r/entertainment • u/mcfw31 • 2d ago
Michelle Williams Throws Shade Over Brokeback Mountain’s Best Picture Loss at the Oscars: ‘What Was Crash?’
https://people.com/michelle-williams-throws-shade-over-brokeback-mountain-oscars-loss-11709111211
u/mcfw31 2d ago
Host Andy Cohen told Williams that the 2005 movie was likely "still in my top two movies of all time" and added that he was "very upset about the Best Picture loss."
"I mean, what was Crash?" Williams coyly asked about the film that ultimately took home the Academy Award. Cohen replied by implying that the winning picture didn't have the longevity of Brokeback Mountain as it wasn't still sparking conversations all these years later.
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u/Dramatic_Buddy4732 2d ago
She's not wrong. Also the man who wrote crash very publicly left Scientology over gay rights so good for him.
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u/derkeysersoze 2d ago
Then he was convicted of rape... so maybe not such a great guy.
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u/Dramatic_Buddy4732 2d ago
I'm clearly not up to speed on my "man who wrote crash" lore. Thanks!
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u/derkeysersoze 2d ago
To be fair, I only know this because I was looking this movie up yesterday and his wiki page has it pretty prominently.
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u/Dramatic_Buddy4732 2d ago
I knew three things about this movie: It won when it shouldn't have The other crash movie was more fun The writer left Scientology because of his gay daughter
And now I know four so thanks 🤣
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u/whitehole_86 2d ago
If there ever was a conspiracy I would believe, it is that he was set up by the Church of Scientology in order to smear his name and bankrupt him
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u/coldliketherockies 2d ago
He also directed Crash. Wrote and directed
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u/Dramatic_Buddy4732 2d ago
I know five things now! Listen, I just forgot math, you guys better stop 🤣
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u/Global-Discussion-41 2d ago
I would argue that crash winning that Oscar is still sparks more conversations than Brokeback mountain does
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u/carpie21 2d ago
Crash is essentially this Michael Scott bit, “Close your eyes. Picture a convict. What's he wearing? Nothing special - baseball cap on backward, baggy pants. He says something ordinary like, "Yo, that's shizzle". Okay, now slowly open your eyes again. Who are you picturing? A black man? Wrong. That was a white woman. Surprised? Well, shame on you.”
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u/UnderscoreButt 2d ago
I have never seen Brokeback Mountain and I’m still fairly certain it’s better than Crash. Because I’ve seen Crash.
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u/jlusedude 2d ago
You should watch it. Very good movie.
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u/Intelligent-Jump3320 2d ago
It's sad 😔
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u/UnderscoreButt 2d ago
That’s mainly why I’ve put off watching it. It seems very sad.
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u/jlusedude 2d ago
It is, especially thinking of the many, many, queer people had to hide their love or themselves.
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u/Hunk-a-Cheese 2d ago
It’s not just a sad ending or sad social obstacles, the movie just has a sad vibe from beginning to end, like Manchester by the Sea, but with zero hints of comic relief. Still really good though!
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u/UnderscoreButt 2d ago
I def will. I just kind of missed it at the time and haven’t gotten around to it.
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u/Constant_Wear_8919 2d ago
My parents saw it together. My parents are straight.
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u/mackinoncougars 2d ago edited 2d ago
Don’t need to be gay to watch movies about gay characters and you don’t need to be straight to watch movies about straight characters.
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u/OkDevice674 2d ago
I know the comment you’re responding to sounds pretty silly to us now, but in 2005 for a straight couple to go out and see a movie about a homosexual relationship was definitely challenging the status quo. So many straight people at that time felt way too uncomfortable with the themes to even consider watching it.
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u/RDS_RELOADED 2d ago
Too uncomfortable is putting mildly. by then I was spending the rest of my adolescence in the south in the US. Even for a more liberal town, a lot of people were mocking it, stigmatizing it esp for young boys
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u/Kryptosis 2d ago
Even in the northeast it was a go-to reference/slur in schools
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u/kamilo87 2d ago
A famous Spanish comedian used a slur to refer to the movie that was too much for me at the time. It made me not watch it for 10 or more years. One day it was on Cuban National TV and I give it a go since the actors are so great and the critic was so good I wasn’t losing anything. It’s a sad love story. Ffs the ending of Jack was very hard but I like stories being well told with no happy endings.
