sitting in the dark with strangers

I'm not sure what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did last night, but it is clear what they didn't do: they didn't deny the Best Picture award to a liberal polemic. The favorite, Brokeback Mountain, was a tragedy with a narrative that followed a convention thousands of years old. It was political only because its narrative was driven by the socio-poltical mores of our time.

The winner, Crash, required subscription to a belief most right-wingers would protesteth much: that every human transaction is essentially racial in nature. The movie's themes were overtly political and the direction made Oliver Stone look subtle.

I dunno. Maybe the wingnuts were right-in-the-wrong-way going into the Oscars. Maybe the Academy did want to make a statement. It wasn't the statement anyone thought they were going to make, but that's the onliest escuse I can think of for giving the Oscar to a film that was probably inferior to half a dozen movies last year.

spacedark