I love the academy!!!!

Rating: 9/10 (5 March 2006)

I got up today at 5:30 to just spot the first award won by Crash, for Best Editing. It still seemed like Brokeback Mountain was the hot favorite to win the Best Picture award, and Ang Lee's win in the Best Director category came only to confirm such predictions. By the time Jack Nicholson sat there looking at the piece of paper with his bewildering stare, getting ready to announce the winner of the Best Motion Picture of the Year award, I had lost almost all hope, on a night when surprise seemed to have given way to confirmation in all categories. All the more happy was I when I heard the magic word! Crash, my favorite, had done it, Crash had pulled the big upset! 2006 would indeed remain in moviegoers' memory as the year when Crash won the Academy Award. It was at that precise moment that I understood why I have always been so partial to the Academy - it's because they have nearly (they are human; remember Rocky vs All The President's Men?) always chosen the actual best film as the winner of the Best Picture Oscar! Of course, in the end, it's all a matter of opinion, mostly, but, as far as I'm concerned, the Academy knows its business!
Quite obviously, Brokeback Mountain is also a very good film, and in a year that hasn't produced masterpieces the likes of The Godfather, Schindler's List, Forrest Gump, The Return Of The King - to quote just a few - it certainly would not have been a wrong decision to hand it the Oscar, eventually. However, Crash does so much more in terms of involving the audience (after all, not all of us are gay, so give us a break). Crash delivers its message with more power and clarity, and that is, I think, something the members of the Academy have always appreciated. Brokeback, on the other hand, approaches the issue it deals with from too many angles, I think, and it tends to get a little overloaded at times, not being able to deal with so many aspects in the limited time - what I mean is that it's not always to the point, and that isn't to its advantage. The performances are great, but the same can be said about Crash. Ang Lee I think deserved his Oscar fully. However, if there is a film this year that really moved me and made me think, that definitely has to be Crash.