It's a long standing joke that the Oscars are the Super Bowl for gay men. If that is true, then this Sunday's broadcast of the 78th Annual Academy Awards is when our beloved-but-downtrodden team of perennial losers has unexpectedly made it to the big game. In football-ese, this makes Brokeback Mountain the St. Louis Cardinals and Sunday night our big chance for legitimacy. (For those who don't know football, the Cardinals stink worse than the sheep Jack and Ennis have to herd.)

So what does it mean that were in the Big Game at last? That we're even the prohibitive favorites to win?

Much of that answer depends on what happens Sunday night. Don't kid yourself that this won't be important. A billion plus people will watch clip after clip from the "gay cowboy," most of whom will never see Brokeback themselves. More importantly, they will see and hear about two men who fall in love.

Given that Brokeback is clearly the frontrunner for Best Picture, it would be a devastating psychological blow if it were to lose to Crash, its closest competitor. Brokeback not only dominated the other award shows this year, but is truly a breakthrough in cinematic history. Not to acknowledge that would have real implications. Most certainly, those on the right would trumpet the news to high heaven as proof that America isn't nearly as accepting of queers as we might like to believe. Nor would we see as many gay movies
in the future as we might otherwise.

Fortunately, an upset of Brokeback isn't likely to occur.

No matter what does happen when that final envelope is opened, the Brokeback "phenomenon" already means we have arrived. Playing gay used to carry a risk for an actor. Yes, William Hurt won an Oscar for his role in Kiss of the Spiderwoman, but the character was so stereotypically "gay" that it didn't feel like a breakthrough. Nor did it
lead to a boom in mainstream gay movie roles.

Tom Hanks also pulled off a gay role, but when he won for Philadelphia, he was already a box office saint. America perceived him as a noble actor doing a good "deed" by taking the gay part in what was more a social statement than a real movie.

Other actors haven't been so lucky. Harry Hamlin feels his role in Making Love nipped his film career in the bud, while Michael Ontkean, who played Hamlin's lover, didn't even manage Hamlin's successful television career. Indeed, up until now most actors would rather play a man-eating, child-beating, puppy-kicking serial killer than take a gay role.

But that is no longer the case. With nominations for Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, queer roles are no longer something to be feared. Word has it that even heterosexual sex-symbol Brad Pitt is quite keen to play a gay role himself. (Perhaps he didn't see his own performance in Troy.)

Beyond the recognition bestowed on the actors and filmmakers involved in Brokeback Mountain and Capote, what Sunday night might ultimately mean for the GLBT community won't be immediately known. Some clues, however, might be found in how the movie is treated during the ceremony itself.

Page 1 / 2 - Next