Brokeback Molehill

You probably took note of some strategic grumblings in the lead-up to the Oscars, grumblings about the suspicious similarities of the nominee films--not least that they were ever-farther from the highest-grossing films of the past year.

Hollywood is so out of touch with its audience, this "culture war" argument went, that it's trying to force all sorts of (queer) crap on us against our principles and preferences, perhaps even (horrors!) against the invisible hand of the market.

George Clooney played on this accusation in his acceptance speech. Proudly aligning himself with the progressive elements in American cinema, he agreed they are out of step but only because they are drumming the rest of us into step to march toward a more just society.

Now, there's a good bit of mystification on each side of this debate. The most egregious and misleading mystification is this unitary idea of "Hollywood." Having lived in proximity to this industry for a couple years, I can tell you one thing: about the only thing all of the players agree on is making a living by attempting to entertain us.

Considering another accusation lobbed at this mythically unified Hollywood - that financial considerations increasingly outweigh artistic ones - what business sense is there in pushing message-movies that the market won't bear? The only person willing to do this is Jeff Skoll, the eBay exec who bankrolled "Syriana" and "Good Night, and Good Luck"--because he can afford the financial hit, and because apparently some people will pay to see them. Yet another shock: there is no unitary audience for the products of a non-unified Hollywood.

The Oscar ceremony is film people rewarding each other for the quality of their craft, not for the amount of their earnings. We might consider box office receipts as the audience rewarding film people for entertaining us, though I'd urge caution with such a logical leap. But until the lists of critical and commercial favorites overlap, no ideologue taking the position of us consumers can honestly claim we are force-fed anything. You are not allowed to make that argument in my presence as long the second Deuce Bigelow movie made any amount of money.

Now, as to the issue of Hollywood collusion in preparing us for alien contact...