Elia Kazan...Genius or Lowlife?

[Elspode]

Normally, I would have written a little glowing something about the passing of a prodigious talent like late director Elia Kazan. However, I'm one of those people who sometimes has difficulty separating a person's gifts from their ethical failings, and so I decided not to go on and on about the marvelous films the man directed, and the great performances he coaxed from already talented people.

Instead, I thought I'd use his passing to perhaps kick off some discussion. Kazan, even fifty plus years down the road, is still reviled by many for having 'named names' under pressure from Senator Joe McCarthy's House Committee on UnAmerican Activities during the 1950's. Many feel that those named by Kazan would not have been blacklisted from the entertainment industry had it not been for Kazan. Still others have argued that the names he gave up were already known to the commie-hunters, and so Kazan didn't tell them anything useful to begin with.

Kazan was awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar a few years back, and even then, the controversy was rife. Although he was undoubtedly deserving of such an honor on the basis of his work, the majority of the glitterati in attendance chose to remain silent and withhold applause. It was an uncharacteristically tense moment for the Academy Awards, and a sad coda to an otherwise brilliant career.

So...what say you, Cellarites? Was Kazan slime? Brilliant? Should we separate a person's talents from his ethics, or are we forever the prisoners of our misdeeds and poor judgements?