It also hit plenty of nerves, in its collision of races and classes, and Hollywood loves issue movies that push the hot button. But what about Brokeback? Didn’t that film pioneer man-love in a pup tent? Sure, but homosexuality is just not an issue in Hollywood. The town was gay before gay was cool (that would be the summer of 2003, when Queer Eye for the Straight Guy became a brief TV sensation). Indeed, homosexual roles are prize-winning plums for actors—like Hoffman in Capote —as long as they aren’t gay, or, if they are, don’t admit it.
Not everyone was crazy about the Crash win. During the acceptance speech, musical director Bill Conti seemed to be indicating the vexation of a minority in the room when he brought up the orchestra volume before Haggis could say his piece. (This year, the orchestra played softly through each of the spoken thank-you speeches, making the winners’ comments sound like song cues in an old musical.) But Haggis had been on stage earlier, as a Screenplay winner. Besides, his victory was unique, at least to lovers of Oscar trivia. He became the first person to have written two consecutive Best Pictures (after last year’s Million Dollar Baby). Haggis was also, by my calculations, the first member of the Church of Scientology to win Best Picture.
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1170060,00.html
