NationStates Jolt Archive

'Brokeback' author: We were robbed

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Annie Proulx, whose 1997 short story inspired the film "Brokeback Mountain," has penned a scattershot blast in a British newspaper unleashing her anger over the film's best-picture Oscar loss.

Proulx criticizes Oscar voters and the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1,094-word rant, which appeared in Saturday's issue of The Guardian, a liberal paper boasting 1.2 million readers daily.

The best-picture Oscar went to "Crash," which focuses on race relations in Los Angeles.

Academy members who vote for the year's best film are "out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city," Proulx writes. (Read her Guardian column here.)

The 70-year-old Pulitzer-prize winning author points out that "Brokeback," which was nominated for eight Academy Awards, was named best picture at the Independent Spirit Awards one day before the March 5 Oscars.

"If you are looking for smart judging based on merit, skip the Academy Awards next year and pay attention to the Independent Spirit choices," Proulx advises.

She even lashes out at Lionsgate, the distribution company behind "Crash."

"Rumour has it that Lionsgate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of Trash -- excuse me -- Crash a few weeks before the ballot deadline," Proulx writes.

She decries the "atmosphere of insufferable self-importance" inside the Kodak Theatre, the Oscars site, and describes the audience as a "somewhat dim LA crowd." The show, she writes, was "reminiscent of a small-town talent-show night."

"Clapping wildly for bad stuff enhances this," Proulx writes.

She notes that "Brokeback's" three Oscar wins, for original score, adapted screenplay and direction for Ang Lee put it "on equal footing with King Kong."

When Jack Nicholson announced "Crash" as the best-picture winner, "there was a gasp of shock," Proulx writes.

"It was a safe pick of 'controversial film' for the heffalumps," she writes, using the elephant-like "Winnie the Pooh" character to describe academy voters.

"For those who call this little piece a Sour Grapes Rant," Proulx concludes, "play it as it lays."

Calls by the Associated Press to Proulx's Wyoming home and her literary agent, Elizabeth Darhansoff, were not immediately returned Tuesday.
Link (http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/15/film.proulx.ap/index.html)
Wow, someone's a sore loser... :D

From thier ratings, most people have been feeling that way about the AA for years now.

What a whiney brat.

Proulx is certainly overstating her case--the awards Brokeback Mountain won, especially the Direction and Screenplay awards--are of far greater artistic merit than the ones King Kong won, for instance, and 8 nominations is nothing to sneeze at even if you win none of them. But Brokeback Mountain is hardly the first controversial film to be ignored by the Oscar people in favor of a feel-good movie or a less controversial one.

For instance, in 1976, the Best Picture nominees were Network, All the President's Men, Taxi Driver, Bound for Glory, and Rocky. Rocky won. The first two on that list are among the best films of all time, but Rocky was Best Picture?

How about 1990, when Dances With Wolves beat out Goodfellas? Or 1992, when Unforgiven (a fine film) beat out The Crying Game? Or 1994, when Forrest Gump beat out Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, and The Shawshank Redemption?

So Proulx has a point, but it's not like she ought to be shocked. This is hardly anything new. The people who vote for best picture are generally old, rich, white guys who are, to put it mildly, sheltered from the real world. The fact that Brokeback Mountain was nominated at all, much less considered a favorite to win, speaks volumes about how far we've come as a society.

What a whiney brat.
Second.


"Wahh, my movie didn't win, I'm telling my mommy."

"Rumour has it that Lionsgate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of Trash -- excuse me -- Crash a few weeks before the ballot deadline," Proulx writes.

Didn't we spend like three months being abused with Brokeback Mountain hysteria?

I'll add my name to the "boo hoo fucking hoo" side of the response to this person.


Crash was a great movie that dealt with race relations - still a very germaine issue, especially in LA where, not coincidentally, the bulk of the Academy voting members live and work.

