I’ve just watched the Oscars.
I know I’m a little late. Here in the UK, they were broadcast only on Sky Movies, which we don’t get. I had to wait until the recording my in-laws were kind enough to make for me made it across the Atlantic. Until then, I haven’t read any coverage of the broadcast, in order to avoid spoilers. (Yes, I am that big an Oscar geek.)
In short, I recognize that by now, everybody else on the planet with any interest in the topic has already commented on Crash‘s surprise win for Best Picture. Everybody has offered a theory as to why it beat out Brokeback Mountain. But I have my own theory, and it’s one that nobody else seems to have considered.
As far as I’m concerned, the reason for Crash‘s win wasn’t that it was “a hometown favorite” (as the New York Times speculated), or that its setting was urban rather than rural (as Larry McMurtry speculated.)
No, Crash won because the Academy members saw it on DVD.
Now, I loved both movies, but I loved them for very different reasons. Brokeback Mountain‘s power comes from a lot of small character moments, many of which are expressed through body language and facial expressions. Crash’s power comes much more from plot.
As a result, if you see them both in the theatre , you’ll pick up on the strengths of Brokeback, but larger-than-life Crash might seem melodramatic or over-the-top. By contrast, if you see them both on DVD, you’ll see the strengths of CRASH, but understated BROKEBACK might seem slow or uninteresting. Most critics and (thus far) most moviegoers will have seen both films on a big screen– but I’m willing to bet that many, if not most, Academy members saw both films on screener DVDs.