Op-Ed Visco is Upset

By Frank Visco
Collegian Reporter
March 22, 2006

Over the past two weeks, much has been made about the fact that Crash took Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain at the 78th Academy Awards. There is a large brewing consensus among critics that Crash was a cop-out pick by Academy voters that enabled them to indulge in their anti-gay sentiments.

While the Academy does have a large amount of conservative old-timers, this theory is ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, Brokeback was excellent, and it was definitely worthy of a nomination, but Crash was as well.

When it comes down to it, Brokeback is being slightly overrated by everyone in the hip entertainment crowd. It was not significantly superior to Crash, and was, in my opinion, the fourth best movie of the year behind A History of Violence, The Constant Gardener and Capote (the movie that was actually screwed on Oscar night, but nobody’s complaining even though it too had gay elements to it). It is interesting how publicity has such an effect.

Furthermore, the film constantly bordered on corny and was only saved by brilliant direction. This explains why it won for Best Director, but not Best Picture.

In the end, Brokeback really wasn’t the best picture of the year. End of story.

viscof1@lasalle.edu