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u/please_no_ban_ 1d ago
I was in a 2nd level film studies class my senior year of college and we were shown this film. My professor was a very refined, artsy, Juilliard-trained ballet performer. He was also gay, and his childhood up until he left his home was absolute hell growing up in the south. He worked on farms and ranches to get by and had to hide his true self. He said when he saw this movie he finally felt like he deserved happiness. It’s a beautiful movie and very important for many reasons.
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u/jlusedude 1d ago
I’ve been fortunate enough to have a conversation with an older queer man and listening to him talk about hiding his feelings or trying to act “normal” and hide the love he had for his partner is so sad. I think about how obvious it is when two people are trying to hide a relationship and it’s the little things that give it away. The intimacy is hard to hide. It made me really sad for queer community and how they have to navigate life.
I can imagine this resonated with a lot of queer folk and it opened my eyes more (saw this before that conversation) to what life looks like. It’s why representation matters in film, telling these stories are important. Same way Boyz N’ da Hood opened my eyes to life in Compton.
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u/ThatFunkyOdor 2d ago
My wife and I were scrolling and asked what it was and I said it’s about two gay cowboy type guys just thinking she wouldn’t be interested and she picked it and a good chunk of the movie passed when she turned to me and asked if this was supposed to be a comedy and I said “no not at all” and she said “you should have said something I picked it because you described it as two gay cowboys and I figured that meant comedy!”
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u/Grouchy-Field-5857 2d ago
Lol Brokeback made me sob in the theater in a way that has only happened a couple of times since.
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u/dakilazical_253 2d ago
I sobbed through the entire end credits and was still a blubbering mess when I finally walked out of the theater. I’ve never had a film emotionally wreck me like Brokeback Mountain.
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u/shame-the-devil 2d ago
The image of Heath Ledger holding that flannel shirt will haunt me for the rest of my life
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u/eescorpius 2d ago
Sometimes when I wanna release some tension and bawl my eyes out I just need to watch that one scene (because I can't handle rewatching the entire movie).
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u/Hayterfan 2d ago
I picked it because you described it as two gay cowboys and I figured that meant comedy!”
She probably thought it was some kind of sequel to Blazing Saddles
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u/Ancient_Signature_69 2d ago
I've never met Ravi personally, but I'm gonna go ahead and say, just having known you a short while Ryan, that I prefer Ravi... and again, I've never even met the guy
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u/UnderscoreButt 2d ago
Nice. My favorite part of that, if I remember it right, is he calls Ryan “Bryan.” Ultimate insult for a guy like Ryan.
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u/Brendanlendan 1d ago
I have never seen brokeback mountain, but having read your comment about crash, I prefer brokeback, and again, I’ve never even seen the movie.
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u/m0rbius 2d ago
The vast consensus is that Crash did not deserve the win. It's a political win for Crash over Brokeback. If watched today, Crash did not really age well.
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u/Dinnercoffee 2d ago
Crash was poorly written, heavy handed and sucked when it first came out.
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u/Amity83 2d ago
I’ve never felt so offended watching a movie. It’s like the writers thought I was an imbecile. Maybe the most heavy handed movie I’ve ever seen.
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u/GrimaceGrunson 2d ago
It was the equivalent of a speech from Mr Mackey from South Park going “Don’t be racist, mmkay? Racism is bad, and you shouldn’t do it, mmkay?”
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u/Dinnercoffee 2d ago
I remember having similar feelings. I was thinking about how it could age worse and thought that maybe that just means more people have gotten around to seeing it for the first time.
But I had to remind myself that everyone has different tastes and expectations from movies.
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u/ThunkAsDrinklePeep 2d ago
Maybe the most heavy handed movie I’ve ever seen.
That'd be The Thin Red Line for me.
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u/asdf0909 2d ago
Thank you. Everyone at the time also knew it sucked. I was 16 and even I was embarrassed by how heavy-handed it was.
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u/Helaken1 2d ago
Why did it suck?
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u/Grouchy-Field-5857 2d ago
Because it wasn't good
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u/Helaken1 2d ago
Then why did it win? It seems like those other movies werent good.
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u/haus_haus_haus 2d ago
every movie that was nominated was better. in fact crash wasn't even nominated at the golden globes or the baftas.
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u/Helaken1 2d ago
Did you get that the stories intertwined with each other? Did you get that racist Matt Dillon was forced into a situation where he had the rescue person of color? Did you get that or..?
Why is these other movies better than crash because crash was thought-provoking and done well and extremely topical I get that broke back mountain was about gay ranchers in the 60s but what else did it bring?
