The presenter of the film implied that HUAC blacklisted members of the Hollywood film population because they were Jews. Jews and non-Jews alike were blacklisted because they were identified as socialists and Communists.
Garfield was blacklisted because he wouldn't give up any names to the Committee. Ironically, Kazan, the director of the film, did name names.
Kazan might have been a great director, but as a human being he was scumbag.
Lots of people in Hollywood hated Kazan to the core after he decided to denounce people who where either his friends or at least acquaintances or collaborators.
In the other hand John Garfield was a honorable man who preferred to suffer the consequences of his silence but NEVER betrayed his friends and/or mere colleagues.
That's the difference between a man with talent but no guts nor moral principles and another one, not such a big star perhaps, but brave and noble. That probably costed the life to Mr. Garfield.
That era is a very black period of the US history. I have read that James Stewart was "spying" one of his best friends: Henry Fonda. They almost end in fight because of that.
John Wayne said he would love to sent "that little red bastard" (Frank Capra) back to Italy.
Even Cary Grant and Bogart were investigated by the FBI!
Of course we all know what these fanatics did to Chaplin. They practically expelled him from USA. Charlie never returned again to USA, except once, when he received the Honorary Oscar by the Academy.
The US authorities were kind enough to give Chaplin a permit to enter and stay in USA for 1 entire week! before the week ended, Chaplin should leave the country otherwise he'd be arrested.
And according to the Left, this was one of the greatest injustices ever commited in human history. Granted, people were afraid of communist spies. The Rosenbergs gave atomic information about the A bomb to the USSR. (Don't EVEN bother to argue this. It's in the KGB FILES!)And Alger Hiss and Kim Philby were giving vital information to Stalin. The country over-reacted and some injustices happened. But, NOBODY DIED because of the blacklist! McCarthy and Cohn were debunked and disgraced. Democracy isn't perfect but it works. Now liberals can complain ENDLESSLY about how Dalton Trumbell and the other Hollywood 10 had to write under psuedonyms for a few years. What would happen to someone accused of treachery under Stalin, Hitler, or Saddam? TRY to keep it in perspective,eh? In high school history books the "Bataan Death March" isn't even mentioned, but there are 15 pages on "The Red Scare" and "The Black List".
"NOBODY DIED because of the blacklist!"(MrPie7)
Nobody can say for sure if John Garfield's fatal heart attack at age 39 was prompted by the stress of being put on and taken off the blacklist, or being called repeatedly to testify before HAC. Or how many, like the blacklisted actor Philip Loeb, committed suicide when they couldn't find work.
If Garfield died at 39 because of being on and off of the "Blacklist", he sure wasn't the tough guy he always played in the movies. Like they needed a blacklist to keep Loeb off the screen. Yet, none of these were DIRECT casualalties of the "Red Scare".
As a counter-point, let's take ONE DAY'S casualties of Stalin's "everyday" government and you will find several hundred dead of starvation or exposure in the work camps, maybe another thousand shot for various "crimes" against the "Worker's State: from not noticing the newspaper that you wrapped the fish in, had a photo of Stalin on it, to complaining to your neighbor that razor blades were hard to come by. ( ACTUAL CASES; there are THOUSANDS MORE!) The folks who commited these "Acts of Terrorisam against the USSR" (The Soviets defined it as "Counter-Revolutionary Propaganda") were murdered by the State's security organs. And let's not forget the hundreds or thousands who died due to food and other shortages caused by the corruption and inefficiency of Stalin's yarious 5 year plans. Really makes you cry for a guy who has to use a false name to write leftist propaganda!
...that HUAC saved us from the fate of the Russian people by going after a bunch of naive people who had flirted with Communism briefly in the 30's before abandoning it when they realized it's true nature. People like Gargield and Loeb cannot be compared to Stalin and Beria or even the Rosenbergs.
The fact that a large percentage of the people investigated by HUAC were Jewish is not coinsidental, nor is the fact that anyone who was against racism and poverty tended to come under suspicision. HUAC didn't save us from anything.
The past is a series of presents. The present is living history we are priviledged to witness
"The fact that a large percentage of the people investigated by HUAC were Jewish is not coinsidental,"
I agree. The fact is that most Jews are liberal and many joined the Communist Party. That's why they were over-represented in the HUAC investigations-they were over-represented in the C.P.
"HUAC didn't save us from anything."
Well it DID arouse Americans to take a closer look at people who were doing the US harm- like Hiss, Philby, and other commies in the State and Defense Depts.THAT may have saved lives and freedom. There WAS a danger, even if "progessives" using hindsight 50 years after the fact blame the whole thing on "Right-wing Paranoia". Granted a few people were treated unfairly, but democracy isn't perfect. The half century of indignation about this, and the revisionist history that supports it misses the POINT. It's kinda like complaints by Londoners during "The Blitz", (Nazi bombing raids during WWII)that anti-aircraft that missed the German planes was falling back down and wrecking their homes. It's that selfish and short-sighted. Why even have laws since innocent people are sometimes convicted?
You can't fight Communism without ruining or ending the lives of people who either long since left the party or never were a part of it.
And of course HUAC had no agenda outside of getting rid of the reds.
