Crashing Brokeback Mountain's party

Brokeback Mountain takes Dest Director, but the big one goes to racial relations drama Crash.

PRAVEENA SHIVRAM

6 March, 2006
CHENNAI, INDIA

It was almost like a courtroom drama. The figures and statistics painted a particular picture, giving room for some rather obvious interpretations, and the jury's final verdict ended up elucidating it all in a completely different fashion, leaving the courtroom abuzz with enthusiastic chatter and the media in a state of frantic fervour. 

The Oscar award this year was all that and some more.

The much-awaited verdict is finally out in the open, and it's been one long evening of surprises. While everyone expected Brokeback Mountain to take home most of the top honours with eight nominations in its kitty, it was the film Crash that was adjudged the Best Motion Picture of the Year, while Ang Lee took home the award for the Best Director. And that was the only major award, other than Best Adapted Screenplay and Original Score for a Motion Picture, for the film.

Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, that traces the anguish and tension plaguing the modern world, also won the Best Original Screenplay Award and the award for Best Editing, apart from the most coveted award of the evening, the Best Film award.

Capote's Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Actor award for his convincing and natural portrayal of the celebrated literary icon, Truman Capote, while Reese Witherspoon won the Best Actress Award for Walk the Line. Both these categories had quite a line up of nominations, and the verdict could have swung in anyone's favour, though rumours had Reese Witherspoon in the lead for the popular prize. Rachel Weisz won the Best Supporting Actress award for Constant Gardener, the only nomination the film had, which is based on the best-selling thriller by John Le Carre. No surprises again for the Best Supporting Actor, as George Clooney walked away with the golden statue for Good Night and Good Luck, again a political drama that talks about the ethics of journalism.

The Best Documentary feature was the March of the Penguins, that looks at the company Enron, and the myriad scandals that surround it. Tsotsi won in the Best Foreign Film Category, while the Best Animated film was Wallace and Gromit and Memoirs of a Geisha won the award for Best Cinematography. Munich by Steven Spielberg, failed to bring in any awards at all.

With Jon Stewart as the host for the evening (for people who watch The Daily Show, he would be familiar), the Oscars somehow lacked the powerful passion with the right balance of a breezy atmosphere that one usually associates with it. Even the nominated films were not popular by box office standards, in so much as the critical acclaim and the various other international film festivals they have been associated with. The show was eventful no doubt, exciting even, but the kind of excitement that tires rather than invigorates.