Fans of Westerns
can rejoice once more. A tale of cowboys on the range is
back in the saddle as lead contender for the upcoming
Academy Awards nominations. Of course, Brokeback
Mountain is not your father's Western, not John
Wayne riding through all those John Ford epics, not
even Clint Eastwood striding with antihero bloodlust in
Unforgiven.
Set in more
contemporary times, Brokeback Mountain is the
story of two men who have a romantic fling as young
sheepherders, then find their summer of love blossoming into
a lifelong passion they must conceal from their wives.
As the film has gradually expanded into wide release,
it has packed theaters in both liberal-leaning urban
areas and the conservative heartland. "Once people saw
the film, they understood that it was a film about a kind of
epic greatness that can exist in anyone, anywhere, no matter
who they are, no matter what their sexual orientation
or class or historical circumstances," said
Brokeback Mountain producer James Schamus.
Brokeback Mountain is part of a wave of films
that marked 2005 as a year of Hollywood activism on
political and social issues. Joining Brokeback
Mountain in the hunt for Oscar nominations
Tuesday: the oil-industry thriller Syriana, an
indictment of American thirst for Middle East
petroleum at any cost; The Constant Gardener, a
story of love, intrigue, and murder amid corruption by
governments and pharmaceutical companies in Africa;
Munich, which uses the 1972 massacre of Israeli
athletes at the Olympics and its aftermath to examine the
cycle of bloodshed in the Middle East;
Transamerica, a comic drama about sexual
identity and acceptance centered on a transgender
woman preparing for reassignment surgery; and Good
Night, and Good Luck, a tale of personal
freedom vs. fearmongering as expressed through the
1950s clash between newsman Edward R. Murrow and Sen.
Joseph McCarthy.
Amid all the
celebrity backslapping come Oscar night March 5, will any
good emerge from these films packing messages? "I think
American culture is closely allied with American
political progress, and a film like Brokeback
will absolutely kick down barriers and open up
people's hearts and minds," said gay playwright Tony
Kushner (Angels in America), a potential
screenplay nominee for cowriting Munich. "I
think a lot of people who are afraid of gay relationships
will go and see it, and they see a relationship that
whether you're gay or straight is immensely
recognizable. It's great for us, and I'm thrilled."
Brokeback Mountain has dominated early
Hollywood honors, earning best dramatic film and three other
prizes at the Golden Globes and winning top awards
from key critics groups. The film is positioned to
become the first gay-themed movie to win the best
picture Oscar, while Brokeback Mountain
filmmaker Ang Lee is a front-runner for best director.
As one of the
cowboys in love in Brokeback Mountain, Heath
Ledger has a virtual lock on a best actor nomination,
though he faces serious competition from Philip Seymour
Hoffman, who won the Golden Globe for lead actor in a
drama as gay author Truman Capote in Capote.
For her gender-bending role in Transamerica, which
earned her the dramatic actress prize at the Globes,
Felicity Huffman is considered the favorite to win
best actress. An Oscar would cap a breakout year for
Huffman, who won an Emmy last September for
Desperate Housewives after years of toiling
in bit movie roles, failed television shows, and TV
guest spots.
The confluence of
her abrupt TV and movie stardom is all part of
Hollywood, Huffman said. "We're in the kind of business
where it's more like gold mining than sort of a
matriculation like college, you know?" Huffman said.
"You sort of go, 'Hey, you know, I found gold,' rather
than going, 'Hey, I graduated and became a senior.'"
Along with
presenting fresh awards faces such as Huffman and Hoffman,
the Oscars likely will follow the lead of earlier film
honors and focus heavily on smaller, independent fare
rather than studio flicks. Indie films such as
Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Transamerica, The
Constant Gardener, and Good Night, and Good
Luck have gathered far more attention this awards
season than big-budget Memoirs of a Geisha, King
Kong, or Munich. "This year, I'm
particularly happy for the movies that were in, that are
coming out," said Brokeback Mountain director
Lee. "I feel very not only honored, but it's just a
pleasure to be with those so-called small movies."
One studio film
almost certain to do well on nominations morning is the
Johnny Cash biography Walk the Line, which won
the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy and acting
prizes for Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese
Witherspoon as the country legend's soul mate, June
Carter.
And while
relative newcomers may rule the top acting categories, one
of Hollywood's biggest stars could take home Oscars
for both acting and his behind-the-camera work. George
Clooney has a strong shot to take home the supporting
actor trophy for his role in Syriana as a dogged CIA
undercover agent who comes to realize his
king-and-country loyalty may have been misplaced.
Clooney also could earn a best director nomination for
Good Night, and Good Luck, in which he also
costars. After his Golden Globe win for supporting actor,
Clooney said backstage that while prizes are nice,
it's a tall order deciding who really delivered the
year's best performance. "I like nominations because
they're groupings of awards," Clooney said. "You're
saying this sort of group of people are doing interesting
work, so I tend to enjoy those." (David Germain, AP)