Flea wrote:I said that. I said it because his compelled testimony against non-violent non-criminals who had not been demonstrated to be a threat to "Truth, Justice, & The American Way" should not have been used as a broad brush to derail his career and denigrate his previos works. If I am mistaken, educate me.*
Boy, that's a lot to unpack in a single sentence.
It seems to me that you're at least partly saying that Kazan should not have had to testify. I don't think many people would disagree w/ that. But he did and he "named names'. I read you as criticizing the existence of the McCarthy hearings which is not the same as supporting Kazan. As I read it, nothing about your description of the hearings makes the hit Kazan took to his reputation unfair.
Off the top of my head I'm not sure how much Kazan's career was tarnished or derailed by the reaction to his testimony.
On the Waterfront is probably his most famous work and that was released after the hearings.
Streetcar, which is probably his second most famous, was released just a little before and has not seemed to suffer.
East of Eden,, another highly regarded film, was released in 1955, just two years before
A Face in the Crowd. I'm sure he wasn't invited to a lot of parties, but I'm not sure his career was derailed and I really don't see his works being denigrated.
A Face in the Crowd gets 8.2 out of 10 on Imdb. No less an icon of moviemaking than Martin Scorsese made a laudatory documentary about him. Stanley Kubrick, another leading light, is quoted on Imdb as saying about Kazan "without question, the best director we have in America, and capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses." IOW, it is my understanding that Kazan's personal reputation definitely suffered and continues to suffer for what seem to me to be fair reasons, but his career seems to have proceeded just fine and resulted in much adulation and respect.
JohnA, I wish I could have read that link but the text is too small for me and I couldn't enlarge it.