An excellent essay on Polanski
Sep. 29th, 2009 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
womzillaThis came across Salon early this year: Bill Wyman's review of Wanted and Desired, a whitewashing documentary about the Polanski case.
The basic facts are not in dispute, but seem to keep getting softened. Here, let Wyman remind you:
[...]
I think that prosecutorial and judicial misconduct are very serious issues, as is the fact that American prisons are, frequently, torture factories. But jumping jesus on a pogo stick, we're talking about drugging and raping a protesting 13-year-old. If, as his probation report said, "the film director, imprisoned in Auschwitz by the Nazis during World War II, was repelled by the thought of possibly serving more time behind bars", then maybe, just maybe, he should have given some extra thought to not drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.
The basic facts are not in dispute, but seem to keep getting softened. Here, let Wyman remind you:
If Polanski is Byron, the judge is an Oliver Hardy or a Billy Gilbert, all but twiddling his tie in a series of ever-more-comical photographs. He actually kept a scrapbook about the celebrities who came through his Santa Monica courtroom. He had two girlfriends.
Now, that's one way to portray those two men -- and one that Polanski's current lawyers would prefer. But there's another way, too: You could show one as a child-sex predator who drugged a 13-year-old girl with quaaludes and champagne; lured her to pose for naked photographs; ignoring her protests, had sex with her; and then anally raped her.
[...]
Polanski accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to the formal felony charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor; he and his lawyer knew he could face prison time. Polanski also stood in front of the judge and admitted what he did and that he'd known what he was doing.
In the wake of that, Rittenband was trying to figure out how to make sure Polanski was punished; he was apparently concerned that the director would act contrite, get a short prison term and then assemble a pack of legal wolves to get him out of trouble. And the film makes a decent case that Rittenband ultimately went off the rails.
I think that prosecutorial and judicial misconduct are very serious issues, as is the fact that American prisons are, frequently, torture factories. But jumping jesus on a pogo stick, we're talking about drugging and raping a protesting 13-year-old. If, as his probation report said, "the film director, imprisoned in Auschwitz by the Nazis during World War II, was repelled by the thought of possibly serving more time behind bars", then maybe, just maybe, he should have given some extra thought to not drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.
