30 something years ago, a Hollywood director named after an Italian empire allegedly started having sex with a 13 year old girl he was hot for. Some time after that, he drugged her and then had sex with her at Jack Nichelsons house while Jack was away on vacation or something – he got prosecuted for it somehow and he plead guilty to rape. This was supposed to be not THAT big a deal since she allegedly had the consensual sex with him before the rape, and also because he directed Chinatown, which was a good movie, so he should probably not get a heavy sentence. He got 40something days in prison and then fled the country before serving (or even officially receiving) his sentence and has been living abroad all this time. When he arrived in Switzerland to receive an award, the Swiss police, armed with cheese and army knives, seized him at the airport at American authority’s request and now theres a big clusterfuck on what to do with him.
There are a lot of stupid people saying really stupid things in response to this, but the most important cliffnotes of this story are: 1) passage of time doesn’t negate a crime 2) the crime was not just a technicality (unless the victim was really hot. which im gonna say, no. she wasnt) and was pretty wrong 3) prosecution is appropriate and 4) that prosecution should be reasonable since attacking this too hard just isn’t a good investment of law enforcement recourses.
The common Hollywood sentiment is Polanski’s crime is inexcusable but let me make excuses for him anyway. lame. especially since its so unnecessary. There are legit reasons why Polanski shouldn’t be drilled into the ground no matter what the expense and spectacle; there are no legit reasons (including his age, the gap since the crime or fact that his mother died in Auschwitz – wtf?) to just leave him alone completely.
I think we call agree that the real and most heinous and unforgivable sin Polanski committed was the tarnishing the record of male sexual nature, setting the jailbait movement back countless years (well, not TOO many years cuz then you circle back to it being moral, legal and all around hunky dorey) with his “Everyone wants to f*ck young girls!” (Polanski 1979) declaration – which is true – and then going way TOO young, and living the dream via rape for Christ sake. ug.
Closing item for consideration: I guess this girl at the end is the victim(?)