The Man Who Sold Crash to the Academy

When Crash won the Oscar for best picture, I was half-drunk at a party in Seattle but sobered up quickly. I had to. I'd promised my editor at MSNBC that if the unthinkable did happen, if Crash won best picture that night over Brokeback Mountain, I'd write a piece about it. I finished it at 10 a.m. the next morning. It included diatribe, head-shaking and a quiz. It included everything but a culprit.

Now we have one. In the Jan. 19 issue of The New Yorker, regular contributor Tad Friend writes about Tim Palen, co-president of theatrical marketing at Lionsgate, the studio responsible for, on the one hand, Fahrenheit 9/11, 3:10 to Yuma, The Bank Job and Gods and Monsters, and, on the other, the Saw films, The Punisher (both recent versions), Good Luck Chuck and Witless Protection.

These two hands are obviously my hands, critical hands, hands that divide quality from crap. They would not be Palen's.

Friend drops a bomb early:

Publicity is selling what you have: the film's stars and sometimes its director. Marketing, very often, is selling what you don't have; it's the art of the tease.

That's great, insidery detail but it feels like it's missing the point. Yes, marketing, in this sad age, is selling what you don't have. But how is that a tease? A tease is offering what you do have but not following through. Selling what you don't have? The rest of us call that a lie. Sometimes we call it a felony.

In Hollywood, they brag about it.

"The most common comment you hear from filmmakers after we've done our work is 'This is not my movie,' " Terry Press, a consultant who used to run marketing at Dreamworks SKG, says. "I'd always say, 'You're right -- this is the movie America wants to see.'"

Nice. Apparently Hollywood isn't dream factory enough. Apparently Hollywood filmmakers aren't offering enough wish fulfillment. That's where marketers come in. They lie to us about the lie. If the film is crap, they figure out ways to get us to eat it. Palen is one of the best at this. He entices us into the restaurant, gets us to sit down at the table, gets us to chew. By the time we realize what we're eating, he's gone.

And, yes, he's the one responsible for the bad taste in our mouths the morning of March 6, 2006:

Paul Haggis, the writer-director of the 2005 film "Crash," says, "I came in thinking Tim was doing everything wrong. He made the poster Michael Peña screaming over his daughter, rather than selling Brendan Fraser or Matt Dillon or Sandra Bullock. I worried that the trailer, a mood piece about how people have to crash into each other to feel alive, was going to seem like overly significant claptrap. Then Tim and Sarah" -- Sarah Greenberg, Palen's co-president, who handles publicity -- "came to me and said, 'We're going to go for an Academy campaign.' I really, really thought they were crazy: this was a little six-million-dollar film." For the cost of three full-page ads in the Times, about two hundred thousand dollars, Lionsgate sent more than a hundred thousand DVDs of the film to every member of the Screen Actors Guild--pioneering a now common saturation technique. In a huge upset, "Crash" beat "Brokeback Mountain" and "Munich" to win Best Picture.

Remember how polarizing that battle was? That's Palen's specialty. The article opens with the premiere of Oliver Stone's W., a Lionsgate film Palen has to sell, even though, particularly for a Stone film, it's actually, unfortunately, kind of fair. Palen can't use that. "From the marketing perspective," he says, "we needed some teeth." Later, Friend writes: "Palen has always believed in being polarizing, always been willing to alienate much of the audience in order to motivate his core." Dots aren't connected, but one can't help but be reminded of someone else who sold us a W.

It's a sad article, a wag-the-dog article that is more effective for Friend's restraint. Marketers now run the show: Oren Aviv at Disney; Marc Shmuger at Universal. "Marketing considerations shape not only the kind of films studios make," Friend writes, "but who's in them." Why are stars disappearing? This is part of the reason. Why so many niche movies? This is part of the reason. Why do films no longer bind us together but keep us apart? This is part of the reason.

It's a must-read. Palen, whose mother was assistant to a cheese manufacturer, tends to use the word "cheese" to describe what he's selling. "America likes cheese," he says of Good Luck Chuck. "[It's ] straight out of the America-loves-cheese playbook," he says of an upcoming Gerard Butler trailer. That's a kind word for what he's selling. Don't bite like the Academy did.

