Polanski Case Should Remain A Dead Issue

CLEVELAND - Roman Polanski, creator of some of the greatest films of the past 40 years endured unspeakable tragedy courtesy of Charles Manson and his disciples. He himself was neither perfect nor an angel and his own ancient transgressions have finally come back to bite him.

And unrightfully so.

Polanski, 76 has long been a critically acclaimed director and screenwriter for several classic works including Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown. His successful life hit a roadblock in 1969 when his wife Sharon Tate, who was two weeks from giving birth to his child, was savagely murdered by The Manson Family. That incident sent Polanski reeling for the next several years.

His life took another turn for the worst when he became an infamous figure in 1977. That's when he, by his own admission, had "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor" after plying her with champagne and drugs. His previously revered body of work suddenly begun being viewed with an asterisk, especially since the disgraced Polanski fled the United States to avoid a possible prison sentence. He ended up in France and since 1978, has been a fugitive from justice in the U.S.

He was caught two days ago, after running for 31 years.

The irony in Polanski's highly delayed arrest is that he was en route to Switzerland to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award when he was apprehended at a Zurich airport. For the time being, the disgraced filmmaker is in custody pending a request by U.S. officials to be extradited back to this country. He has avoided such an occurrence since the 1970's by staying away from countries with extradition treaties to America, but this time it seemed as though fate intervened.

Polanski plans to fight the courts on this historic matter.

I totally understand anyone that feels that Polanski should pay for his misdeeds, no matter how far in the past they are. I'd probably feel the same way if it weren't for the victim in the case, Samantha Geimer. Now a 45-year old mother of three children, Geimer has recently asked that Polanski be forgiven. She's also stated that everytime anything comes up about the case in the media, it disrupts her current life with her family. She maintains that the incident, though "scary" was more than 30 years ago and should be left in the past because she feels that he's paid for what he did.

If the victim herself wants to move forward and just let Polanski be, then who are we to say that justice still needs to be served? The man committed a heinous and despicable act for sure, but arresting a man in his seventies for something that he did over three decades ago one time won't actually solve anything. Hard as it may be for many to accept, Polanski has actually lived all these years in a different kind of self-imposed prison. Even though he continued to make films, he was limited to shooting them overseas and was always unable to come to the U.S. to receive accolades for some of his work, such as 2002's The Pianist, which won Polanski a Best Director award.

No matter how this turns out, Polanski will always have God to answer to in the end.

Hughes Created Classics That Defined My Youth

CLEVELAND - With the sad and sudden death of filmmaker John Hughes yesterday, I feel compelled to give thanks to the man for creating some of my all-time favorite movies.

Mr. Hughes, you rock!

Hughes got his start in the 1970's as a writer, but where his brilliance began to impact my life was in the 1983 Chevy Chase film, National Lampoon's Vacation. He wrote the screenplay, which was inspired by long trips he and his family took when he was a kid. The hi jinks and often slapstick humor (masterfully executed by the bumbling Chase) in this flick delighted me to no end. Even now, I chuckle every time I see it on television.

I understand that Hughes' most iconic work is as the director of such classic 1980's teen comedies as Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

However, I never watched those movies in their entirety but I was certainly aware of them when they hit theatres and then, VHS. I did see bits and pieces of the flicks, and my favorite moment may have been in Sixteen Candles, when the geeky Anthony Michael Hall showed an entire gym full of students Molly Ringwald's panties to win a bet.

Hughes was so awesome that he actually made Matthew Broderick (as the titular Ferris Bueller) seem cool and worth emulating.

Another of Hughes' creations, the seldom mentioned but highly entertaining 1985 film, Weird Science was super popular in my book. My cousin and I used to watch that movie all the time and we even believed that it could be possible to create a real-life, bodacious white chick by using nothing more than a computer and a little imagination. That was an awesome film and Kelly LeBrock never left my "to-do list."

It is worth mentioning that Hughes wrote and produced the wildly successful Home Alone film, which catapulted 10-year old Macauley Culkin to superstardom upon its 1990 release, and its two ensuing sequels.

No, I wasn't a follower of his most revered films, nor was I even in the targeted age range for those classic teen flicks. But John Hughes left an indelible mark on my life with his meticulously realistic work. His movies weren't designed to win Academy Awards, all they were meant to do was give a voice to a generation of developing adults.

That's not a bad legacy at all.

20 Years Later, 'Do the Right Thing' Still 'Happens'

CLEVELAND - It was 20 years ago today that filmmaker Spike Lee released his seminal film, Do the Right Thing. Both controversial and highly acclaimed, the flick turned out to be a classic.

Maybe not in the traditional sense.

Do the Right Thing never got the credit it truly deserved. For one, Lee was establishing himself as a militant and controversial director. At age 32, he was releasing his third straight envelope-pushing film which was an ingenious piece of work due to its unflinching look into the world of racism. Indeed, the chasm between Black and White cultures and beliefs and how racial tension is almost always bubbling beneath the surface were on full display.

There was the Italian-Americans proudly extolling the greatness of Frank Sinatra and Sylvester Stallone while the African-Americans touted Michael Jackson and Sammie Davis, Jr as their heroes. The confrontation between the Black kid in the Michael Jordan sneakers and the White kid in the Larry Bird jersey. And of course, the tragically violent, yet stunningly realistic climax and ensuing interracial riot in the streets of Brooklyn, New York.

Blacks and Whites often behave the same way in real life against each other and it's the reason that we'll never make real progress; we continue to segregate ourselves from other races and act as if we're not all the same in the end. Violence is never a good solution, especially when it's racially motivated. Even the election of Barack Obama doesn't show TRUE progress because he's still so unaccepted by many people solely because of the "black" half of his ethnicity.

Lee was a genius with this film. The story continues to play out.