On March 10, 1977, a 43 year old Roman Polanski photographed a young model for a French magazine. After the shoot, they ended up in Jack Nicholson’s hot tub, where they got stoned on Quaaludes, and eventually had sex. The girl, Samantha Gailey, was just 13 years old.
Sadly, this was not the first time that Polanski was caught in the public eye for events other than his work in the movie industry. As I wrote about last month, his pregnant wife was murdered just a few years earlier by the followers of Charles Manson. Strangely enough, after the hot tub incident in 1977, he fled to Europe to avoid jail time associated with the crimes committed against Samantha.
That was over 30 years ago. Since then, Polanski has continued to make films. He even helped make the career of the actor Adrian Brody, whom he directed in the 2002 film “The Pianist
On Saturday, September 26, 2009, he was finally arrested by Swiss authorities on his way to the Zurich Film Festival to receive a lifetime achievement award.
Now, how you feel about this story will vary wildly based on a lot of things. If you are a film student, or a film maker of any ilk, you may be saddened or outraged at this news of a peaceful man who has given so much to the world and deserves to be pardoned for crimes that happened so long ago.
If you are a parent of a girl around the age of 13, you may be cheering the news of a pervert and predator who was finally served the justice that was long overdue.
If you are neither, perhaps imagining a 13 year old girl that you know and a 43 year old man that you know in a hot tub together will help to distill your feelings. American culture frowns on sexual relationships between adults and minors. But there are many cultures in the world that do not. So, in that case, is this a moral issue or a cultural one?
When I read Samantha’s account of that night on CNN.com, where she repeatedly asked Polanski to stop, and had to fake an asthma attack to make that happen, I sense my desire for justice swelling. Shouldn’t a man in his 40s understand the wrongness in such a blatant violation of someone else’s will, let alone her body? What could there be to excuse his behavior? How can there be justice for this act that took advantage of one of society’s less protected?
Well, according to Samantha, justice has already been served. Or at least, according to the same CNN article, she has long since forgiven him.
What?!?!?!?
Samantha is now 45 years old and has put the matter far behind her. In fact, she seems much more upset about the judicial system and media scrutiny that followed the crime, than the crime itself:
“He’s just a stranger to me. I met him twice, three times. … His life really has nothing to do with my life.”
and
“Looking back, there can be no question that he did something awful. It was a terrible thing to do to a young girl,” she wrote in her Los Angeles Times piece. “And honestly, the publicity surrounding it was so traumatic that what he did to me seemed to pale in comparison.”
So, is justice something that a society always needs to enforce in an effort to protect the vulnerable? Or is this just the case when the wronged seek out such assistance from society? If judgement is not meted out by Polansky’s human peers, is there a cosmic judgement by God that is being felt or will be felt in the future? Either way, should society respect the wishes of the victim to drop the charges in this case? Or was this a type of crime against society that needs to be met with a clear resolution of intolerance?
I wish I knew the answer, but it does have me thinking.
A group of his Hollywood peers seems to think that he should be released immediately, if not pardoned. I wonder how I would feel about this case if the victim or the perpetrator were a friend of mine.
