That was the point though. Several publicized AMPAS members WHO VOTED said they didn't see Brokeback Mountain, or worse, said they didn't want to.
#1.) Have you EVER heard at any other period in Oscar history of members specifically dissing a film like that. Saying they wouldn't see it? In public. Imagine if people said they refused to see Schindler's List, for example. Most AMPAS members are particularly mum when it comes to their actual opinions of films, not wanting to offend people they might work with etc. In this case they were public about it. AMPAS' official line is that if one hadn't seen all five nominees in a category they are directed not to vote in the category. Right.
2.) At the time there were several high profile AMAPS voters who said they hadn't seen the film, wouldn't, or didn't care to, including Clint Eastwood, Ernest Borgnine, Tony Curtis, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Wahlberg and Sarah Jessica Parker.
I know there were a few AMPAS members that stated that they didn't see the film. I think there have been AMPAS members who haven't seen all the films in every voting category, but they probably wouldn't admit it. I'm sure there were voting members who didn't watch "
Schindler's List" (1993), but wouldn't admit it to the media. I think AMPAs members don't voice criticism as much about the films that other people in the movie industry work on, perhaps because they are worried about a future chance at working with some of those persons. At the time that "
Brokeback Mountain" was nominated for Best Picture in 2006 and failed to win, I knew that a few voting members of the AMPAS didn't see the movie and admitted it, then I thought that surely they must be a minority of people who did not see the film. Nowadays, who knows how many members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences didn't see "
Brokeback Mountain" in 2006.
I bet you there are a lot of good movies that haven't won in this or that category at the Oscars because people who didn't see them, especially if the subject matter bothered them, the probably just didn't say anything about that in puiblic. I heard of some black men not wanting to watch Steven Spielberg's theatrical film adaptation of "
The Color Purple" (1985) because they thought it sounded like a sexist movie in how it portrayed black men, but they weren't voting members of the AMPAs. I guess you really can't take film award ceremonies too seriously, I never really have, I do think that "
Brokeback Mountain" not winning Best Picture reminded me not to do that to a certain degree, although I think homophobia did play a major role in the film not winning Best Picture and I am upset about that. Keep in mind, I still find Ernest Borgnine's bigoted comments to be very upsetting. I didn't care about what they said about how John Wayne would feel about it because regardless of how much of a staple an actor or director made a film genre, that doesn't mean they get to define it for everyone else or that you have to follow their movie formulas and conventions in that genre. That is the part of it that I dismissed the most without taking it too seriously because it doesn't matter what a director or actor in this or that genre would think.
I don't think that had "
Brokeback Mountain" won the Oscar for Best Picture that it would have changed very many people's minds or hearts about LGBT people and the issues that they face in society. Sadly but not surprisingly, there were people during the film's theatrical release who used the film to promote their views of how homosexuality "harms" society in their eyes. There are people who still do this, I am sure of that. Such views are preposterous. None of the characters in the film get what they want the most, which I would say is to find love with that special someone. That is one of the tragic things about the film. . It would have been nice to see a film that I really enjoyed and thought was well-made win. If all AMPAS members had seen it, weren't bothered by the subject matter and hated it just because it wasn't their kind of film, that wouldn't have bothered me. Even though it didn't win Best Picture, I will always enjoy it and appreciate it. It seems one doesn't have very many experiences that are so moving with a film, at least for me anyway. The fact that I am still talking about it, that proves the movie is more effective on me than any award it did or might have one.