Polanski: Deranged Criminal or Notable Director?

image credit: New York Times

On September 26, Swiss authorities arrested longtime director/producer/ writer/ actor Roman Polanski as he arrived in Switzerland to accept an award at the Zurich Film Festival.

For a little background information, Polanski is the Academy-award winning director of such renowned films as Rosemary's Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974), and the Pianist (2002).
In 1977, Polanski pleaded guilty to having "unlawful" sexual relations with a 13 year old girl. After his arrest, he was placed in psychiatric counseling in the US, after which he fled to France, where he is now a citizen. Since then, he has only traveled to countries that would not extradite him, and instead stuck to traveling between France (which has little extradition laws with the US) and Poland.

His arrest this Saturday came as a surprise to many, including the French Culture Minister and the French Foreign Minister who relayed the “the desire of the French authorities that the rights of Mr. Polanski be fully respected and that this affair rapidly find a favorable resolution.” On the other hand, the Swiss Justice Ministry stated that Polanski was "put in provisional detention pending extradition based on the arrest warrant from the United States." Therefore, Polanski has managed to avoid the US police enforcement policies for over 30 years!

image credit: New York Times

The interesting thing about this is, as PerezHilton writes, is that "Despite his recent arrest while heading to Switzerland for the Zurich Film Festival, Hollywood and neighboring nations have rallied around Roman Polanksi in support of his release." Some of his supporters from the Hollywood community include Harvey Weinstein, Pedro Almodovar, Monica Bellucci, and Brett Ratner who has recently signed on to produce a sequel to Marina Zenovich's 2008 documentary about Polanski.

In my opinion, award-winning director or not, his arrest is fully legitimate in my book and I am honestly appalled by all of Hollywood's support for his release. Its not only what substantiated his crime, but the fact that he RAN AWAY from the US justice system and for THIRTY years has not served his time. Although I admit I have definitely appreciated his work, that does not put him on a high pedestal above anyone else who has committed the same crime.

I guess I'm just a firm believer in justice...

What do you think??






You can read the full New York Times article about Polanski's recent arrest here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/movies/28polanski.html?pagewanted=2&ref=movies

Also, here's the link to the Perez blog, in case you're interested:
http://perezhilton.com/2009-09-27-directorpedophile-roman-polanski-arrested