Bad-name game

I’M really stunned by all the negative backlash from critics that “Crash” has received since winning for best picture [“Ten Films That Give Oscar a Bad Name,” by Stephen Farber, March 19]. If we are to assume that films are an art form, then it is foolish to attempt to pick the “best picture.”

Are Van Goghs better than Picassos? Are Weegee’s photographs better than Annie Leibovitz’s? Art is a subjective medium meant to move different people in different ways.

This is why Marlon Brando and George C. Scott refused to accept their Oscars. One performance should not be judged as “better” than another. Rather than attacking the film or the filmmakers, why doesn’t Farber direct his anger at the voting membership of the academy?

Criticize the system, criticize the voters, but don’t attack the people who made the film. They are trying to make the best picture they can, but they don’t have a trophy in mind while they’re making their films.

Finally, I think Farber’s wrong in stating that “Crash” won’t have any longevity. It’s my opinion that “Crash” will represent a look back at a Los Angeles, circa 2000.

RICHARD VAN DYKE

Studio City

Van Dyke is a sound mixer who worked on “American Beauty” and “Crash.”

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I have always been annoyed at the academy when it votes “best” film and the director doesn’t win. This is the first case that I sort of understood. Ang Lee’s direction made “Brokeback Mountain” so special. Paul Haggis’ writing and direction were impeccable, inspirational and original. I was so very proud of the academy when “Crash” was announced as best film. It was like I felt the earth move a little and I’m sure that was from everyone who jumped and screamed for joy!

“Crash” an embarrassment? Give me a break. Watch it at least a second time. Wow and double wow.

CISSY WELLMAN

Valley Village

Wellman is the daughter of director William Wellman.

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I was amused by Stephen Farber’s opinion that the original “Rocky” did not deserve the Academy Award for best picture.

As son of the producer of “Rocky,” and as producer of the next in the series, I am as subjective to its value as Farber admits to being, possibly more so. But I know that audiences today still cherish “Rocky,” and I can imagine them giving this “prize-winning embarrassment” respect in a decade or two. The film defied the odds 30 years ago, and I will bet my house it will continue to for another 30. Care to bet your house, Mr. Farber?

DAVID WINKLER

Los Angeles

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ENOUGH of the “Crash” bash! Get over it. It’s just a movie. I don’t know where Mr. Farber is from, but as someone of color who was born and raised in Los Angeles, “Crash” hit the racial nail on the head. I saw the film when it first came out, and recommended it to my family and friends, who after seeing it, felt the same as I did.

The only people who seem to say racism doesn’t exist to the extent it was portrayed in the film must be of the Caucasian persuasion. “Brokeback Mountain” could have been titled “Whiteback Mountain” for its casting alone.

As far as his “perspective” on past Oscar winners, it should have been titled a “dude-jective” opinion, because that’s all it was. “Forrest Gump” is one of the best films ever made -- like “Crash,” it shows that racism, sexism and war are good for nothing. “Rocky” still rocks, and “American Beauty”? Well, I have to agree with you on that one.

VALERIE SCOTT

Santa Monica

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THANK you, thank you, thank you. “Brokeback Mountain” touched me deeply on so many levels.

I am in a decades-long interracial marriage. The deeply felt human emotion portrayed in “Brokeback Mountain” was something I could identify with, not the bludgeoning I felt I was getting from “Crash” in its narrow, ethnically focused conflicts.

BARBARA LAI BENNETT

Los Angeles