The Right Stuff: Hollywood disconnect

Recently, filmmaker Roman Polanski was apprehended in Switzerland at a film festival honoring his lifetime achievement in the great art of film. Having said the word film quite enough, let’s move on to why he was arrested. In the 1970’s, when he was in his 40s, Polanski anally raped a thirteen-year-old girl after drugging her with alcohol and Quaalude. He admitted guilty to these charges but skipped the country to live in France before sentencing could occur. He has been living on the run from the American judicial system ever since. I’ve found another issue that most Americans can agree on whether they find themselves on the left or the right, politically! Literally no person that I’ve talked to about this has had any response other than some variation of, “What?! Gross.”

Apparently Hollywood didn’t get the memo. A petition has been circulating around left-wing Hollywood elites demanding that the Swiss authorities “Free Polanski.” I know very few people on this campus or in any community that I’ve ever belonged to that would say sodomizing an underage girl isn’t rape-rape. But then again, I don’t run in circles with people like Whoopi Goldberg.

Personally, I’m disgusted that there is even a controversy about this. An interesting conversation could be had about what to actually do with Polanski now that we’ve caught him, but writing it off as a youthful mistake? Please recall that he was in his 40s when he committed this crime, so I hardly think it falls under a “youthful mistake.” He admitted to sodomizing an underage girl after coercing her with drugs and alcohol, all the while knowing full well that she was only 13. Polanski also has a generally creepy history when it comes to young girls. This issue illustrates very vividly and in disgusting terms the rift between Hollywood and the rest of America. This issue is not a left-right issue, although these Hollywood elitist are indeed very firmly on the left. Our country’s celebrities are so removed from reality that they think, not only that they are above the law, they are above human decency and any concept of morality.

It’s not just in America. In our country, we tend to view the French as basically an entire country of celebrities. Cosmopolitan, liberal, artistic, we would never dream that French people are actually different from the French elite. But surprise surprise, a recent poll says that 70 percent of the French population think Polanski should be punished for his crimes. Maybe it’s not just America. Perhaps there is something that inheres in the celebrity culture in all countries that makes them feel that they are above the law.

Personally, I suspect that my use of the word elitism is exactly correct. These “artists” don’t feel like normal rules apply to them because they are different, they are better, than John Q. Public (insert populist furor here). I love art, I love movies, I love literature, I love music, and I appreciate those who create it. But for some reason, when you get a bunch of these people together, they get so wrapped up in being artistic that they lose sight of reality. I think it’s important to ask the question; where does this come from?

It’s not just because they have power. Rich people usually think they can buy their way out of situations, but they rarely have this kind of support, saying it doesn’t matter what they did because of the great work they have done. It is slightly different to think that you can buy your way out of your moral indiscretions to avoid consequences than it is to say that morality doesn’t apply to you at all. Besides, I’m sure there is some unknown, poor but very bohemian filmmaker out there who admires Polanski and makes the same argument. Consider the hypocrisy of people who pretend to be on the side of women and children and the downtrodden in general, but only selectively.

Like I said, this issue is bigger than Polanski because it speaks to a general trend in our “cultural elite.” I’m not sure what the right answer is yet, but I do think it’s something that bears thinking about.