Right....
The past is a series of presents. The present is living history we are priviledged to witness
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You can't fight Communism without ruining or ending the lives of people who either long since left the party or never were a part of it.
Name someone whom the HUAC killed....ONE will do!!!
But of course you TOTALLY IGNORE the fact that Kim Phiby, a British diplomat/spy working for the Reds passed on military information to his masters in Moscow. Philby, thru his position and influence with the State Dept., was given classified military documents showing US troop positions and information on US plans. Stalin passed this info on to the Chinese who used it to KILL hundreds of American soldiers in Korea. After suffering horrendous losses, MacArthur had to make on the spot decisions and plans that happened too quickly to pass thru Washington. Without their strategy thus compromised, UN forces were able to mount more effective resistance to the "Human Wave" attacks of The Chinese. But the hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS of lives lost by American soldiers serving their country, PALE before the TERRIBLE HOLOCAUST of the Hollywood 10 having to write under Psuedonyms for a few years, RIGHT?
Reality check: The blacklist was wrong, it was corrected, NOBODY DIED!!!
Compare THAT to "The Great Leap Forward" in China or the Gulag in the USSR.
Lets see,. Thats about 150 MILLION people killed by the Reds vs ZERO by HUAC. So of COURSE you're upset about HUAC!
Because he wasn't called to testify before HUAC or blacklisted by Hollywood, which is what this was about. You said the blacklist was wrong and you are correct. Garfield and Loeb certianly died and all who knew them said that HUAC and the blacklist were a primary reason. Their deaths did nothing to protect this country.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-kaplan/huac-americanism_b_269853.html
The past is a series of presents. The present is living history we are priviledged to witness
"Because he wasn't called to testify before HUAC or blacklisted by Hollywood, which is what this was about"
You want to separate the issue of the "Red Scare" from the Hollywood 10 ect. That's like trying to discuss the Cuban Missle Crisis without mentioning the Cold War! Context is EVERYTHING!
"Garfield and Loeb certianly died and all who knew them said that HUAC and the blacklist were a primary reason."
Amazing he knew so many medical examiners and coroners... Show me a death certificate stating "Cause of Death: Witch Hunt".
Funny, how BEING ON the "Hollywood 10" didn't affect the life span of Dalton Trumbo who lived to age 71 and Edward Dmytryk...lived to be NINETY ONE!
It's kind of silly that anyone can hold HUAC/blacklisting responsible for the deaths of men. They may have forced them into situations which affected their longevity, but by the same token I can blame the government for prematurely ending my life by making me wait in lines at the DMV for hours and fill out stacks of paperwork to get a license/registration only to get lost in the system. It raises my blood pressure so much that it'll likely end my life prematurely.
About 10 years ago we had a neighborhood pedophile who was outed and arrested. In prison, he killed himself with shame. You could claim the justice system killed him, and therefore his punishment was 'cruel and unusual'.
See how silly that logic is?
Being unable to find work for 10 years is a consequence a bit more onerous than waiting an hour in line at DMV. And children were ostracized, just as Dean Stockwell was, only for having a "Commie" father. That's pretty serious stuff in my book.
What difference does it make if the HUAC uncovered valid information? How does that justify what they did? The HUAC hearings were evil, unjust and, most importantly, illegal: what right did they have to prosecute civilians and artists just because they were Communists?
I hate to bring the First Amendment into this, but political beliefs are protected by the First Amendment. It is okay in this country to be a Communist if you want to. It is okay to remain silent about such affairs. The victims of the HUAC were treated as if those rights did not apply.
"What I don't understand is how we're going to stay alive this winter."
How did the HUAC know whom to call as witnesses? My guess would be that the FBI told them, and that the FBI already knew who all the witnesses' colleagues were. That being the case, the HUAC hearings were just grandstanding and actually served no useful purpose. However, the publicity they generated helped create a national paranoia about alleged "subversive activities" which enabled alleged "patriotic" vigilantes to try to impose their concepts of "Americanism" on the country.
shareNumerous lives, careers, and families were decimated and shattered for no real reason through the abuse of power.
The fact that evidence of a few subversives or actual traitors was confirmed or partly discovered is of marginal significance. Almost all of those cases were under other investigations that did or would have successfully prosecuted them.
The American Communist Party of the 1920s and most of the 1930s was not aligned with Stalinist principles and did nothing to harm or undermine the USA. As it did become Stalinist, the already small membership tanked. And yes, in freedom's land and bravery's home, one once was allowed to peaceably assemble in whatever organization they chose.
When your argument is "Our injustices are not as severe as those of Stalin or Mao" the point is accurate but has little meaning. We are not (yet) a totalitarian system. We hold ourselves to a higher standard. We listen to each other and critique each other when we think we are faltering. We admit our flaws and errors and we care about making our system better.
At least, we claim to....
Why do you say that John Garfield "was not such a big star"? Garfield was a star of the first echelon. He took third billing in this film because he felt so strongly about the theme.
Haven't you ever seen "Body and Soul?" That is just one of the many great films Garfield starred in as the leading man.
Ironic, isn't it? Make a movie about being against prejudice, and then use your prejudice against others to end their careers.
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