Context
Elia Kazan (1909–2003) was born
as Elia Kazanjioglou to Greek parents in Constantinople, which today
is Istanbul, Turkey. When he was four years old, his family emigrated
to New York City during the early-twentieth-century wave of immigration.
Kazan’s father, George, a rug merchant, expected him to inherit
the family business. Kazan’s mother, Athena, however, encouraged
Kazan’s independence and education in New York’s public schools.
After graduating from Williams College in Massachusetts, he went
on to study drama at Yale. Fascinated by acting and directing, Kazan
joined New York’s influential leftist Group Theater in the 1930s.
Many great actors, writers, and directors passed through this group,
including Lee Strasberg and Clifford Odets. Acting on his political
radicalism, Kazan officially joined a communist cell in 1934.
He left the cell in 1936, disillusioned by
its hypocrisies. Immersing himself in New York’s theatrical stage
scene on and around Broadway, Kazan became a skilled director noted
for his ability to draw the best performances from his actors. In 1947,
with colleagues Cheryl Crawford and Robert Lewis, Kazan co-founded
the Actors Studio, a collective of innovative performers that would
become one of the most important resources for film and theater
talent in both mediums’ histories.
The experimental methods the actors studied at Kazan’s
Actors Studio followed the teachings of Russian dramatist Konstantin Stanislavski,
which Strasberg applied in the United States. Stanislavski’s influential
book, An Actor Prepares, was translated into English
in 1936, forever changing the course of stage
and screen acting. The style of acting based on his teachings became
known as the Method, and its practitioners Method actors. A Method
actor did not use the emoting techniques common at the time, which
consisted of loud, stiff, stagy movements intended to clarify emotions and
intentions for the audience. Rather, a Method actor strove to be himself
and stay in the moment, responding or reacting as he would in private
life. Smaller gestures, mannerisms, pauses, and hesitancies became
more important than broad and clear external motions. Actors were
encouraged to draw on their own selves and lives. Past memories,
life experiences, pains, and pleasures were to be called up from
the actors’ subconscious and incorporated into their characters’
psyches. In this way, characters took on depth and transcended one-sided
labels such as “villain” or “damsel-in-distress.” They became breathing,
complex individuals with contradictory emotions and interior lives
that complicated exterior expressions. Three early Method actors
were Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Montgomery Clift. The fact that
many of these acting philosophies are standard today remains a testament
to the revolutionary power of the teachings at Kazan’s Actors Studio.
Kazan directed his first stage play in 1935 and
became one of Broadway's brightest lights. He was acclaimed especially
for his powerful and realistic direction of the plays of Tennessee
Williams, such as A Streetcar Named Desire (1947),
and Arthur Miller, such as Death of a Salesman (1948).
Although Kazan directed plays and films and write novels throughout
his long and fruitful life, he did most of his work from the mid-1940s
until the mid-1950s, one of the most controversial eras
in film history. He worked with famous playwrights, including Miller
and Williams, and with notable authors, such as John Steinbeck.
He directed films for producer Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th
Century Fox, helping that studio cement its reputation. In the postwar decade,
Kazan directed ten motion pictures, all critically acclaimed. Some
of the most influential include A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945),
his first film made under a nine-year contract signed with 20th
Century Fox; Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947),
for which Kazan earned his first Best Director award; A
Streetcar Named Desire (1951), adapted
by Tennessee Williams from his own play; Viva Zapata! (1952),
written by John Steinbeck; and East of Eden (1955),
adapted from Steinbeck’s novel.
Kazan made On the Waterfront in 1954 for
Columbia Pictures. Although critics now almost universally regard On
the Waterfront as a masterpiece of Method acting and a
reflection of issues central to its time, when the film first came
out a few critics were less sure. The critics agreed that the film
had tremendous power, but many were leery of the new acting style
and undecided about the effectiveness of Brando’s slouchy inarticulateness. On
the Waterfront was based on a series of investigative pieces
published in 1949 by New York City journalist
Malcolm Johnson, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Over time, though,
the strength of the acting prevailed, and the personal struggle
that each character undergoes within his or her own soul stuck with
viewers and reviewers, who returned to the film time and time again.
The film was a critical and financial success, earning more than
$10 million on a $1 million
budget. This success allowed Kazan to form his own production company,
Newtown Productions, through which he would make his next three
films.
The politics of this era, however, forever altered Kazan’s
life. Following World War II, at the start of the cold war, many
Americans feared an infiltration of Soviet Communism. In 1947,
the controversial House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
was formed with the intention of purging the United States of any
Communist influence. Hollywood’s high profile and liberal makeup made
it a prime target. HUAC subpoenaed many actors, screenwriters, and
directors to coerce them into informing on their colleagues by “naming
names”—that is, making public which of their friends now had, or
formerly had, any associations with the Communist Party. HUAC subpoenaed
Kazan once, and at his initial hearing he refused to divulge details.
At a second hearing in 1952, however, Kazan
chose to give the names of seven former colleagues from his Group
Theater days. Budd Schulberg, the screenwriter of On the
Waterfront, also cooperated with the committee.
Kazan justified his actions by saying that supporting
anti-Communist efforts would protect his liberal beliefs and his
country. His justifications, however, met with much criticism, particularly
from two American writers, Lillian Hellman and his good friend Arthur Miller,
who believed naming names was a betrayal of fellow artists. On
the Waterfront celebrates as a hero a man who informed
on mob leaders, and many people believe that Kazan made the film
as a response to Hellman, Miller, and other critics. Miller’s play The Crucible,
whose hero dies rather than accuse people of being witches, of course
represents the opposing view.
In 1999, when Hollywood presented
Kazan with an honorary Oscar for a long and distinguished career,
the film industry was bitterly divided. Some protested or refused
to stand when Kazan accepted the award, believing still that his
actions were calculated to save his own career and fatally damaged
the careers of many Hollywood screenwriters who subsequently were
blacklisted. Others—including Miller—believed that his cinematic
achievements, which include many undoubted masterpieces, should
stand on their own.
Kazan died in 2003 at the age of
ninety-four.
