Talkback Mtn.

WOW! I couldn’t believe Annie Proulx’s rant over “Brokeback Mountain” losing the best picture Oscar to “Crash” [Quick Takes, March 14].

Lighten up, Annie. It’s just a stupid contest and there can only be one winner.

The losers on “American Idol” are better sports than you are.

RICHARD SCALES

Long Beach

*

PROULX’S outburst was juvenile, mean-spirited and unwarranted. Moreover, the entire brouhaha surrounding “Brokeback Mountain” is very much an “Emperor Has No Clothes” situation. The acting was good, the screenplay (from weak source material) was fine, the direction was fine. The only thing missing was a story. Ennis and Jake are boring, unambitious, inarticulate, passive losers. Making them gay doesn’t somehow make them interesting or tragic. There’s nothing noble about neglecting one’s children.

ANNE SCHAUERMAN

Oak Park

*

RESPONDING to Kenneth Turan’s excellent article [“ ‘Brokeback’ Dreams Crash and Burn as the Academy Voters Play It Safe, March 6], Barry S. Rubin asks [Calendar Letters, March 11], “If the academy was as image-conscious and homophobic as Turan implies, then how can he explain Ang Lee’s best director award or the adapted screenplay Oscars to Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for the same gay-themed film?”

The real question is: If Ang Lee’s direction and the adapted screenplay both won Oscars for “Brokeback Mountain,” then how do you explain the best picture win for “Crash”?

KIM GARFIELD

Los Angeles