taken the safer pick since. Any movie with even the slightest hint of non-Main Stream norms , though nominated, have been over looked. Another example of this would be the first year the Grammy's had a Heavy Metal category. Explain to me How Jethro Tull could beat out Metallica's "Master Of Puppets". And of course no one can forget Susan Lucci's mercy Emmy. Hollywood has supposedly always been about pushing the line. Yet when it comes time to reward free thinking, well...Safe always wins.
I understand all that -- lame shit often wins (although I'll take Jethro Tull over Metallica any day).
This doesn't suggest the fix is in, it just suggests that voters sometimes have lame tastes. Or, if there are two or more strong contenders in a multiple-choice election, the popular vote can be split to the extent that a relatively unpopular underdog slides through instead. (Fairvote.org has an entertaining example of how this happens, using Muppets... although for some reason it doesn't work in Firefox.)
podsix said:
Ehhh...I'm on her team. It's pretty funny to lose and then blame Scientologists. I mean, fuck 'em, right? I really doubt that Scientology has enough of a stranglehold on Hollywood to influence the Oscars, but it is a great paranoid assertion to throw out there. Anyway, who says you have to be a good sport? Having "Academy Award Winner" attached to your name brings you a lot of cash and fame. She's pissed that she lost, and clearly doesn't care how she comes off. I didn't see either movie, but I applaud Ms. Proulx's moxy and lack of ass-kissing.
If you don't think Scientology has big power in Hollywood, you don't know much about Scientology. One of the ways they hook their poor suckers is by their connections in show business. That's one of their selling points.
I have a friend in Hollywood who used to work for Paul Haggis. I asked her what the deal with Scientology is (as PH is a Scientologist) in Hollywood - is it just about networking?
Her answer: "Yes."
My two cents on Brokeback vs. Crash? Liked 'em both, would've given Best Picture to Crash until I saw Brokeback. Could the L.A./ Hollywood/ Scientology connection given Crash the edge? Of course. Does that mean it wasn't a good picture? No.
What I think Crash really was was a sequel to "Do the Right Thing" - like the sequel to "Escape from New York" was set in L.A. It was set on the coldest day of the year vs. the hottest in "DTRT," but otherwise you have a highly stylized crisscrossing of racial encounters meant to comment on specific types of incidents and reactions that DO happen - even if not in this way in real life.
All we are saying is give racial disharmony a chance...
Again, the Oscar doesn't mean shit in the end. Does anyone think Dances with Wolves is a better movie than Goodfellas because it won Best Picture over Goodfellas?
DeadBilly
Burnt Cabins, PA
February 2004
MAR 15, 2006 12:41 PM