Why You Should Care About the Roman Polanski Culture War
So. Let's see: We've got the artistic and commercial movie establishment going to bat for an undoubtedly tragic figure -- who, rightly or wrongly, never subjected himself to sentencing for having sex with an adolescent girl. (And anyway, we're reminded, it's all about "morals.") We've got the legal establishment swatting them away, demanding vengeful reckoning at all costs, even if it means unmooring an international film festival from its deeply anchored sense of dignity. And then we've got the media establishment swatting them away -- from Wolff to Whoopi Goldberg, whose coinage of the phrase "rape-rape" in Polanski's defense might have set feminism back at least 40 years. Really, you've just got to see it:
Even the diplomatic community has involved itself in the matter, with the irate French battling the humiliated Swiss, and both battling Hollywood.
But while madly jockeying for position in their race to rectitude, virtually all the parties exhibit an ironic detachment from the public -- the one constituency they all share, and the one that has consumed the Polanski story for decades now with a sort of prurient, insatiable bloodlust. Does it matter to them that his victim, whose family Polanski settled with out of court, forgave him years ago? No. Does it matter that Polanski is one of the most celebrated filmmakers of his time? No. Really, the only closure that seems to matter among the hoi polloi is the one defined by a cell door clinking behind him. Even Polanski's most impassioned and/or rational defenders are being shouted off their soapboxes, ill-equipped to tractably challenge the "child-raping fugitive" card. Indeed, as trumps go, it's a hard one to surmount. (Polanski culture-war completists, however, should check out David Poland's superb Cliff Notes of just such an attempt.)
Amid all the noise, no one has yet to really mention the most unthinkable consequence overshadowing all of this: that Polanski, 76, could die in jail, either fighting his extradition in Switzerland or withering in a cell in Los Angeles. Surely that couldn't be justice, could it? For a Holocaust survivor and Manson Family widower (whose wife and unborn son's killer, coincidentally, died in prison last week) to perish while battling a prosecutor's politically motivated whim, however legally sound? Naturally the "Free Polanski" crowd can't quite invoke this potential the way Polanski's lawyers can -- and believe me, they will. When they do, expect a whole new round of moral volleying to advance the story to dizzying new heights of outrage on both sides -- a kind of mass-pop Cuban Missile Crisis for our time, a stand-off for the soul of cultural sovereignty.
And, God forbid, should the worst occur, expect Media World War -- Europe vs. America, take no prisoners. Expect a destabilized D.A.'s office, maybe even some disbarments. Civil suits on behalf of everyone from Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner to the aggrieved Zurich Film Festival. Human rights-violation claims from the U.N. Endless debates on whether Polanski's final film, the now-delayed The Ghost, was completed the way he intended it. Another abortive Mia Farrow fast. And don't even think you'll be able to find a copy of Chinatown on Netflix before 2011.
"That's not funny," you say. Who's laughing? Not me. The whole thing's just a waste from top to bottom, and there is an utterly real chance it could get worse before it improves. If this isn't a culture war, then I'd hate to see the real thing.
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Perhaps he'll luck out and get 5 years of house arrest like Debra LaFave did for raping the 14 year old boy in Florida. Of course, this is California so...
I'll be sending you a thought today as I lie in the back of my stretch limo having sex with the teenager of my choice.
And that thought will be:
"Thank GOD I'm MEEEEEEE!"
- Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) in "The Fisher King"
Fasten each of his limbs to a horse, creating a snow angel four-points compass position, and then pass around the popcorn as hilarity ensues.
Let's all just hug it out. (18+ please.)
I think it's sort of an odd move for Wes Anderson to sign the pro-Polanski petition when he has a CHILDREN'S MOVIE coming out in a few weeks.
I hope California spent a lot of money making this happen.
Hi, Roman. How's jail?
Right, so in one corner we have, "do you really believe this wasn't the first time he did this?", and in the other..."I have no proof...but yeah he did". Sorry guys, but you're all for screaching about the law being obeyed -- what about innocent until proven guilty, etc? (and in subsequent cases, I mean, not the case at hand).
If the judge hadn't been such a crooked bastard and Polanski had served his ordered time this would be but a forgotten footnote in his biography. I don't condone statutory rape/sex with minors/kiddy fiddling/whatever the hell you want to call it, but this just has the hallmarks of idiotic bureaucracy written all over it.
Oh, way to bring out the opinionated lurking crazies, btw, ST. If it's not M.J dying, it's this or an Oscar hosting post [and this is where I'd insert my rolling eyes emoticon].
