Mark Steyn has an excellent piece up on Elia Kazan which contrasts the courage and principles of the man with the Hollywood Communists, who refused to admit and defend who and what they were. Here's an excerpt:
That’s what all those Hollywood and Broadway Communists did. They were the polite front of an ideology that led to mass murder, and they expected Kazan to honour their gentleman’s agreement. In those polite house parties Gregory Peck goes to in Kazan's movie, it’s rather boorish and tedious to become too exercised about anti-semitism. And likewise, at gatherings in the arts, it’s boorish and tedious to become too exercised about Communism – no matter how many faraway, foreign, unglamorous people it kills. Elia Kazan was on the right side of history. His enemies line up with the apologists for thugs and tyrants. Whose reputation would you bet on in the long run?
At the same site are some Steynesque thoughts on other famous people who passed away in the year 2003, from Amin to Zevon. (via Samizdata)