Kazan on Ambivalence

3 Responses to Kazan on Ambivalence

1. John says:

   June 10, 2004 at 4:36 pm

   Speaking of conflict, what are your thoughts on Kazan’s role collaborating with HUAAC?

   Reply
2. red says:

   June 10, 2004 at 4:43 pm

   I can see both sides.

   The choice faced by these people is absolutely intolerable, and when I read about it I feel like I do not recognize America at all.

   People’s lives were ruined by “being named”. And they weren’t even accused of anything. I believe that the entire proceedings was an outrage, and a blot on our history.

   Many of my idols were ruined by just being “named”. Many of them had been Communists in the 30s. Many of them hadn’t actually joined the CP, but had gone to a couple of meetings, or actually KNEW of people who were Communists. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter whether they were or they were not, their lives were ruined anyway.

   It’s a disgrace.

   I was tremendously glad when Kazan was honored at the Oscars a couple of years ago, and tremendously pleased that people could look past their own egos (some people – like Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Kathy Bates … the couple of people who stood up to clap for him) – and applaud this man’s artistic achievements.

   The glowering faces of Nick Nolte and Amy Madigan, etc., pissed me off. It’s so easy to say “I would never do that” when you have not been put in that position.

   I do not envy him. I do not blame him. And I also mourn for all of the actors and writers he ruined by naming them to the HUAC.

   It was a disgraceful chapter in America’s history.

   Reply
3. red says:

   June 10, 2004 at 5:59 pm

   And my feelings on Kazan are much simpler than all of that:

   He was a giant of an artist, a collaborator, an inventor, and his work should be celebrated.

   Period.

   I get a lot of shit on this blog from my conservative readers for holding this view. It’s tiresome. I’m not a kneejerk liberal, but I’m certainly an artist and a movie-lover before I am a “Party member”.

   So that’s where I’m coming from. People hold views I am against, and they still can be great artists. Yeats had fascist views. Lots of the writers and poets of the 30s did. It was popular. Whatever. I’m not gonna read Yeats because of his views?

   What a blinkered way to look at the world. You miss out on so much.

   In terms of Kazan, what I am really left with is how wonderful his films are, and how much those films have enriched my life.

   Reply

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