Theories abound on why 'Crash' beat 'Brokeback Mountain' for best picture

By Peter Hartlaub and
Carolyne Zinko
San Francisco Chronicle
(March 7, 2006) When Academy Awards host Jon Stewart asked audience members to "raise your hands if you were not in 'Crash' " during his opening monologue Sunday night, it was just another throwaway line -- a joke pointing out that the movie's cast was filled with a nearly ridiculous bounty of top Hollywood talent.

But on Monday, the day after "Crash" beat "Brokeback Mountain" in one of the most shocking upsets in Oscar history, Stewart's quip had developed new meaning -- it had become one of many complex explanations being offered to justify the independent film's surprise win.

-- Did the Hollywood-centric themes of race and isolation in "Crash," along with a cast stocked with likable actors and actresses such as Matt Dillon and Sandra Bullock, cause Los Angeles-dwelling Academy members to favor the movie?

-- Did the almost unending media drumbeat for "Brokeback Mountain" cause the film to peak in Academy voting-member popularity too early, a scenario exactly opposite that of 2005 winner "Million Dollar Baby," which quietly slipped into theaters in December and benefited from a concentrated barrage of last-minute hype?

-- Or is Hollywood really not as liberal as the right-wingers make it out to be, but instead filled with aging Academy voters who just weren't ready to support a love story about two gay men?

There is one more possible theory, albeit one that's not getting much attention this week: After so many critics fell in love with "Brokeback Mountain," voters simply thought "Crash" was a better film.

David Thomson, author of "The Biographical Dictionary of Film" and other books, theorized that audiences initially were bowled over by "Brokeback Mountain," but any perceived lead that it took in the Oscar race was vulnerable. In a telephone interview Monday from his San Francisco home, Thomson said that while he calls his theory speculation -- only the 5,800-plus Academy voters know for sure -- the subject matter of "Brokeback" could have been too much for some voters.

"A lot of people who recognized an element of breakthrough, of venturing into dangerous or unusual territory, with 'Brokeback Mountain,' could not quite pull the string at the last minute and backed off," Thomson suggested. "They were the people who were saying they thought it was going to win, that it would be a tremendous step forward. In the end, in their secret soul, it was hard for them to vote for a gay film as best picture."

Thomson's theory mirrored the feelings of some in the gay community, who felt that "Crash" won because it was a safer choice. But actor Peter Coyote, a Bay Area resident and veteran of countless films, dismissed the idea of a gay backlash against "Brokeback Mountain."

"That's stupid -- I think more people related to the issue in 'Crash' than 'Brokeback Mountain,' '' he said.

Michael "Blue" Williams, executive producer of the modestly budgeted August release "Idlewild," was thrilled to see "Crash" win. And considering that his upcoming film, a musical set in the South during Prohibition, co-stars OutKast rappers Andre 3000 (Andre Benjamin) and Big Boi (Antwan A. Patton), he was quite thrilled to see the "Hustle & Flow" rap song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" win for original song as well.

"I think it shows the Academy is open to looking at little movies as well as $200 million 'Lord of the Rings' films,'" said Williams, who has managed OutKast for a decade. "I think it shows we have some opportunities."

Los Angeles screenwriter Karen McCullah Lutz, who wrote the screenplay for "Legally Blonde,'' watched the awards with industry friends and wondered if the academy's surprising choice with "Crash" could have been done with an eye toward creating unpredictable TV.

"When you see the same people win over and over again, it gets tiresome," Lutz said. "That's why 'Crash' winning was the most lovely surprise at the end of the most boring Oscars ever.''

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