PERSONALITY
Elia Kazan: Outside the pale
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Elia Kazan, a brilliant filmmaker, roused the anger of the Hollywood establishment with his role in the witch-hunt of Communist sympathisers during the McCarthy era. A profile by RANDOR GUY.
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AFP
Kazan (centre) directing a scene from "The Visitors".
THE celebrated American theatre and film director Elia Kazan was awarded the prestigious Life Achievement Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the "Oscar" organisation) in 1999. He had made several memorable American movie classics during 1947-1957 like "A Streetcar Named Desire", "East of Eden", "Viva Zapata", "Gentleman's Agreement" and "On The Waterfront".
Yet, many felt that he did not deserve the prestigious Award in spite of his outstanding achievements in American cinema. Some critics took the Academy Committee to task for giving it to a turncoat and betrayer of confidences during the tumultuous days of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Hearings and Senator Joe McCarthy's witch-hunt during the controversial 1950s in the United States.
Why was such a brilliant filmmaker so condemned? The answer was his role during McCarthy's hearings in early 1952. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC, 1938-75) of the U.S. House of Representatives was created to investigate disloyalty and subversive organisations in the U.S. Its methods included pressure on witnesses to name former associates, make vague but sweeping charges against individuals, and the unjustified presumption of the individual's guilt ipso facto of their association with suspect organisations. Witnesses who refused to answer were cited for Contempt of Congress.
In a brazen attempt at witch-hunting, Senator Joe McCarthy, the HUAC chief, launched an investigation that sent shock waves through Hollywood. In order to save themselves, movie moguls and top studio brass ruined many brilliant careers merely because of their suspected sympathies for Communism.
A highly publicised investigation of Hollywood in 1947 resulted in prison sentences for a group of unbending witnesses, writers and filmmakers who came to be known as the "Hollywood Ten". They were Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawton, Albert Maltz, Sam Ornitz, Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo. After release, the studios blacklisted them. Dalton Trumbo considered a brilliant screenplay-writer had to work under pseudonyms like Richard Rich. Ironically, some of the screenplays he wrote won the "Oscar" for "Best Screenplay" ("Roman Holiday")! Long after his death, the injustice done to him was corrected and the Award was handed to his widow.
In January 1952, one of the witnesses summoned to give evidence before HUAC was Elia Kazan. During his early years in New York, he had fought to make his way as an immigrant from Turkey and had faced poverty and discrimination during the dark days of the Depression. For some time, he was a member of the Communist Party. Later he quit claiming that he was totally disillusioned. Deeply involved in various aspects of the theatre in New York he joined "Group Theatre", which had many intellectuals with leftist leanings.
In January 1952, Kazan came under the "magnifying glass-scanner" of Senator Joe McCarthy. Questioned about his association with the Communist Party during early 1930s, he confessed that he had been a member of the Communist Party for a short period and left it because he was "disgusted". When the Committee wanted him to reveal the names of his "Group Theatre" colleagues who were members of the Communist Party, he refused.
Back in Hollywood, the President of 20th Century-Fox, Spiro Skouras, threatened Kazan that he would never work in Hollywood again. Numb with fear, he shocked Hollywood and New York when he sought a meeting with HUAC and gave them the names they wanted.
AFP
Arousing strong feelings ... a protest against Kazan being given the Lifetime Achievement Award.
This act of betrayal by a man of his stature sent waves of shock not only in Hollywood but also the rest of the U.S. and Europe. Kazan was treated as a social outcaste. To justify his stand, he took a full-page ad in a New York daily explaining his act.
That was not all. In an act of defiance he made "On The Waterfront" in 1954. The hero (Marlon Brando) was Kazan, barely veiled. It was all about New York longshoremen union, its corrupt leaders and a young man who "names names" and gets beaten. Aware of the anger of the Hollywood establishment, he did not go to the studios for finance and succeeded in getting the backing of go-getting independent producer Sam Spiegel.
"On the Waterfront" stunned Hollywood when it won eight "Oscars" including "Best Film" "Best Director" "Best Actor", "Best Supporting Actress", "Best Story and Screenplay" and "Best Cinematography". It was also a thundering box-office hit. With the thumping success of this movie Kazan was on top for the world. He continued to make successful movies like "East of Eden" (1955) and others.
Finding the atmosphere in Hollywood unfriendly, he relocated to New York and made a mark as writer. His autobiography, A Life, and his novels America America and The Arrangement were best sellers. After "The Last Tycoon" (1976), he retired from active filmmaking.
Time often dilutes anger and passion and Hollywood began to relent in its attitude against Kazan. That was how his name was considered for the "Lifetime Achievement Award". But many did not forget his "HUAC antics", as someone described it and raised a hue and cry over the Award being given to him.
Elia Kazan, the controversial filmmaker passed away recently in New York.
He was 94.
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