Brokeback was an equally thought-provoking movie on an issue that clearly is more near and dear to the hearts of a smaller segment of the population. But the focus of the hype on it always revolved around the subject matter more than the film, and the award is about the FILM! The acting, editing, cinematography, story... EVERYTHING. Not just about being contraversial.

So suck it up woman. You got your film noticed, nominated, nearly won, you made the statement you wanted. If all that matters to you is a fucking statue, then you are in the business for the wrong reasons.

I agree with the Brokeback author. It's a movie about gay cowboys. That's insta-win. The only way it could have been better was if they were eating pudding.

She decries the "atmosphere of insufferable self-importance" inside the Kodak Theatre

Pot kettle black

Proulx is certainly overstating her case--the awards Brokeback Mountain won, especially the Direction and Screenplay awards--are of far greater artistic merit than the ones King Kong won, for instance, and 8 nominations is nothing to sneeze at even if you win none of them. But Brokeback Mountain is hardly the first controversial film to be ignored by the Oscar people in favor of a feel-good movie or a less controversial one.

For instance, in 1976, the Best Picture nominees were Network, All the President's Men, Taxi Driver, Bound for Glory, and Rocky. Rocky won. The first two on that list are among the best films of all time, but Rocky was Best Picture?

How about 1990, when Dances With Wolves beat out Goodfellas? Or 1992, when Unforgiven (a fine film) beat out The Crying Game? Or 1994, when Forrest Gump beat out Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, and The Shawshank Redemption?

So Proulx has a point, but it's not like she ought to be shocked. This is hardly anything new. The people who vote for best picture are generally old, rich, white guys who are, to put it mildly, sheltered from the real world. The fact that Brokeback Mountain was nominated at all, much less considered a favorite to win, speaks volumes about how far we've come as a society.
I agree with everything you said except it doesn't apply this time. Crash is hardly a "feel good" film. Its premise may even be more controversial because it profiles a whole city and claims that people who live here actually live like they do in the film. In other words, Brokeback was a personal story based solely on fiction. Crash is a story about Los Angeles and makes a claim about how people here really live and its not pretty.

Yes this is off topic (sorry), but where did the author of this article get his/her information from?
The Guardian, a liberal paper boasting 1.2 million readers daily.
Figures in the Guardian's Media section on Monday shows it has a circulation of around 380,000, a third of what the article claims.

Anyway.

I've seen Brokeback Mountain, and I'm glad it didn't win best picture. It's really not that good - yes, it's good, but I did feel that it wasn't worth the £5 it cost me to see. The acting is good, the direction is good, even the story is good, but somehow the whole thing doesn't add up to the sum of it's parts. I felt it never engages the viewer in the way that a good film (let alone one nominated for BP) should do.

What? Certain posters here assured me that Brokeback Mountain had to win because of the gay conspiracy that secretly controls Hollywood.

What? Certain posters here assured me that Brokeback Mountain had to win because of the gay conspiracy that secretly controls Hollywood.


And you buy conspiracy theories?

I may have got a few for you I want to clear out - at bargain prices too!

Everything must go!

ALIENS control Academy!
Randolph Hearst conspiring to stop Chinese from getting Oscars.
Granolamakers induce homophobia on selected audiences.
Zionist LA Citizens secretly boycot cowboy movies.

Barely used - 1.99 each.

<snip>

I'd take them, but money is Majestic 12 way of keeping us under control. Sorry.

Jeez does that woman want some whine to go with her cheese?

I think the reason it didn't win because theres like 500 other gay cowboy films on the independent film circuit. So, is the idea really that new? Also, they should've been eating pudding! Listen to Cartman every once in a while people!

Meh, I knew it wasn't going to win, and now if you'll excuse me, I shall go play the lotto!

