The great Elia Kazan has passed away.
Every actor, every director worth his salt, owes him an enormous debt of gratitude.
I saw On the Waterfront when I was 12 years old. The impact it had on me cannot be measured. Cannot be expressed.
I am quite sad. What a great artist. Not a great man, which he was the first to admit in his extraordinary memoir. But as an artist, he is a role model for us all.
Yeah. Great movies, sad little man who destroyed the careers of others for personal gain. Naming names, and still proud of it 40 years later. Read his 1988 autobiography – he had no regrets, none. It will be interesting to see if people applaud during the “Movie legends that have died this year” segment at the Oscars when his name is announced. Just like in 1999, there will be a noticably silent portion of the audience. If he regretted it I would forgive him, but like Pete Rose, it will never happen. And in this day when we have an administration that considers it patriotic to report on your neighbor, what Elia did is even more sinister. So I am sorry you are sad for him, because I adore your ramblings, but I disagree with you utterly.
Greg
Greg,
For me, my response to Kazan has always been all about his art. The Group Theatre, the Actors Studio, his nurturing the talent of playwrights (primarily Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller), his partnership with Marlon Brando, his sense of style – his directing-style is legendary to those of us in the film profession, even those of us who are way too young to have ever worked with him. He is one of the greats. Without him, we may not have Death of a Salesman in the American canon. We may not have Streetcar Named Desire. We certainly wouldn’t have had some of Brando’s most indelible performances.
I read Kazan’s autobiography, and at the time, he believed he was doing what was right (for his country, and for his career) – in the same way that Arthur Miller (and others) did what THEY thought was right.
Kazan was a member of the Communist Party. After all, he starred in Waiting for Lefty (one of the most famous moments in American theatre in the 20th century, was him standing downstage center, screaming, “STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE”) – Waiting for Lefty was basically a pamphlet for the Communist Party. It’s also an awesome piece of writing, but Kazan did believe in Communism and called himself a Communist.
But when the Communist Party began to treat the Group Theatre like its own pawn, when they started showing up at their theatre meetings, telling them what they were allowed to write about, what they were allowed to say … Kazan left the Communist Party. He was an artist. Not a tool.
Great artists are never conventional people. Great artists often are controversial, sometimes hateful, sometimes selfish.
If he made crap art, perhaps I would feel differently. But his art is a beacon of light … to all who followed him. And that, for me, was the purpose of his life.
Just because I think Susan Sarandon is sometimes annoying, politically, I still love her acting. In the same way that I think it is positively an outrage that Charlton Heston could not get a friggin’ job in Hollywood because of his NRA associations.
They shun those they disagree with. And then they scream “CENSORSHIP” if they are shunned.
Hollywood can be a hypocritical town.
I was PROUD of Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese at the Academy Awards, when Kazan was given his award, for going above politics, and standing by that man … that man who has given us so much. As an artist.
I was PROUD of Meryl Street for standing. And applauding.
In the face of Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and countless others, I don’t care what Kazan did. Or, I do care, and I’m interested in his reasoning … but it doesn’t dim for a moment my admiration of his work.
I am indebted to him. He is one of the reasons why I have chosen this profession of theatre. I stand by him.