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u/haus_haus_haus 2d ago
I got everything because the movie is about as subtle with its point as being hit in the face with a hammer.
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u/DayTrippin2112 2d ago
It was mid; at best. The best thing it had going for it was the cast. Plenty of top actors, but nothing special about their performances. It was used to virtue signal, which Hollywood is notorious for. I don’t care if they do it, but the obviously superior film suffered for it.
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u/Musicfanatic09 2d ago
Really? I haven’t watched it in an extremely long time, but I don’t remember it being terrible. I don’t remember a lot of it now… Wonder what I’d think of it as an adult.
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u/Dinnercoffee 2d ago
I knew a few people that liked it at the time. There’s no judgement from me. There’s enough shitty things that people have to deal with in life, I’m not going to give them shit for enjoying what they enjoy. There are plenty of not so great movies or shows that I happen to love.
My feelings are just for the movie.
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u/Alibotify 2d ago
Well put, I liked it but still don’t think it should’ve won Best Picture. I do movie reviews without spoilers so mostly feeling that’s just mine.
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u/Tradman86 2d ago
I don’t even think the Crash producers expected to win. Their name was called and I remember a pause before they got up.
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u/_anne_shirley 2d ago
It’s watched in a lot of schools
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u/MsRedMaven 1d ago
I watched Crash in my high school around 2010. I think schools sometimes underestimate the nuance kids are capable of understanding.
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u/Weirdingyeoman 2d ago
I watched that movie at home when I was 20. I was so frustrated and flabbergasted and how fucking self-righteous it was. Michael Peña was fantastic though. I think he could convincingly play anything.
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u/GeddyVedder 2d ago
Crash could have been much better. The cast was great, and the general subject matter could have made for an interesting story. But it was so poorly conceived and written, and the story so poorly told, that the whole thing fell flat.
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u/AlarmSquirrel 2d ago
Munich was better than both of them
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u/djkhan23 2d ago
I'm a HUGE fan of Munich but I dunno.
Brokeback hit some incredible emotional highs. Maybe they're the same quality of movie overall but for that reason I put Brokeback over.
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u/Distinct_Car_6696 2d ago
Was crash the racist cop apology movie? MAGA would love it these days
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u/Zanydrop 2d ago
It was the heavy handed everyone is the opposite of what they seem like movie. Latino that look like a gang member is a happy family man. Scary looking Arab is really nice guy. Racist Cop is really a good guy. You can't look at that movie and say its MAGA unless you only focus on the one character.
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u/EchoLocation8 2d ago
In what universe was the cop guy a really good guy? He openly sexually assaulted someone under the threat of violence, no? I don’t remember the whole movie but I was pretty sure it was about consequences and how this dude being a gigantic piece of shit almost got someone killed afterward because they were so repulsed by him after getting into a car accident they refused his help.
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u/Zanydrop 2d ago
Trying to show his humanity regardless of all the other shit he did. He was taking care of his sick dad who the insurance companies were screwing around. He saved that one womans life etc. I'm not defending the cop, just pointing out the filmmakers wanted him to also appear sympathetic.
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u/joet889 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think it's perfectly possible for MAGA to love it. They love the appearance of being moral without doing the actual work. They are perfectly comfortable with claiming that the Latino family man is "one of the good ones," and they only discriminate against the bad ones. The whole premise of the movie only works if the audience goes into it already fully believing the stereotypes.
Edit: I haven't seen it in many years, but if I remember correctly, the opening scene poses a question- what if Black people were educated? And answers it- they would mug you. Movie is racist as hell.
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u/Zanydrop 2d ago
As I recall those black guys weren't educated. They were talking about how unfair it is that people judge them for their looks and assume they are robbers. And then they rob somebody.
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u/taacc548 1d ago
Maybe you’re the racist thinking all middle eastern people are Arabs.
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u/Zanydrop 1d ago
It's been ages since I've seen the movie, I can't remember if he was Arab or not.
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u/thezachman16 2d ago
Excellently concise comment because the only thing this film accomplishes is making idiots sympathize with a cop who finger rapes a black woman because he's having a rough time in his marriage. It's a movie by white racists, for white racists!
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u/NotTheCraftyVeteran 2d ago
It’s one thing when a movie that’s maybe not the best among the nominees wins, or if something that’s just not very good wins somehow.
