On March 5th
I was angry and hurt like I've never been at the Oscar (even though they've made plenty of truly stupid decisions before). On March 9th, on "national get over it day" (no, really, there's a day) I was
trying to make peace with it and move on.
Two weeks later I have to say that I'm glad that the dust hasn't really settled. Or, if it is settling, it's clear that my theory is going to be the one that history embraces. I'm not bragging. It didn't take a genius to see that homophobia was to blame. All the other theories trotted out are disproved by 77 years of history. And noticeably those who were the most vocally opposed to the theory were the media types who had been exhibiting homophobia all along when discussing/dismissing
Brokeback Mountain or those who had tirelessly shilled for
Crash like Ebert & Roeper (Roeper has gone on the offensive
against Brokeback's fans. The Chicago media cabal's campaign triumphed and they're still knocking the losers. Bullying is ugly.
I love
this recent article from Creative Loafing because it looks back on what happened on Oscar night with more distance and a clearer head than I had that night. Like the frequent charges of racism which the Academy has been trying to live down forever, those 6000 members have added another dark cloud above their heads as they struggle to operate and maintain their cultural luster.
I'm prepping my 2006 cinema coverage now but I wonder, like I've never wondered before, if those annual op-ed pieces about the demise of the Oscars as a cultural institution have been right all along. I've always resisted/ignored those articles since I have been an Oscar addict my whole life. But maybe I was wrong? If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is really a dinosaur, as many naysayers have claimed, perhaps history will mark the dismissed gay cowboys as a devastating meteorite impact.
