brokeback mountain, crash, and the oscar

after spending my days and nights at other people's homes and hotel rooms with minimal sleep for most of last week i got home on friday and had one of my 12 hour sleeps (from 8am to 8pm saturday). to fill the 36 hour hole that then appeared in my life i decided on a movie marathon and chose to re watch four of the five films nominated for best motion picture (i don't have and haven't seen capote). i must say i had a great time watching all of them while drinking pots and pots of tea interspersed with random browsing and emailings. they are all good enough films though none of them are great imo. since then i had a nap, read the news, had a great dinner, and probably landed on earth. this post will get rid of whatever levitation still with me.

there is minimum amount of spoilers here, but i always recommend that people watch the films before they read any comments (this is not a review) or reviews. that is a courtesy to the film maker.

one of the curious facts about this year's oscar nominated feature films is that they all did less business than one (probable winner) of the nominated documentary features, namely la marche de l'empereur (march of the penguins). here are latest available figures for u.s.a. with budget for each film (courtesy imdb).

film	gross income	gross as at date	estimated budget for film
la marche de l'empereur	$77,413,017	27 november 2005	$8,000,000
brokeback mountain	$72,089,234	19 february 2006	$14,000,000
capote	$22,051,207	19 february 2006	$7,000,000
crash	$55,382,847	11 september 2005	$6,500,000
good night, and good luck	$29,479,033	19 february 2006	$7,500,000
munich	$45,415,655	19 february 2006	$75,000,000

it's probable that some of these movies will go past the penguins (especially if they win) but then they may not (penguins will probably win too). however one has to ask; were these films really that good that they deserve to be nominated even though they seem to have made only respectable amounts of money (and munich a loss)?

with the exception of crash (and capote since i have not seen it) imo the answer is no. if hollywood cannot find very good high grossing films to compete in best film category and most of the films actually nominated are mediocre then either the hollywood or the nomination body of the american acedemy has a problem.

who will win?
most people will know by the time they read this. at the time of writing brokeback is considered almost certain to win (with one dollar futures contracts in betting sites going at 80 cents to the dollar and increasing). frankly i cannot see why. i don't think ang lee did justice to himself in this film. it is moving alright but not as much as one can imagine it to be. it is as some people have said a tragic love story and heath ledger and others do a great job but i have seen enough love stories to know that this comes short. when jack twist says 'god, i wish i knew how to quit you!' i for one did not feel his feelings were that strong before that. in other words there was a feeling that i was told explicitly what to feel and think, instead of letting the cinematic language letting me feel it. for instance, does the fact ennis del mar hardly opens his mouth, need to be remarked by other characters repeatedly?

imo main reason this film was nominated was because of its gay theme. that is all very good if oscars are humanitarian awards. i thought they were for cinematic achievements, maybe i am wrong.

crash also have a humanitarian purpose but unlike brokeback it makes better use of cinema. tightly drawn in your face plots compressed in time and place (compression always works in dramatic plots from ancient greece down) with some help from sharp editing, make the characters and viewers confront their own racist prejudices normally covered up by political correctness. as we crash our way towards the unconventional resolution of rather sentimental (almost mawkish, made bearable by humor) non tragedies and one tragedy with liberal dose of improbable coincidences, we do learn something and derive no small amount of pleasure. at least i did. acting was impeccable from almost everyone in the large cast, with matt dillon standing out.

that is why i would have voted for crash if i was member of academy, but i wasn't. thank god. collective responsibility is a curse.

as for the others, munich is bearable and one with forgettable name is forgettable, capote i have not watched.