The Boston Herald calls it the biggest upset in recent Academy Awards history (http://theedge.bostonherald.com/movieNews/view.bg?articleid=129216).
The Boston Globe says, "Crash"? Best Picture? Really?"(http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/blog/).

Indeed, it seems that there is a big uproar and discontentment over the fact that Crash, a movie about misunderstandings and racism triggered by racial intolerance, prejudice and ignorance in Los Angeles, crashed Brokeback Mountain, a movie about a romance between two gay cowboys, and won the award for best picture or movie of the year last Monday during the 78th Academy Awards.

The rage in so evident that the Boston Globe gave this headline to the coverage of Crash's winning: "If it ain’t ‘Broke’…: It’s ‘Crash’ in an Oscar upset."

On the same train of thought, our conservative and sensationalist Boston Herald stated:
"Last night, those gay cowboys got ’jacked.
In the biggest upset in recent Academy Awards history, “Crash,” a powerful ensemble drama about a carjacking and racial tensions in present-day Los Angeles, was named Best Picture.
...
“Crash,” which begins with the theft of a white couple’s SUV by young, black men, was inspired by a real incident involving director and co-writer Paul Haggis. The film also picked up awards for Best Original Screenplay and Editing.

The heavily favored “Brokeback Mountain” led the pack with eight nominations. It won Best Director, Original Score and Adapted Screenplay, tying with “Crash” in total wins. But the so-called “gay cowboy film” apparently peaked and fell behind as voters belatedly caught up with the lower-profile - and notably safer and less controversial - “Crash.”

Hoffman took the prize for his justly acclaimed work as the effete, openly gay author Truman Capote, whose monumental work “In Cold Blood” changed the way crime books were written."

I read some other articles about this topic in 3 of the most popular websites and some other major nationwide newspapers and got the same tone from all them: dissatisfaction and anger from the fact that a movie with a heavily black cast that exposes the dark side of racism had was chosen over a movie that seems to address the issue of homosexuality to the main stream America.

What's the message the media is trying to send us? Are they still biased and not opened to subjects that talk freely about the shame of racial prejudice? Shouldn't the media be a shinny example in puttinf fown racism instead of criticizing the Hollywood for rewarding people that does that?

I'm just confused over this reaction. Why is the media so mad and upset that Crash, not Brokeback Mountain won the Best Picture award in the Oscars?

I don't know if the media had any agenda behind this reaction. But, it's clear they are being unfair to Crash.

baloney has a first name: it's o-s-c-a-r
the politics of the academy awards
by mike julianelle
from:

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News Flash: The Oscars are a load of shit.

The Academy Awards lost their credibility a long time ago. Probably well before Oliver! won Best Picture but definitely by the time Rocky beat out Network, All The President’s Men and Taxi Driver.

Most self-proclaimed (is there another kind?) film buffs stopped looking to the Oscars for anything resembling their own tastes once Forrest Gump trumped Pulp Fiction. The average moviegoer hits the multiplex instead of the arthouse and would rather see Death get his ass kicked than play a symbolic game of chess.

The idea that the Oscars signify something authoritative is dead, especially when history so often contradicts the awards with its trustworthy hindsight. So just who is Hollywood serving with their Oscars extravaganza? Why, themselves, of course! Awards season is Hollywood’s summer vacation. A chance to dress up and go to parties, with the added benefits of tons of extra publicity and some nifty gift bags which are probably more sought after than the little golden statues. It’s not about winning awards, really. It’s about seeing, being seen, and getting your name (whether you be an actor, a director, a set designer or a studio) dropped into the marketplace.

In the same way that our political elections are limited by the two-party system and corrupted by campaign spending and lobbyists, the Academy Awards are beholden to just about anything but the actual merit of the nominees. The winners are determined by everything from star power and box office performance to personal reputation, what they might say if given a soapbox, and studio marketing campaigns.

Consider Miramax. Miramax is known for three things: helping break independent films into the mainstream, being run by a huge asshole, and exposing and exploiting the political machinery of the Oscars. Miramax should be praised for bringing theretofore marginalized movies like Sex, Lies and Videotape (the flick credited with jumpstarting Sundance and the ‘90s indie-film boom), Clerks and Reservoir Dogs into the public eye and subsequently elevating their talented (except Kevin Smith) creators into the mainstream. But the studio has also campaigned inconsequential films into Oscar gold, helping Shakespeare in Love (over Saving Private Ryan) and Chicago (over The Pianist) win Best Picture Oscars and Chocolat and Finding Neverland get in the door and onto ballots. You can't really fault Harvey and Bob for working the system. After all, that's politics.

