Roman Polanski ....

Roman Polanski, Roman Polanski, Roman Polanski.

Watched this show on HBO called Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. I cannot say that I like his movies. I liked 2 of them, Bitter Moon and The Pianist, which is one of the best films ever made the THE BEST film on the Holocaust EVER made (better than that stupid tripe called Schindler's List ... thank you Steven Spielberg for makin Munich because I was about ready to chuck you into the bin). Polanski's movies, in general just deal with sex sex sex, not that I'm opposed to sex sex sex, but it just gets old. I haven't seen 9th Gate, guess I'll have to check it out. But anyway, Polanski has had an incredibly topsy turvey life ... Holocaust survivor, his wife and unborn baby butchered by the Manson family ... then, the idiot ... has sex with a 13 year old girl! KNOWING she was 13 ... accused of rape (rightly so), ends up in a long drawn out drama with a judge who cares more about publicity that administering justice. The 2 attorneys, the prosecutor and the defense attorney were very ethical and upstanding ... that judge, yuck. In any event, Polanski served 42 days in prison undergoing a psych exam and deemed not to be a dangerous sex offender. The judge didn't like that he spent 42 days in the pen and wanted him back in prison, so Polanski hopped a plane and never came back. He even had to have his Oscar for the Pianist (richly deserved!) taken to him in France by Jack Nicholson ... in whose house he had sex with the 13 year old ... euuuuu!

The 13 year old ... now a grown woman with 3 kids, has publicly forgiven Polanski (her mother agreed to let her go with Polanski, unaccompanied, to have her photos taken, sorry, but that was mistake numero uno) and a judge (the original judge was dismissed) even stated that all Polanski has to do is turn up in LA for sentencing and he won't have to go to jail (this is to just close the case as it is still unresolved in the system). Polanski, now in his 70's, won't come back because he doesn't want the hearing and sentencing to be on tv. So I guess the case won't be resolved until he's dead. Anyway, Roman Polanski is a werido, plain and simple. He admittedly likes young girls ... sicko ... but the Pianist is just a fabulous film. The film of his life and I will always love the film for what it is.

The documentary was well done. The 2 attorneys involved were amazing ... Gunson and Dalton, I believe are their names. Good men.

The Daily Show had a great guest by the name of Rick Shenkman on. He wrote a book called How Stupid Are We? Gotta check it out from the library. It discusses how willingly ignorant the American voting populace is or is becoming. Preaching to the choir here! It saddens me to no end how much like sheep some people are. Will write more once I read the book.

Re-read Saboteurs. I don't know why, but it really depressed me this time around, especially the stories of Herbert Haupt and Wolfgang Wergin. They were US citizens of German descent from Chicago who fled to Mexico because Haupt's girlfriend got pregnant. They ran out of money and since they didn't have US passports, they went to the German consulate in Mexico City for help. They ended up on a German freighter for work in Japan and then they ended up in France ... right after Germany declared war on the US after Pearl Harbor (nice timing!). They ended up with relatives in Germany, not knowing them and were conscripted into the German army ... they were US citizens. Haupt ended up volunteering for the mission to come into America to sabotage US sites. What he just wanted was to go home and saw this as his chance. He landed in Florida and hightailed it back to Chicago to see his family. Ended up getting caught by the FBI, tried and .... executed as a traitor. Wergin didn't want any part of the sabotage mission, so he was sent to the Russian front. He lived and was tried as a traitor and set free. What a story. I wish they would make a film about those 2. It would be fascinating.

Tried watching this new CBS show called Swingtown. Takes place in Chicago, so I'm hooked already, but it deals with the mid 70's swingers ... why???? Grant Show is a main swinger and he completely creeped me out so I couldn't watch it. I may try again as I tivo'd it. The whole show is filmed weird, like the color is off. Just strange.