by Chris Marshall:
Even after all the amazing accomplishments in Elia Kazan’s
career, I still can’t help but immediately associate him with his 1952 testimony
before the HUAC, in which he outed several of his colleagues as Communists or
Communist sympathizers. It’s not like he even did any real harm; all of the
people he named were already “known” Communists. But it’s the principle of the thing,
and he worked for the enemy.
Many people in Hollywood never forgot or forgave him,
either. When Kazan received his honorary Academy Award in 1999, several actors
refused to stand to applaud him. I do
forgive him (as if that mattered), but it’s hard not to associate that event
with On the Waterfront, which won
Best Picture two years after his Congressional testimony.
Why? Because On the
Waterfront is a story about evil unions, those corrupt bastions of
Communist iniquity. Terry Malloy just wants to live a peaceful life and have a
nice job, but like so many of the longshoremen around him, he gets dragged into
the unsavory world of organized crime. And once you’re in, it’s hard to get
out.
