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Convicted of statutory rape and receiving Oscar?

Is it right to give any award to a man who has been convicted of statutory rape?

Famed movie director Roman Polanski was convicted of the statutory rape of Samantha Geimer in Judge Laurence Rittenband's Los Angeles courtroom in 1978; the crime occurred when Geimer was 13 and they were at Jack Nicholson’s house in the Hollywood Hills. During the trial, Polanski was jailed for 42 days. When it became clear that the judge wanted to "get" him, the Oscar-winning director of "Chinatown" and "Rosemary’s Baby" fled the U.S. for France and never returned.

Polanski won Best Director for the extraordinary Holocaust memoir, The Pianist in 2003.

Is it right to honor this guy after his disgusting behavior?

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701 thumbs up

This is an ethical question that would have been more easily resolved years ago before the age of relativism (there is no absolute right or wrong). I personally agree that Polanski should not have been given any reward. But unfortunately the powers that be feel that art must be above the morality of the artist. There was an uproar in Israel when Berenboim against the wishes of many (including holocaust survivors) conducted a concert consisting of compositions by Wagner.


Posted 3 months ago ( permalink )
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A lot of today's very renown artists, authors and philosophers were convicted in crimes. Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for homosexuality, Egon Schiller for some moral sexual thing, Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth and so on. There are a whole bunch of contemporary musicians that wins grammys and other music awards while being convicted for drug use, DUI, sexual assault, etc.

Being an artist doesn't mean you have to live a more moral life then others. 

He got an awared for making a good movie, not for being a good person. If this was the "honorary good person prize" then I would have seen a problem with him winning, but since the movie is very good and deserve the award, I can't see a problem. 


Posted 2 months ago ( permalink )
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lilly was invited by Yedda to answer this question.

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Surrender.  Surrender.  But don't give yourself away . . . .

   ~ Cheap Trick ~
 

They weren't rewarding the man for his behavior.  They were rewarding him for his directorial talent.  The man committed a crime 25 years before he received his Oscar.  Talented people are also human.  They behave badly.  Look at artists, musicians, sports figures.  All the drugs, sex, and idiocy.  We still reward them because they are providing something extraordinary, despite their stupidity.  Excellence should always be recognized.  There is so little of it in this world.


Posted 1 month ago ( permalink )
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