AMERICAN MASTERS: A Letter to EliaDirector Martin Scorsese reveals Elia Kazan’s life, his sense of himself as an immigrant and as an outsider, and Scorsese recounts his early experiences seeing Kazan’s films for the first time — and being forever influenced.
Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.
Elia Kazan’s name was brought front and center to the world again during the buzz surrounding the March 1999 Academy Awards. He was to receive an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, an honor that divided Hollywood. Then 89 years old, Kazan was primarily remembered for his impressive directorial body of work in the 1950s — On the Waterfront, East of Eden, A Streetcar Named Desire, Gentleman’s Agreement, A Face in the Crowd — but remained controversial.
To many, he was singularly and permanently emblematic of the sin of “naming names” before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. To others, his extraordinary work deserved recognition. One of his strongest supporters — one of the men who stood tall with Kazan in front of that divided Hollywood audience in 1999 — was the filmmaker Martin Scorsese.
American Masters:A Letter ot Elia, Monday at 10 P.m. on PBS-HD 6.
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