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A Very Dangerous Citizen: Abraham Lincoln Polonsky and the Hollywood Left

2002; Oxford University Press; Volume: 89; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3092309

1945-2314

Sam B. Girgus, Paul Buhle, Dave Wagner,

European history and politics

For many, Abraham Polonsky symbolizes the lost lives and careers of a generation that underwent anticommunist persecution during the Cold War. Polonsky was the brilliant Jewish intellectual, writer, and director who was acclaimed for his work on two classic independent films, Body and Soul (1947) and Force of Evil (1948). Like many others, he was blacklisted, banished, and abandoned. His early achievement, however, generally has been taken as a sign of inevitable future success if his work had not been stymied by anticom-munist crusaders. This sense of unfulfilled promise and cultural loss makes Polonsky's story especially poignant to those who recognize the achievement of his art, sympathize with the idealism of his politics, and identify with the passion of his Jewish roots on the fabled streets of New York's Lower East Side. Fusing Yiddishkeit sensibility and working-class stolidity, Polonsky attained mythic status for those who shared his values and aspirations.