Comments

[ndem]

Loved Crash. Glad it won.

[mexamerican]

i liked it too. guess i like cheese, although most every movie made today is pure garbage. i don't let anyone sell me garbage. i've got a mind of my own.

[kaukerc]

Even though marketing may have played a part in "Crash" winning the Oscar over "Brokeback Mountain," I really hope you aren't delusional enough to believe that it was an overriding factor. The simple truth is that "the academy" (whoever they may happen to be), just weren't going to allow a gay love story to walk away with Best Picture. Honestly, I wasn't surprised when Brokeback Mountain lost....we gay people have become accustomed to having victory snatched away by the clutches of defeat. It was sad, but very predictable.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

Ironically, Haggis is actually a good screenwriter. His scripts for Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby and Flags of Our Fathers are masterful. But then, they're based on excellent source material.

Crash is an original script. It was so heavy handed and obvious.

See David Cronenberg's Crash. Much better film.

[Erik Lundegaard - Huffpost Blogger]

Follow-up post here: http://eriklundegaard.com/index.php?itemid=333

[crackpot]

Bill Hicks summed up marketing brilliantly in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

I was just thinking about that clip.

[jhamm1]

I can hardly forget the volume of the all-too-audible "BOOO!!" that I hollered at the television set upon hearing the announcement for best picture in the 2006 awards ceremony.

And I remember that brilliant article of yours released shortly after the ceremony, which I distributed to several of my friends who, like me, considered Crash an all-too-simplistic take on racism that utilizes cheap contrivances as opposed to accurate examples of real-life missteps which could otherwise have provided for a certain degree of introspection.

In any case, thanks for pointing these facts out. I always suspected that something other than a supposed perception of merits had distributed to the makers of crash the golden statue which they clearly haven't earned. Nowadays, I suppose we can feel assured to attribute academy awards to politics and corporate influence as opposed to actual merits.

[useyourbrain]

The selling of the picture had to be done to the Academy, not the public since they don't vote for the Oscars. What's missing is the real reason it won -- it was an "actor's" picture, meaning bad acting for the most part, which is something most actors can relate to. As Jon Lovitz said, "Acting" with a wave of his hand and or cape.

Real acting is more re-acting. I saw "Brokeback" again on cable and was floored by how good it really is. Heath Ledger's performance of a bottled up man who cannot open up is amazing -- I mean, how does an actor do that -- hide and reveal at the same time? Everything about that film was pitch perfect.

But "Crash" was the Poseidon Adventure of our time -- lots of B actors getting to strut their stuff, be melodramatic and "acting" (with a wave of the hand or the cape). The largest voting bloc in the Academy -- the one that dwarfs all others combined is ACTORS! (wave of the hand.....)

That's all it was. This guy taking credit, let him. It's Hollywood, Jake. In a country that could "elect" George W. Bush twice to the Presidency is it really a surprise when "Crash" wins best picture?

(Actually, there is a movie titled "Crash" that is probably one of the greatest movies ever made -- seriously. It bored a lot of people and grossed out some others but Cronenberg has his masterpiece)

[NoOneSpecial]

I'd never heard much about "Crash" until it won the award for Best Picture. I didn't read any reviews, or consult any film critics or personal friends' opinions about it. I figured to beat out "Brokeback Mountain", it really had to be just as good if not a better film.

I rented it.

I couldn't believe what a completely underwhelming and un-original piece of film-making it was.

As the story progressed, I grew more and more incredulous that it won Best Picture. By the end, I was just disgusted with the Academy.

[Jerome Shipanik]

after Brokeback Mountain got the finger from Oscar, I gave up on watching the awards, as they are nothing but phoney.....and Heath Ledger should also have won....thanks for the update of a sore wound that has not gone away....Crash will long be forgotten, even though I think it was good, but not great like Brokeback Mountain...a film I have paid to see a dozen times and have two copies on DVD...it will continue to be the best film of that year....thanks...

[larry278]

It looks like an Acadamey Award picture can be said to be like a great fortune; both of them are created by crimes.