How Clint Eastwood’s ignorance helped cause an Oscars upset: “He hasn’t seen your movie”
Despite having four of them at home and being nominated another seven times, Clint Eastwood and the Oscars have always had a fairly complicated relationship.
For years, the actor and filmmaker claimed that he wasn’t interested in winning Academy Awards or being recognised by the industry’s most prominent awards show, but claiming ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ for Unforgiven has a funny way of changing someone’s opinion. After that, he became an Oscar darling.
He was in self-imposed exile before turning up to collect his Unforgiven prizes, having been so pissed off at being asked to step in at the last minute to replace Charlton Heston and read his scripted lines verbatim in 1973, bombing onstage while doing so, that he instructed Academy president Howard Koch never to invite him again, or as it turned out, never invite him again until he wins something.
As one of Hollywood’s most prominent elder statesmen, not to mention its most iconic living legend and a longtime member of the Academy, it would be reasonable to expect that when Oscar season rolls around, he does his bit, becomes a team player, and watches the movies that get sent his way for perusal.
Recently, the members of the organisation have been placed under increasing scrutiny and criticism for not bothering their arses to watch the shortlisted films. It’s the bare minimum that should be expected for an event as big as the Oscars, but it’s hardly a new problem. In fact, Brokeback Mountain producer Diana Ossana is adamant that people like Eastwood are the reason why Ang Lee’s drama didn’t win ‘Best Picture’.
The aching romantic drama may have won the filmmaker a ‘Best Director’ gong, but it was the hot favourite for the biggest accolade heading into the ceremony. After all, it had won the corresponding honours from the American Film Institute, the Baftas, the Critics’ Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, the National Board of Review, and many more.
It felt like a sure thing, but as Ossana explained to The New York Times, she knew Brokeback Mountain was doomed when she attended a party for the nominees, after the Oscars voting had closed, at Paul Haggis’ house, who’d worked with Eastwood on Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima, and issued a dire warning.
She wanted to introduce herself to the Dirty Harry legend, but there was a catch. “Paul started walking me over, and he goes, ‘Diana, I have to tell you, he hasn’t seen your movie’. And it was like somebody kicked me in the stomach,” she reflected. “That’s when I knew we would not win ‘Best Picture.'” Brokeback Mountain had been making a clean sweep through awards season, but as soon as she discovered Eastwood didn’t even watch it, her heart sank.
Instead, and in the cruellest of ironies, it was Haggis’ Crash that was named the winner on the night, in one of the most controversial and undeserving upsets in recent history. Brokeback Mountain should have won ‘Best Picture’, but if Eastwood hadn’t seen it, then who else hadn’t?
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