Just when “Brokeback Mountain” appeared to be galloping off with the biggest Oscar wins Sunday night, “Crash” busted up the cowboy love fest with a stunning best picture victory.
The brutal, tangled tale of race relations and class struggle in modern-day Los Angeles won only moments after “Brokeback’s” Ang Lee walked off the stage with the directing Oscar. “Brokeback” writers Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry took the best adapted screenplay award minutes before, and most handicappers figured momentum and critical acclaim would return the “Brokeback” posse to the podium for best picture.
But “Crash” tied “Brokeback” with three Oscars and sped ahead with the big prize in the 78th Annual Academy Awards.
Director Paul Haggis shared the original screenplay Oscar with Bobby Moresco; “Crash” also won for film editing. In accepting his writing award, Haggis quoted playwright Bertolt Brecht to explain the painful image of America presented in “Crash”:
“Art is not a mirror to hold up to society, but a hammer with which to shape it,” Haggis said.
Though some critics pronounced “Crash’s” plot overly manipulative when it arrived in theaters last May as a rare early Oscar contender, its legacy improved when L.A.-centric voters saw it on DVD.
Taiwan-born Lee won the foreign language Oscar in 2000 for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” On accepting his “Brokeback” award, he turned to the statue and uttered the iconic line from his movie, “I wish I knew how to quit you.”
Lee appeared with Ossana, McMurtry and the original short story author, Annie Proulx, at the Starz Denver International Film Festival in November, marking a second straight coup for festival programmers. A year earlier, Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx took Oscars after featured turns at the festival.
Reese Witherspoon won the best actress award for playing and singing her way into June Carter Cash’s soul for “Walk the Line.” The actress gushed that the Johnny Cash biopic and music producer T-Bone Burnett allowed her “to realize my lifelong dream of being a country-western singer.”
In contrast to the later surprises, the announcement of Philip Seymour Hoffman as best actor played as the anointment of a long-expected victor. Hoffman, often a burly character actor, transformed body, voice and demeanor to become “Capote.”
Best supporting actor George Clooney picked up the first big Oscar, not to mention enough screen time to be named honorary co-host, as the academy spread the gold among an array of films.
Clooney, a Hollywood and critical favorite for speaking out politically and backing intriguing projects, won the best supporting actor award as a fading CIA agent in “Syriana.” He also was nominated as best director and best original screenplay for “Good Night, and Good Luck,” which he co-wrote with Grant Heslov. Given the predicted landslide of votes for director Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” the always game Clooney had to joke: “OK, so I’m not winning best director.”
Clooney’s acceptance speech echoed host Jon Stewart’s edgy monologue on the constant harping that the Left Coast’s values have drifted from mainstream America. “I’m proud to be out of touch,” Clooney shouted as he strode off.
Rachel Weisz emerged from a series of I-think-I-know-her roles to win best supporting actress for “The Constant Gardener.” The British actress, seen by wider audiences in “The Mummy,” played a troubled beauty who uses her looks to fight drug-company corruption in impoverished Africa.
Frenchmen dressed like the stuffed penguins they carried waddled onstage to accept best documentary for “March of the Penguins.” The beloved drama of the birds’ life cycle shattered records for documentary box office.
An Oscar and a fresh wedge of Wensleydale went to “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” for best animated feature. The claymation duo earned co-directors Nick Park and Steve Box their award.
Hollywood’s failure to deliver a blockbuster with crowd-pleasing soul played out among the technical and visual categories. “King Kong” and “Memoirs of a Geisha” each won three Oscars for design and visual categories; “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” won for makeup.
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at 303-820-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com.
