As Expected, Brokeback Mountain Gets Strong Nod From Oscar
by Allie Martin
February 1, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A researcher with the Tupelo, Mississippi-based American Family Association (AFA) says he is not surprised that a movie glorifying a homosexual relationship between two sheepherders has led the field in Academy Award nominations.
On Tuesday, Brokeback Mountain received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. The movie features two western roughnecks who carry on a lifelong romantic relationship that they conceal from their families.
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Ed Vitagliano |
AFA director of research Ed Vitagliano says the film was destined to be favored by Hollywood. "You've got a top-flight director in Ang Lee," he notes. "You've got two well-known actors -- heart-throbs, really -- in Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. You have what's kind of like the perfect combination for a message movie, which this is." Brokeback Mountain is "basically a propaganda piece," Vitagliano asserts. "It's message is going to be loved by Hollywood, so there's almost a sense in which Hollywood could not ignore this movie," he says.
"Hollywood has been making movies which use the same argument regarding love," the pro-family researcher says. The writers and filmmakers' message, basically, has been "that love is God," he notes, "but they've doing it for heterosexuals for a long time and promoting sex outside of marriage, adultery, and all these kinds of things. And I think the real problem is that Christians have gone to see those kinds of movies."
Generally speaking, Vitagliano contends, the Church has gone right along with this trend toward relaxed moral standards under the rubric of ethic that declares romantic love as the only standard. "Now, all of a sudden, we have a movie that says the same thing, only between two homosexuals. Now you have Christians wondering what's happened."
What has happened, the AFA spokesman explains, is what believers have allowed to happen as a result of the Church in America not being vocal in response to morally bankrupt movies. "The fact of the matter is, the Church has been compromised," he says.
Vitagliano expects Brokeback Mountain to earn at least five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The Christian-themed Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe garnered only three Oscar nominations, all in technical categories.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