I agree with everything you said except it doesn't apply this time. Crash is hardly a "feel good" film. Its premise may even be more controversial because it profiles a whole city and claims that people who live here actually live like they do in the film. In other words, Brokeback was a personal story based solely on fiction. Crash is a story about Los Angeles and makes a claim about how people here really live and its not pretty.
I thought about that when I wrote it--when I was thinking about Crash I was thinking of it more as the "less controversial" choice, rather than afeel good movie. There really wasn't a feel-good choice this year, which was a bit surprising given the Academy's history.

I thought about that when I wrote it--when I was thinking about Crash I was thinking of it more as the "less controversial" choice, rather than afeel good movie. There really wasn't a feel-good choice this year, which was a bit surprising given the Academy's history.
The funny thing is, this film was made by exactly the guy you talked about in your post - an out of touch white guy. I think he feels race relations in LA are worse than they are because he doesn't spend a lot of time in the actual Los Angeles - the one all of us working stiffs live in.

I'm still suprised The Aviator didn't win best picture. Ah well.

I think the reason it didn't win because theres like 500 other gay cowboy films on the independent film circuit.

Well, maybe closer to 14

http://imdb.com/keyword/gay-cowboy/

Meh, I knew it wasn't going to win, and now if you'll excuse me, I shall go play the lotto!

Good luck.

I havent seen brokeback, I wanted to but I dont get the chance to go to the cinema often and I saw Jarhead instead, which was excellent. But I did see Crash, and it is one of the best movies I have ever watched. And the only one that made me literally jump out of my seat. And it had that nice Don Cheadle in it. I would have probably gone for it for best picture, although when I get brokeback on DVD we can be sure.

I think the reason it didn't win because theres like 500 other gay cowboy films on the independent film circuit. So, is the idea really that new? Also, they should've been eating pudding! Listen to Cartman every once in a while people!

So many gay cowboy movies so few gay cowboys. Hell, so few cowboys of any persuasion. Somehow I don't think theres much time or privacy to be gay when you actually have a job to do.
But somebody out there really wants there to be gay cowboys.
Also, was'nt the guy who wrote it an asian man?:confused:

Also, was'nt the guy who wrote it an asian man?:confused:
No--the man who directed the film is Asian. The man who wrote the screenplay is Larry McMurtry, who also wrote "Lonesome Dove," and he based it on the short story written by the woman who wrote the article quoted in the original post, Annie Proulx.

I'm still suprised The Aviator didn't win best picture. Ah well. That might have been because it sucked. :p

I havent seen brokeback, I wanted to but I dont get the chance to go to the cinema often and I saw Jarhead instead, which was excellent. But I did see Crash, and it is one of the best movies I have ever watched. And the only one that made me literally jump out of my seat. And it had that nice Don Cheadle in it. I would have probably gone for it for best picture, although when I get brokeback on DVD we can be sure.
Oh, a post after my own heart :p. Crash was one of the most excellent movies I've ever seen. And yes, that nice Don Cheadle certainly helped. Mmmh. I really loved Crash. I saw it twice , even after reading some not-so-glowing reviews about how it was just heavyhanded social kitsch (i.e. the criticism that is heard in force these days all over the place really from those who feel BBM should have won the Oscar; sometimes I think I must have imagined the praise it got when it came out). And I really don't think it's heavyhanded social kitsch (which may just mean that it worked its dirty work on my mind, of course :p).
Seeing how I also agree with you on Jarhead, I'll just hazard a guess and say you will love Brokeback Mountain. I've only seen it on a pirated DVD (it wasn't in the theaters till this week, so sue me) not on the big screen (and it's a very big screen kind of movie), and I had a terrible time trying to understand the actors' mumbled accent (so terrible actually that when I go see it in the theater next week, I'll *have* to see it with subtitles, because I just kept missing so many words. Gah.)
But it was a really, really great film.
Of course, I already knew & loved the short story, which has haunted me just as the film has.

