Brokeback broke down.

It was a loooooooong night at the Kodak Theater last night. Despite the annointing of "Brokeback Mountain" as a movie that "broke barriers" (translated into "Oscar" means, "If you don't vote for this for Best Picture, you are clearly uneducated in What Really Matters in Film, are one of those uneducated Red State flyover state fools who probably voted for...Bush.....and are generally Not Cool.)

Having grown up in the shadow of the Hollywood sign (literally....in Hancock Park), Oscar night is a huge deal. But Oscars didn't used to be about "breaking barriers", whatever that means. It used to be about an outstanding acting achievement, or going the extra mile with the details in Art Direction, Sets, Sound or Lights, developing some new technological advance that takes film to a new level, or writing an extraordinary, memorable script that withstands time. According to the critics, however, that sort of thing is not what the Academy is purported to be looking for.

Since the Village People did "YMCA", there have been folks who have decided that every cowboy is clearly homosexual. Apparently, these are people who have never met a cowboy and wouldn't know a real one if they met him. My grandfather, a fourth generation Texan, rode the Goodnight-Loving trail and was a cattle rancher. Every bit the cowboy. It wasn't what he wore, but his character that defined him. It is a tragedy that the American cowboy is being so deeply disrespected.

The bottom line is that "Brokeback Mountain" may have had some decent enough performances, but was it "On the Waterfront"? Not by a long shot. Clearly, despite the predictions of snooty critics who constantly tell America off, the Academy didn't do half bad in the choices. "Crash" was a pretty raw movie and it wouldn't have been my first choice, but the box office yielded some slim pickins in 2005.

This, I don't get. The Oscar for "Best Original Song" given to a little ditty entitled "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" -- a rap song about, oddly enough, how hard it is to be a pimp. Did it really capture the essence of the movie or was it just a song that sold well? The performances in
"Hustle and Flow" were truly remarkable, particularly that of Terrence Howard, and the song is far too one dimensional for his three dimensional performance in the film.

The Oscars I am thrilled about? Chronicles of Narnia (shout out to Walden Media!) and Reese Witherspoon (an amazing performance as June Carter Cash in "Walk the Line".....terribly disappointed that Joaquin Phoenix didn't take home the statue for his portrayal of Johnny Cash.)

So which films were you all rooting for? Do you think "Brokeback" got a raw deal? Were you rooting for Charlize or Felicity?