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Journalism of Courage
Sometimes you win by losing, and nothing has proved what a powerful, taboo-breaking, necessary film Brokeback Mountain was more than its loss Sunday night to Crash in the Oscar best picture category.
Despite all the magazine covers it graced, despite all the red-state theaters it made good money in, despite or maybe because of all the jokes late-night talk show hosts made about it, you could not take the pulse of the industry without realizing that this film made a number of people distinctly uncomfortable8230;
I do not for one minute question the sincerity and integrity of the people who made Crash, and I do not question their commitment to wanting a more equal society. But I do question the film they8217;ve made. It may be true, as producer Cathy Schulman said in accepting the Oscar for best picture, that this was 8220;one of the most breathtaking and stunning maverick years in American history,8221; but Crash is not an example of that8230;
For Crash8217;s biggest asset is its ability to give people a carload of those standard Hollywood satisfactions but make them think they are seeing something groundbreaking and daring. It is, in some ways, a feel-good film about racism, a film you could see and feel like a better person, a film that could make you believe that you had done your moral duty and examined your soul when in fact you were just getting your buttons pushed and your preconceptions reconfirmed8230;
Hollywood, of course, is under no obligation to be a progressive force in the world. It is in the business of entertainment, in the business of making the most dollars it can. Yes, on Oscar night, it likes to pat itself on the back for the good it does in the world, but as Sunday night8217;s ceremony proved, it is easier to congratulate yourself for a job well done in the past than actually do that job in the present.
Excerpted from 8216;The Los Angeles Times8217;, March 6
