Elia Kazan and ultra-purism

Paul Henry Rosenberg rad at gte.net
Mon Mar 22 18:55:49 PST 1999


Doug Henwood wrote:


> Marta Russell wrote:
>
> >I just cannot understand Warren Beatty - who has had the respect of
> >Hollywood lefties - supporting the Kazan award.
>
> On another list, someone said that Beatty's first film was directed by
> Kazan. A Hollywood version of the personal is political?

Yes, that's certainly part of it.

But there may be more: Lynn Redgrave stood & applauded, and I saw an interview where she said her sister had been made to suffer for her politics and she didn't think it was right for anyone.

Naturally, I think this is very confused, to put the most generous spin on it. But it suggests something more -- the reality that if anyone is going to be held accountable, you know damn well who it's going to be.

This doesn't persuade me, of course. But I think it's possible that we're not getting anything like an honest airing of the complex reasons people may be doing things we find deeply objectionable. And that's the real loss -- the loss of free, robust debate, without which everything collapses into factionalism of the most insular sort.

'Course, if you take it as axiomatic that everyone in Hollywood is scum... then what do you care about Kazan in the first place?

-- Paul Rosenberg Reason and Democracy rad at gte.net

"Let's put the information BACK into the information age!"



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