Should we boycott the films of horrible people?

Tweet

There is a big hooha at present about a recently released film with the title "An Officer and a Spy", which tells the story of the Dreyfus affair. This was the case of a French military officer who was dismissed from the service and convicted of treason in 1898 on spying charges. The charges were false but were brought upon Dreyfus as a result of a personal campaign based on Anti-Semitism. It would appear that the film is an excellent one and it has received enthusiastic reviews wherever it has been shown. It won a major award at the Venice Film Festival. However, it won't be shown in the United States or the United Kingdom. Why not? Because it was directed by Roman Polanski, who pleaded guilty - back in 1977 - of having sex with a 13-year-old girl. He was also accused of rape back in 1975. These charges have blackened his name so badly that nothing he has produced in the interim is deemed worthy of being viewed. But is this a sensible course to take? Should we boycott anything that bears the name - in whatever capacity - of people whose personal behavior has been criminal or otherwise reprehensible? What about Harvey Weinstein, for example? Should we take out of circulation all the films on which he has worked as director, producer or executive producer? If we did that, we would have to ban a huge number of blockbusters, including Shakespeare in Love, Gangs of New York, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Rambo and The King's Speech. One thing to bear in mind, should you take this line, is that when you punish someone horrible by boycotting their work, you also punish a huge number of completely innocent people. The millions of dollars that are generated by a Hollywood hit movie will go into the pockets of a whole army of talented people including actors and production staff of all sorts. However, the factor that decides the issue for me is that a work of art - in whatever medium - stands alone once it is in the public domain. It deserves to be judged completely on its own merits, without reference to its creator - although, of course, knowledge of who that was can add considerably to our understanding of the work. We should not be denied the chance to make our judgment, whatever value judgments might be appropriate for the artist.