Thanks for sharing your story. Just curious: when you became a police officer, they didn't do a background check for outstanding warrants?
Actually, many of these posts are from regularly-contributing, "opinionated crazies," myself included. And this can't be considered equivalent to an M.J. death post until Rajan.VS weighs in, with his insight into the floaty heaven and the rainbows and the laughing with the thing and the other thing that was all pink and smiley.
sad post.
your "who benefits" approach is ridiculous.
who benefits from tracking down Nazis 50 years later? Why not just let them be? They are old. Leave them alone.
The plaintiff is not the victim. The plaintiff is the people of California.
this is not a culture war. go look at the comments on the NYT. they are 99% for extradition. go poll the man on the street in France. they support his extradition.
as for California wasting resources: a) they are "wasted" on prosecuting a fugitive who anally raped a girl and b) they wouldn't have had to waste all this time if Polanski had showed up for his hearings.
While we're at it, can we let Manson go too? Who really remembers what the guy did at this point, and a lot of those so-called "murder victims" were probably really weird and thought it would be cool to die. The point is that he's an incredible poet and songwriter and the closed-minded world secretly wants to punish him for his talent.
Movie line should stick to movies.
This article is just as biased toward Polanski as the crazy yahoos who believe that he is above the law. Because of Polanski's very unfortunate early life, and the Hollywood life that he created for himself, the public thinks he's untouchable-a god. They think he deserves all the positive that he can handle because of all of the negative he had been dealt.
If you have negitively impacted someone's life, as Polanski did, you should be held responsible for that. Imagine YOURSELF at thirteen years old with this man. You can imagine exactly what it would have been like if you have enough imagination and sense.
He's going to die whilst incarcerated. I'm just sorry he was so late in obtaining the lease for his new digs.
First, after the incident in question, Polanski went on to have a relationship with a 15 year old Natasha Kinski. One would assume this was consensual, but it does show that his rape of this 13 year old wasn't the only time he had sex with an underage girl and may point to a trend in his taste.
Second, plea agreements are made between the defense and the prosecution, judges are not required to accept them. This wasn't the first time a plea agreement was not accepted, nor was it the last. Most people just don't have the funds to buy houses in other countries or the connections to have world famous stars and heads of state stand up for them. Polanski doesn't even know if his plea would have been accepted or not because he ran before he could be sentenced when it looked like things weren't going his way.
Third, he spent some of the better years of his life on the lam, which was his own choice, and now, as an elderly man, he might have to go to jail. This is his own fault. Hiding out until you're 76 and "could die in jail" does not make a rapist deserving of sympathy. Anyone, at any age, could die in jail or not.
Fourth, statutory rape does NOT imply consent, it means that one person was unable to legally give consent.
I can't believe people still think it's seven colors when it is obviously NINE! Rajan VS weeps for us all...
Statutory rape differs from forcible rape in that overt force or threat need not be present. The moment Polanski gave a 13 year old girl alcohol and a Quaalude and continued to have intercourse after she said "no" several times, it became "forced rape" and would have been even if she WASN'T a minor. Statutory Rape is when both parties want to have sex with each other (consensual), but one is either a minor or mentally disabled and unable to give LEGAL consent.
The grand jury transcript makes is incontrovertibly clear: Roman Polanski raped a 13-year-old girl through the use of deceit, alcohol, drugs and force.
I also find it especially evil that Polanski and his supporters point to his history as a Holocaust survivor as a mitigating excuse for his behavior. This stains other quietly noble survivors -- like my son's grandparents -- who never used the horrors of their personal history in any way to advance themselves -- or shield themselves from personal responsibility.
If Polanski dies in prison -- here or in Switzerland -- he has no one to blame but himself.
Justice, whether legal or existential, inevitably has its way with all of us. . . . . Just ask O.J. Simpson.
The old Hollywood and Liberal ploy was always to smear the victim to defend their own brotherhood. Hollywood and the world Liberals want us to believe that the behaviour of Polanski, Charlie Sheen and French Liberal elite humanist and champagne socialist Dominique Strauss-Kahn are within normal acceptable social norms and values. The world is not that morally debased yet. However, with the influence of the celebrity culture on our children and the sheer might and power of the Hollywood propaganda machine. They will achieve this goal. Hollywood and the world Liberals have always practiced selective morality. Get my drift, Mr Harvey Weinstein. Alas, Porky Weistein is a mishugener..........
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