Mark Steyn: The Love That Doesn't Like You Speaking Its Name

The Atlantic Monthly ^ | December 2003 | Mark Steyn

[quidnunc]

Hollywood Communism and Elia Kazan

You usually hear the tune on Oscar night, but not often the lyric, which is more to the point:

Hooray For Hollywood
Where you’re terrific if you’re even good.

When someone’s really terrific, it’s a different story. In a town where everyone from Johnny Depp to Janeane Garofalo is an “artist”, Hollywood doesn’t always know how to deal with the real thing. In 1996, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, mulling over their Career Achievement Award, decided to reject Elia Kazan and honour instead Roger Corman, the director of Swamp Women, Attack Of The Crab Monsters and Teenage Caveman. Swamp Women and Attack Of The Crab Monsters are good, and Teenage Caveman is not only good, it’s also an eloquent plea for world disarmament, at least according to its youthful star Robert Vaughan. But On The Waterfront is terrific. This should not be a difficult call.

But apparently it is. Kazan can make a claim to be the father of modern American acting, the man who brought Stanislavskian techniques to Broadway and then to the silver screen. Insofar as the young lions of our present-tense culture aspire to emulate any of the old guys, it’s not David Niven or even Jimmy Cagney who resonate, but Marlon Brando, James Dean, Rod Steiger — on all of whom Kazan was the greatest single influence. He was a great theatre director, and later a fine novelist, and, when he walked on stage in 1999 to receive a belated Lifetime Achievement Oscar, he might reasonably have expected the orchestra to be vamping Leonard Bernstein’s theme to On The Waterfront for a good ten minutes while Hollywood roared its appreciation. Instead, outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, elderly hack screenwriters led protests and, inside, the likes of Sean Penn sat on their hands. For both Hollywood’s ancient D-list Communists and its A-list anti-anti-Communists, there’s only one thing about Kazan that matters: he “named names”. 

-snip-

[bonfire]

Great post.


Midnight Run excellent movie. Grodin at his best. "...but if I WERE your accountant...."

[CyberCowboy777]

Lots of people were Nazis. There was only one Hitler. You don't know what you're talking about.

?

What is your point? I think you have made my point.

[CyberCowboy777]

You cannot separate his art from his message - they are codependent. Art is beyond the superficial at glance view you seem to take.

An expression is an expression - you can determine that Picasso's stroke was beautiful, but his art is an expression of who he is and what he wanted to say - you may separate that message, but you do so at a detriment of the art, rendering it an empty shell.

[liberallarry]

You cannot separate his art from his message

Really?

Hitler specifically chose Leni Reifenstal to make "Triumph of the Will". He wanted it made by an artist - not a political hack.

But I guess he didn't know what he was doing.

[liberallarry]

Just in case you still don't get it, Hollywood has told the same story several times using a different cast, different director, different scripts.

Maltese Falcon is an excellent example but there are many others. Postman Always Rings twice, some Robert Mitchum movies, etc.

Any fool can tell the difference.

Same thing when different singers interpret a song, when different orchestras play...in fact in almost any endeavor where skill is required.

[m1911]

I think I understand what you're saying. I still won't compliment the chef on the seasoning when the meal is rat poison. Different strokes and all, off to find the space threads - been fun talking with you.

[7thson]

I believe this is where you separate yourself from others. I don't think she became a monster - I think she always was one.

I know I am getting late in the discussion here, but I agree with others who state that the magic of escapism is destroyed when I know more of the character and personality of the actor than I do the character the actor is suppose to be.

Take Mike Tyson for an example. What makes him different from Ali? Well, one is the culture the two grew up in. I always wanted to see a boxer like Tyson - a complete, unstoppable animal in the ring - when he was young, sort of like trying to box your fridge. But using your argument, who cares about his personal life if he is a great boxer and brings in the cash.

There is a black artist out there today - I forget his name at the moment - but he is not only accused of screwing a young teenage girl but there is a tape to prove it. He is getting an award from the NAACP. I am sorry, but I refuse to subsidize that type of behavior. I never purchased anything by Michael Jackson, even before he freaked out. There was always something there that bothered me about him. Well, I have not purchaed anything by the Beatles for years because of him owning their music. I will not subsidize that lifestyle. I will not subsidize anyone that goes out and badmouths this country. That is their right but it is also my right to do what I do.