Keeping in the political nature of the proceedings, I'll now take a shot at predicting this year's winners in the six major categories:
...

Crash is exactly the kind of pseudo-political movie with a safe message (racism is bad!), well-known stars, and inevitably forthcoming marketing push that Oscar loves. Hollywood can pretend they are making the world a better place by confronting Big Issues without rocking the boat, while throwing a bone to audiences more likely to have seen Crash than anything else. Besides, despite talk of the awards getting political with Jon Stewart and gayness and Clooney, Hollywood is way too gutless to make any kind of real stand. Lionizing the facile, heavy-handed moralizing of Crash is the perfect way to give the dual illusion of backbone and relevance. So, if Hollywood -- insular enough to reward Brokeback but timid enough not to (and potentially having already rewarded the film a few times already) -- keeps its gay cowboys in the closet, look for Crash to take it.

The point of that little exercise is not to get it right (I won't) but to illuminate just how little the actual quality of the work comes into play.

Unfortunately, even though fewer people watch and fewer people care, the term “Best Picture” is still shorthand for quality. Hollywood should do a better job of realizing the impact that the Oscars could have if they cleaned things up a tad. Each year’s movies and performances should exist in a vacuum. The politics need to be jettisoned and the campaigning needs to be curtailed. No consideration should be given to who has won before and who hasn’t; that's why they have honorary Oscars. There is nothing wrong with Hollywood using their big night to promote their own product, but is it too much to ask for a bit of integrity in the process?

Probably. But hey, whatever. At the end of the day, I only care that two things happen at this year's ceremony: Crash loses Best Picture and "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" wins Best Original Song.

Mad? Rage? What are you talking about? I'm not upset about anything, other
than that I think "Brokeback" is simply the better movie. But upsets like
this are part of what makes the Oscars -- never something one should take
too seriously -- fun.

Man, I should just introduce you to the reader who's going medieval on me
because he thinks I'm part of the homophobic media not reporting on the
"real" reason "Brokeback" lost. You guys can duke it out between yourself.

take care,
Ty Burr

The Boston Globe
617-929-3034
email:

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I don't see that the media is upset over this. The fact that Crash won is the upset. As in, not anticipated. Stop posting pseudo-headlines to your opinion as if it were a news item. It ain't.

Seduisant: If you're such a cinema savant, you'd know that the Academy didn't forget to invite the dreaded TomKat nor the tiresome Bradgelina. They're all laying low on the advice of their publicists.

And anyone who thought Jon Stewart did a good job as host obviously didn't see the same show I saw. I really like the guy and always enjoy The Daily Show. But he was clearly out of his element on this. Not entirely his fault. The writers for this show, as always, mediocre at best.

Except from one moment John Stewart giggle on his words, I think he was sterically funny, especially when he made the joke about Dick Cheney.

Does anyone still read the Boston Herald?

Crash was OK, but very overrated. Good cast, but had this overlying, afterschool special message to it I couldn't get past. I know racism is wrong, and that all sorts of people are guilty of it, so I don't need a blanantly obvious 2 hour movie telling me about it. I know there are good and bad people in every walk of life and that some people have it tougher than others.

Acting was OK, but the whole idea of it was too preachy and predictable. Walk the Line was much better overall, as was Capote.

Isn't anyone else upset about the vapidity of these types of shows?

Who in their right mind would want to spend X amount of time in front of their television to watch such nonsense? Go see the films for their entertainment value but I think it's a waste of time to watch "Hollywood Stars" on their own. There are so few actors in Hollywood to truly admire for great screen abilities. So many "stars" look and behave exactly like one another that I can't tell them apart, nor do I want to. I can only hope that their 15 minutes of fame goes quickly and painlessly. The Oscars is just another popularity contest of, for and by the Secret Society of Stars.

It doesn't really matter anymore if the film is worthwhile, entertaining, thought-provoking or original or even if it is well acted - as a society we are so used to pathetic versions of reality TV and so will, for the most part, accept medicocrity.

Finally, since I'm already ranting, isn't anyone else upset about this latest notion known as The Goody Bag? Since when do these people really need another $400 face cream, $300 Blackberry, or $5,000 set or earrings? Please. This is just nonsense.