Yesterday I linked to Kieran Healy's piece on the recent arrest of a certain director, which you could call anti-Polanski. In the interest of fairness, today we'll hear it for the other side.
10. Bad things have happened to him: "a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them" - Frederic Mitterand; also see Anne Applebaum
9. He's old: "I am shocked that any man of 76 [...] should have been treated in such a fashion" - Robert Harris
8. It was sooo long ago: "[The order] is based on a three-decade-old case" - Debra Winger
7. One can come up with a new category: "I know it wasn't rape-rape. It was something else but I don't believe it was rape-rape." - Whoopie Goldberg
6. He couldn't go to the USA or else he would have been arrested earlier: "He could not return to Los Angeles to receive his recent Oscar. He cannot visit Hollywood to direct or cast a film." - Anne Applebaum
5. The not-piling-'em-on-clause: "He hasn’t committed another crime." - bob mcmanus
4. He didn't want to be punished in the first place: "Polanksi's decision to flee is understandable." - Andrew Hammel
3. Mitigating circumstances: "It's a grey area when mama's in the building." - Woman in red dress in the first clip; anybody know her name?
2. Cost-benefit analysis: "through his films, he has brought good into the world." - a; also see The Swiss Directors' Association and Debra Winger
1. Overly crafty method of arrest: "The Swiss [...] were laying in wait, as they knew Polanski [...] was en route to accept an international film award." - Jeralyn
Nothing as Useful as a Bad Theory
4 years ago
3 comments:
"It wasn't rape-rape." As Healy says, all of these come down to "He's one of us." A man who is one of us couldn't commit "rape-rape." If one of us commits it, it's the good kind of rape!
To be clear, he wasn't just "accused" of rape. He also pleaded guilty and was convicted.
John, he pleaded guilty to statutory rape, but not forcible rape (i.e., what the title says).
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