I won’t pick a winner for tonight’s Academy Awards Best Picture. But I will predict about the aftermath. Win or lose, Brokeback Mountain will be a gay platform. If it wins, gays will say “Yeah, this validates our status”. If Brokeback Mountain loses, some gays will cry prejudice and homophobia. Some homophobics will cry victory over gays.
The best movie should win. If the Academy picks Brokeback Mountain, so be it. If not, so be it. Politics, values, or sexual orientation shouldn’t be issues. Another contender, Crash, is deeply about prejudice, more so than Brokeback Mountain. Yet, I don’t hear the same kind of noise about that movie, or the heterosexual orientation of other nominees.
Please, let’s put aside the politicking and moralizing. And let the best movie win on its merits.
Photo Credit: Scott Beale/Laughing Squid