Elia Kazan's Memoir A Life

Kazan's perception can be compared to how he describes a camera in his earlier years on the set. He writes, "...it is not a recording device, it's a microscope which reveals what the eye does not see," {pg. 187}. This is just one of the declarative statements that fill Kazan's tome of a memoir. Kazan was best known as a co-founder of the Actor's Studio, and leading director of a number of great actors including, Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden, Kim Hunter, James Dean, Jo Van Fleet, Andy Griffith and a young Warren Beatty and Robert De Niro.

The great amount of detail throughout the book reveals his intricate observations of the relationships that shaped his life. Though, with over 800 pages of detail, without a genuine fascination of the man himself, it can feel like a burdensome task of a book. This urge to skim is perhaps due to the lack of fluidity in how the chapters are broken up. Though it follows a linear path in the telling of his life story, he is sometimes disconnected and abrupt in his thoughts. It often reads like a transcript from his diaries with some of the pages missing. Even though this was a distracting element throughout, it gave the book an overall feel of authenticity as a personal memoir.

His traits as a novelist are seen in the intimate, sometimes lured, descriptions of the people in his life. Anyone can talk at great lengths about themselves, but Kazan does so as only a storyteller can. The stories convey how he played a part in film history and through his love for acting introduced Broadway to the silver screen. Aside from this epic persona created by Kazan as a directed, he is brutally honest with himself and about the other inflated players that shaped the art of screen acting.

In a haunting statement, Kazan wrote about his death, "There is an event coming, of course, that does concern me and might interest you," {pg. 782}. This took on relevance all its own in reading A Life just before his death in September 2003. Kazan describes writing his autobiography as untangling a ball of string, and he had many knots to work out in his life. His peering observations of the people he loathed and loved seem to be the source that shaped his skill in directing actors. Perhaps his harshest judgment was on himself, as much as he reveled in his opinions about humans.

The long standing resentment of Kazan and his role during Joseph McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee, overshadows his artistic contributions. This extends from Broadway to Hollywood, but he chose to name names during the cold war hearings, a choice that tainted a luminary director of actors. Part of Kazan's life long struggle hurdling the boundaries of immigration is something that culminated in his film America, America. This may also shed light on his empty act of patriotism during McCarthy's HUAC hearings, as he felt it was the "American" thing to do. This makes it difficult for many to appreciate his life as an artist, and unfortunately his memoir, A Life, does not break down this barrier either. Perhaps the only true way to see the man singularly as an artist is to soak in the brilliant moments of cinema he conjured up with some of the silver screen's brightest stars.

Kazan's Selected Filmography
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Gentleman's Agreement
A Street Car Named Desire
Viva Zapata
On the Waterfront
East of Eden
Baby Doll
Splendor in the Grass
America, America
The Last Tycoon