[John Tyler Connoley,
Tuesday March 7, 2006 at 4:24pm]
Crash: Oscar's Only Possible Choice
Everyone I know was astonished when Crash won the Best Picture Oscar, beating out Brokeback Mountain. But, for me, it made complete sense.
This year's Oscars were all about Hollywood's perception that we're experiencing a Renaissance in socially conscious cinema. Every aspect of the 78th Academy Awards pointed to that fact. So, it made sense that Crash would be chosen as Best Picture.
I haven't seen the film (and I probably won't), but the critics I've read say it's more a harangue on race relations than a movie. All four of the other Best Picture nominees were certainly socially conscious films, but they were films with a social conscience, not diatribes disguised as film. That distinction is what made Crash the only choice for an Academy yearning for its sixties political heyday.
More Oscar commentary this weekend, when I publish my annual State of the Union essay at tylersturn.com.
This year's Oscars were all about Hollywood's perception that we're experiencing a Renaissance in socially conscious cinema. Every aspect of the 78th Academy Awards pointed to that fact. So, it made sense that Crash would be chosen as Best Picture.
I haven't seen the film (and I probably won't), but the critics I've read say it's more a harangue on race relations than a movie. All four of the other Best Picture nominees were certainly socially conscious films, but they were films with a social conscience, not diatribes disguised as film. That distinction is what made Crash the only choice for an Academy yearning for its sixties political heyday.
More Oscar commentary this weekend, when I publish my annual State of the Union essay at tylersturn.com.