I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I love the comradery of doing theatre that you don't get in film.
I was living in a terrible time when people were being accused of being communists, and they attacked the movie industry, especially the writers. People couldn't work if they were on the blacklist. The studios banned them. It was the most onerous period in movie history. I don't think we have ever had a period so dark as that.
I've learned a great deal about a certain type of filmmaking. But I have ambitions toward another type of filmmaking that I haven't been allowed to engage in yet.
There's been almost a dozen films that have been made against me. There's actually more films made attacking me than films I've made.
The luxury that I have is I'm not career-minded, I just live from one film to the next. For a time, I was making documentaries, and all my documentaries were winning awards and stuff, and then I lost interest in documentaries.
I do not take to the field to defend myself from certain criticisms. If I do, in this kind of career, it is because I'm very self-critical.
I was even superior to the Communists and when they didn't go along with me, I quit them.
When I make a film, I never want the film to become a vehicle of social propaganda. If I wanted to do that, I'd make documentaries.
Look, I'm just a storyteller. When I make a film, I never want the film to become a vehicle of social propaganda.
I am a Communist, certainly, but that doesn't mean I have to make films about the wheat harvest.