Audio of Tarantino Defending Polanski's Rape

His career is over.

“And by the way, we’re talking about America’s morals, not talking about the morals in Europe and everything.”

Wow !!!!

Fuck you , Quentin ! Drugging and raping teenage girls is abnormal in Europe as well !
Gifted director but a piece of sh!t of an human being !

Massive overreaction. This was 15 years ago - the year after Polanski won an Oscar.

This is getting ridiculous. The Internet goes nuts about Tarantino after the Thurman article, but Thurman clears his name. But that's not enough for the Internet - this 15-year old recording resurfaces as if it's news. Although it's been there for ages, available for everyone to hear. I guess the desire to sink Tarantino down to the ground is just too strong. How is this news? I disagree with his comments as much as the next guy but what do they have to do with anything? So they're now trying to destroy people for just commenting on other people 15 years ago? Rough times. I guess the Polanski petition signers should be destroyed as well. And how about turning that video of Polanski's Oscar win into news too? I mean, most of Hollywood was cheering like crazy, also 15 years ago. Instead of posting this old audio, a better option would be to ask him about it all now. That'd be news worthy.

I'm just saying what I think is going to happen. Polanski is one of my favorite directors and I've never stopped watching his movies, same for Tarantino, even though I find them despicable people.

You can take issue with it resurfacing now. I'm just reacting to it because I had never heard that clip before in my life, and it was shocking to hear. I would have been shocked and disgusted by his attitude back then too had I heard it (hell, Howard Stern and Robin Quivers were shocked too. It was Hollywood that seemed to have the blinders on). But I'm someone who bashed everyone who signed the petition. I've been consistent on this. I've never been for taking Polanski's Oscar back because that had nothing to do with his crime. That was for a film. Now that this has resurfaced, I hope Tarantino does get the opportunity to be asked about this now, and hopefully, he's done some growing in the last 15 years and no longer has this blase attitude about it.

Yeah, no. He seriously thinks (thought?) that something like that is acceptable here in Europe.

Not at all surprised...

Here's the thing: a lot of people didn't hear the Howard Stern interview, and it is indeed quite startling to hear Tarantino try and rationalize a 44-year-old man taking advantage of an underage girl. Even if she was the one who initiated it or wanted it, she still had no way to give consent. Hell, she was under the influence at the time, so even if she weren't underage, it's still taking undue advantage. And the problem with living in a society where everything you say or write can be dredged up at any time is just this: nothing is off-the-cuff anymore, and even if this comment was blasé, it can look pretty damning down the line.

Do I think this means that Tarantino approves of what Polanski did? No. Same with when Whoopi Goldberg talked about it a few years ago. (Remember? "It wasn't rape rape!") But they, as did many of those people who signed that petition, felt back then that Polanski was screwed over by an overzealous judge who reneged on a plea bargain after Polanski served his jail time. That is a reasonable argument. It's ridiculous that Polanski had gotten such an easy deal in the first place, because regardless of the traumatic life he'd led until that point, he still victimized a teenage girl. He needed to be punished for that. But the judicial powers-that-be overstepped their boundaries after the fact, and the idea that our legal system can all of a sudden do that on a whim is terrifying. So from that standpoint, yeah, people felt that Polanski's decades-long exile had been enough, and the victim herself had come forward and said that she had forgiven him and that she wanted it all put behind her.

Now, in the wake of the downfall of Weinstein and the more laser-like focus that society puts on things like this, scrutiny is at an all-time high and previous issues are being brought up, even if new evidence hasn't been brought up (i.e. Woody Allen, where aside from Dylan Farrow reasserting her claims, there hasn't been a shred of any new evidence since the investigation nearly thirty years ago). People who were at ease with being able to recognize an artist for their work is now being condemned because they are seen to be tacitly approving the crimes, alleged or otherwise. It's one thing to awaken to the realization that you used the wrong language to describe an act in order to mitigate it because you like someone's work, or to realize that you were far too dismissive of it, but what frightens me is the hypocrisy that boils to the surface.

For years, Carrie has vocally lambasted those who signed that petition and who applauded Polanski the night he won the Oscar. And yet many of those same people are willing to openly decry Polanski or Allen today, and while I don't entirely disagree with them being able to do that, a lot of it seems to be because it's fashionable to piggyback off of a growing movement of change or to ensure they are bulletproof against accusations of their own or the withering scorn that they feel might come their way for not speaking out.

13-year-olds, dude. Doesn't matter what the girl's intent was. She couldn't legally give consent. Even if Polanski didn't know how old she was and could prove that, the act is what matters, not the intent. That's the law.

Well, that's what my post was about. He sounds like a wackjob. Woody Allen is a different discussion altogether because we don't know what happened there. Regarding your first part on Polanski, he engaged in several clear criminal acts (among them furnishing a controlled substance to a minor and lewd and lascivious act upon a child under fourteen) and plead guilty to a lesser charge. Let's not minimize what he did. At this moment, I'm not interested in a discussion about what would have been the appropriate jail time in 1977 for a lesser charge because he was never even sentenced anyway. This is more of a discussion about Tarantino's framing of it as "oh, 13 year old party girls. Not a big deal." 

Just call me Ed Harris and Amy Madigan, then.

But in all seriousness, I don't mind applauding the work. But in the case of Polanski, the fact that they stood up and applauded a man who wasn't even there doesn't simply feel like they're applauding the work. The award itself is the recognition; any applause or ovations are for the artist.

These celebrities always have a strong need to defend each other especially when they don't know what happened. They are not morally above anyone.