I've said this before on some thread, but while right up to the Oscar's I actually thought I would be perfectly happy if any of the two won Best Picture, it turned out I wasn't. It felt very odd that Brokeback didn't win, and while I would've just dismissed it as a sad little fluke, I've since lost much of my naivete of thinking everybody (or, hell, at least Hollywood) would give it a fair chance, homosexual characters or not, thanks to how many in the Academy seem to have been pretty outspoken about they wouldn't even watch "such a film", let alone vote for it for Best Picture. Ah well, screw them. It *is* a great film, and may actually stand the test of time better than Crash.

Wow. Just wow. Talk about destroying all crediblity. She pretty much trashed everyone even associated with the Oscars including all of the people who were hoping to win, including her obviously. She might have had a better case for it not being sour grapes had she not called everyone in the entire event everything short of poopyheads. It's amazing that she suggests nobody should care about winning an oscar, but she loses it over, you guessed it, not winning an oscar. Apparently, if you think you should win and don't, being graceful about it is out of the question. The actual thing you should do is rant about how they cheated and you didn't really want the award anyway.

I've only seen a trailer of Crash, but it doesn't feel all that great to me. The storyline seems familiar, like I know it all too well. From the trailer it feels like a feel good film. The change in music seemed to suggest that. It was offering us this sense of hope.

"it's that sense of touch. I think we miss it so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something" - this strikes me as being cheesy. I know what they're trying to say, but I feel it could have been said better.

Maybe I'm not receptive to the film because of personal experience and it feels like a commercialisation... or maybe I'm just a 'la haine'-o-phile.

Brokeback mountain was a good. Maybe not best picture deserving, but definately best direction. I like how Lee started and ended the film with the same shot of a solitary truck driving across an empty valley. It was nice symbolism.

No--the man who directed the film is Asian. The man who wrote the screenplay is Larry McMurtry, who also wrote "Lonesome Dove," and he based it on the short story written by the woman who wrote the article quoted in the original post, Annie Proulx.

Sorry, that was the only bit I caught of the oscars and they kept panning to him when they were speaking of who wrote it. I had thought the two who went up on stage were the screenplay adaptation folks for some reason.:)

I've only seen a trailer of Crash, but it doesn't feel all that great to me. The storyline seems familiar, like I know it all too well. From the trailer it feels like a feel good film. The change in music seemed to suggest that. It was offering us this sense of hope.

"it's that sense of touch. I think we miss it so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something" - this strikes me as being cheesy. I know what they're trying to say, but I feel it could have been said better.


Reminded me of the movie Grand Canyon.

From thier ratings, most people have been feeling that way about the AA for years now.

What a whiney brat.
IMHO, everyone in Oz is a whiney, spoiled, overpaid, out-of-touch brat.

I would have found her rant more interesting had she written before the awards. Somehow, when you can clearly see that she was praying for the award, it lacks a bit of, oh, I don't know, HONESTY.

Sorry, that was the only bit I caught of the oscars and they kept panning to him when they were speaking of who wrote it. I had thought the two who went up on stage were the screenplay adaptation folks for some reason.:)
They were.
And hell knows why they kept showing Ang Lee when everybody kept mentioning how Annie Proulx was sitting a couple seats over.:rolleyes: My guess is the camera guy had no clue who she was and played it safe. :p

It *is* a great film, and may actually stand the test of time better than Crash.

It will. Crash is mediocre. From what I've heard, Crash is To Kill A Mockingbird with action. BBM is some revolutionary shit.

Gay cowboys without puddling didn't stand a chance. Stupid whiny person! Quit making gay movies! They're... gay.:D
Only 6% of the population is gay! you are appealing to a minority market, and I'm SOOO sick of everything being so gay happy! If you're gay, have fun, I don't care, make movies, whatever! But don't expect it to win every possible award when 94% of the population is NOT gay!:headbang:

I'd take them, but money is Majestic 12 way of keeping us under control. Sorry.

*Makes a call to A-Cell, reports MJ-12 rigging of Oscars with money.*