Crash is legitimately among the worst films I’ve ever seen and the fact that it won Best Picture is inconceivable on a level beyond any of that.
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u/AlarmSquirrel 2d ago
Munich was better than both of them
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u/Slade347 2d ago
I think Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck were better than both as well. That said, Brokeback Mountain is infinitely better than Crash.
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u/junior_dos_nachos 2d ago
I loved PSH in every thing but I had to turn off the TV when I heard his voice as Capote. Seeing him was like chalk on a board for me. I am so sorry. Great actor, couldn’t stomach this character at all.
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u/EverybodyHasPants 2d ago
Crash was the best movie of that year and that’s why the Oscar’s matter. Do we have talk about the masterpiece that is Shakespeare in Love? Point is, award shows never get it wrong.
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u/Yommination 2d ago
Munich also deserved it over Crash. Crash was so heavy handed that it makes Remember the Titans feel subtle
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u/redheadedandbold 2d ago
BBM left me drowning in emotion. Anger, sorrow, regret, sympathy, more anger...
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u/humansruineverything 2d ago
I liked Crash. A lot. The Altman-like aspect of intersecting characters…. Yes, some of those instances were unreal and contrived. And I still rate the film. There’s a lot of good acting in the film, too.
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u/shadyshadyshade 2d ago
I still blame Oprah because she had the whole cast of Crash on and acted like it was the best movie she’d ever seen, and this was when her show had a huge cultural impact.
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u/MasterTeacher123 2d ago
Crash wasn’t good but broke back mountain wasn’t great either. Capote was my favorite film of 2005
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u/DayTrippin2112 2d ago
Same; Philip Seymour Hoffman took his Oscar home that night, so it wasn’t a total wash.
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u/championgoober 2d ago
I got a little something in my throat when Andy graciously sincerely thanks her and what that show meant to him (as a gay man, he didn't say but surely meant). It really made me think about the movie in a different way.
IMO, Michelle seemed so uncomfortable and out of her element on WWHL. Not a good place for her, but girl gotta promote. I've seen the preview for the series she is promoting and I will a zillion percent watch it.
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u/oh_please_god_no 1d ago
FYI she is NOT talking about the David Cronenberg movie “Crash” which is excellent and you should all watch it
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u/kisunemaison 2d ago
I remember Oprah swooning over this movie and saying how progressive and provocative Crash was.
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u/Peter_Lynne72 2d ago
Crash is the only movie I’ve ever walked out of, and a perfect example of just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
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u/Glum-Assistance-7221 2d ago
More signs of Hollywood looking backwards to former glory days as the streaming bubble bursts & the film industry crumbles
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u/coldliketherockies 2d ago
If you watch the last minute of Crash, the best picture winner of 2006 (or 2005) where two side characters of the film get into a car CRASH and start arguing… that’s what this film sees as quality. Having a film called Crash end with a car CRASH having nothing to do with the movie (not that the next year best picture winner ending with a rat running across the background is that clever either but)
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u/ThatFunkyOdor 2d ago
Yeah don’t get me started on the Departed. Weak opposition that year IMO. A good movie but not Best Picture quality
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u/coldliketherockies 2d ago
I mean I guess I went in not expecting anything. Specific and like Scorsese but at that point only seen some of his work. I really enjoyed it but it felt more a high quality popcorn movie than an Oscar film
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u/EricPhillips327 2d ago
Relax Michelle, Brokeback isn’t that better of a film than Crash if at all.
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u/StoreRevolutionary70 2d ago
Best parts of Brokeback Mountain where the shots of the scenery. The storyline was not realistic at all (I’m gay). Two young gay/bi handsome guys alone in the wild would have hooked up the first night.
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u/WerePrechaunPire 2d ago
I mean I love Brokeback Mountain but what an ego
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u/DinkandDrunk 2d ago
She said it on Watch What Happens with Andy Cohen. Presumably there was an element of playfulness with the audience. It was also specifically in response to being asked if it was upsetting not winning. Seems presumptuous to say she has an ego off of a single out of context quote, no?
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u/AMonitorDarkly 2d ago
She’s not wrong. Crash had no business even being nominated let alone winning. There was an audible gasp in the room that you can hear in the telecast when Crash was announced as the winner.
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u/Beautiful-Bit9832 2d ago
I love the scene between Anthony Anderson and Kevin Hart in Brokeback Mountain
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u/MarquisMusique 2d ago
The only good movie called Crash was directed by David Cronenberg.