Brokeback: Beating A Dead Horse

I'm sorry folks, I can't take it, I know you must be writhing in wretched pain, too. Everyone exhaled a big Political Correctness sigh of relief after the Oscars, but the torment continues.

Brokeback lost because heterosexual, white men like Jack Nicholson dominate the Academy and no flaming, gay Cowboy flick (sweeping vistas, emotionally wrought, fully developed) would win ever, so there!, even if it was fabulous. At least so goes Gene Stone's theory about why Crash won and Brokeback lost. Ang Lee is distraught, too.

My question for Gene, et al, is why, if this movie was so offensive, did it get nominated at all? I mean really, every single movie was a "message movie". He cites three great movies losing to Rocky as proof that Hollywood is always "10 years behind the mainstream". Oh really? So he disagrees with Boy Wonder, aka George Clooney?

Where was the Rocky this year? Um, that would be Chronicles of Narnia--remember that blockbuster? The awesome effects? The great acting by little Lucy?

Sorry, Gene, Brokeback didn't lose because it was gay. It lost because in the narcisstic world of Hollywood, a movie like Crash rewarded lots of actors and the Academy is made up of narcisstic actors who like to get awards. Crash was as good as Brokeback, which is to say, not that great at all, but featured lots and lots of people we all know and love.

And Hollywood is the most closeted industry in the U.S.? You're kidding right? No one I know can even name a gay cowboy here in Texas (a big state with lots of cowboys), little less Wyoming. Surely that industry is a wee bit more closeted than the tortured souls living secret lives in West LA. Puhleeeeeze.