[7thson]

Time to reexamine your values and belief system, if you get confused about the right thing. Do you think child molestation is wrong?

[liberallarry]

Yes. So what? Have you looked at the amount of Biblical exposition, at the number of laws books, at the historical record?

[7thson]

If you think someone is doing the wrong thing or against your belief system, then why subsidize their efforts?

[TEXOKIE]

btt

[liberallarry]

I don't think you've understood anything I've said.

Politics and art are two separate things. If you don't like an artist's politics you don't have to buy his works...but you can still recognize his talent.

Of course, it's often more complicated than that. Sean Penn appears in "Mystic River", an excellent film of Clint Eastwood. Penn is a liberal, Eastwood is a conservative.

What to do? What to do?

You might begin by noticing the script.

[Bryan]

Steyn gives us Farewells of 2003 -- including brief memorials to Bob Hope and Idi Amin. Kate Hepburn and Leni Riefenstahl. Garner Ted Armstrong and Bobby Hatfield. Nina Simone and Charles Bronson. Strom Thurmond and Warren Zevon. The crew of Columbia and Donald O'Connor. Etc., etc., etc.

I was particularly fascinated by his memorial to Michael Kelly.

[liberallarry]

I don't think she (Joan Crawford) became a monster - I think she always was one.

Sorry for the late reply. I just found this post.

Watch her early films - those made in the early '30s when she was in her late '20s. If she was, as you claim, a monster then she was the greatest actress who ever lived.

No, I think what happened to her is that she aged badly and was unlucky in her more intimate relationships - a not uncommon occurance. I used the word "monster" loosely - to describe her rather desperate efforts to remain young and beautiful beyond her time.

[7thson]

No, I think it is you who do not understand. Politics and the art are not different entities, they are entwined with each other. Do you think that if Sean Penn were given a part where he had to play the role of George W. Bush, he could do it as a serious role? Do you think that James Brolin portrayed Ronald Reagan accurately? He is not a great actor but still his politics affects his art. And to the degree that for the most part it is not the fans who bring politics into the mixture, it is the artists. Did the Dixie Chicks really have to make a political statement while performing their art? Do any of these actors, actresses, writers, authors, et al, have to make a political statement while promoting their art? No, but they do. And once they inflict their politics on the general populace, they are fair game. You cannot insult a large group of people and then expect them to objectively state "oh, I cannot stand the way he visits a dictator that kills and tortures his own people, but man, he sure is a good actor." Or "I think it is descpicable that he has to force himself sexually on a 13 year old, but man his music has a good beat and you can dance to it." Whether you agree or disagree, if you have an "artist" that is rabidly anti-American and you pay to see or listen to that artist, you are allowing that artist to use the money he got from you to promote his or her cause! The politics influences the art, and the art is sold to generate an income to promote the politics. There is more to a person than just a talent. I do not care to recognize the "talent" of evil people.

[liberallarry]

Nope. You're all wrong.

Wagner was not a great musician?
Ali and Tyson were not great boxers?
Picasso was not a great painter?
Leni Reifenstal wasn't a great film-maker?
The actors who've played great monsters really were monsters?
The great engineers and scientists who were Nazis and Communists really weren't any good at what they did?

[liberallarry]

There is more to a person than just a talent.

A strawman. Who are you arguing with?

I do not care to recognize the "talent" of evil people.

Foolishness.

[7thson]

Perhaps, but maybe foolishness on your part as well. I rather have the company of a good hearted person who delights in helping others than share my time or recognize the individual with the voice of an angel who plots the downfall of my nation. I rather spend my time trying to recognize the talent of a kind heart, a compasionate soul, than worship the talent of individuals with holes in their hearts and blackened souls. Whom do you think Jesus will recognize - Mother Theresa or Barbra Streisand? Who has the greater talent? Who used their talent for good?

[liberallarry]

Bad things happen to good men all the time. Do you think Job was just a fairy tale?

Pride goeth before a fall. What that means is that the earth is littered with the graves of men and civilizations whose leaders were so sure of their righteousness that they thought it unnecessary to respect the talents of their opponents.

That's just about survival.

Why should I not admit that evil people can often do good things? And why should I not enjoy those things?

[AmishDude]

It's interesting that you include Paul Robeson, who is worshipped because of his politics. He was a great singer. So what? Every generation produces at least a half-dozen Paul Robesons. He's only on your list because of his defense of the Gulag.