AP: Lee: "Brokeback" Wasn't Meant As Statement

Ang Lee said he never intended "Brokeback Mountain" to be a social statement about homosexuals, amid speculation the gay cowboy romance lost the Oscar best picture race because of its subject matter. The movie won best director for Lee -- making him the first Asian winner of the prize -- as well as best musical score and best adapted screenplay Sunday at the Oscar ceremony, but it lost the best-picture award to "Crash," despite having racked up several other major film awards. The upset prompted speculation that the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wasn't prepared to hand its top prize to a movie about gays. But the Taiwanese director said he never approached the love story between two ranch hands set in conservative Wyoming as social commentary. "For me, 'Brokeback' isn't rebellious at all. It's a very ordinary movie. People call it groundbreaking or what not. It puts a lot of pressure on me. But I didn't feel this way when I was making the movie," he said at a press conference for Chinese media held in Los Angeles earlier this week and aired Wednesday on Hong Kong television. Min Lee reports.