It was the tragic combination of liquor and jazz that led to the downfall of film director and writer Paul Schrader, best known for The Last Temptation of Christ.
Oops! That was the lame excuse of Roxie Hart as relayed by her lawyer Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago for shooting her boyfriend. However, the excuse by Paul Schrader for why he threatened violence upon Donald Trump soon after the election is equally ridiculous. After having been visited by a couple of plainclothes policemen from the NYPD Counter Terrorism, and facing final termination of his failing career, he desperately blamed his violence threat upon wine and drugs. Yeah....right! Just read the threat the unhinged Schrader posted to Facebook last month and ask yourself if you want to fly aboard the same plane as him:
I have spent the last five days meditating on Trump's election. Upon consideration, I believe this is a call to violence. I felt the call to violence in the 60's and I feel it now again. This attack on liberty and tolerance will not be solved by appeasement. Obama tried that for eight years. We should finance those who support violence resistance. We should be willing to take arms. Like Old John Brown, I am willing to battle with my children. Alt right nut jobs swagger violence. It's time to actualize that violence, Like by Civil War Michigan predecessors I choose to stand with the black, the brown and the oppressed.
However, now we must forget this threat because it was jazz and liquor, I mean wine and drugs, that caused him to make that threat. Not only that, poor little Schrader is now playing the victim card as chronicled by the Hollywood Reporter:
A recent anti-Trump Facebook post penned by the legendary screenwriter prompted a visit from two plainclothes policemen from the NYPD's Counter Terrorism unit. In a late-night missive, Schrader dubbed the coming Trump presidency "a call to violence" and suggested "we should be willing to take arms. Like Old John Brown." The Taxi Driver and Raging Bull writer quickly deleted the post but not before law enforcement noticed.
"A couple of cabernets and half an Ambien, and God knows what you'll post," he tells THR. "That is something that you have to be careful about because Facebook is not private correspondence."
Though Schrader regretted the reference to the 19th century abolitionist who called for armed insurrection, he stands by the sentiment that we need to be vigilant in the face of intolerance. "Name-calling, racial profiling, bullying — these are not the hallmarks of freedom," he adds. "Ten years ago, Trump's behavior was considered not acceptable. And because we've lowered the bar so low, we hardly know where the bar is anymore."
And while he's bracing for "a culture of intimidation," as evidenced by his own brush with the law, Schrader says he will be less "intemperate" in the future (after all, Taxi Driver is said to have inspired John Hinckley Jr. in his assassination attempt of President Reagan).
"This is not my fight anymore. It was my fight in the '60s," he says. "I'm prepping a film now. I don't have time for calls from the police."
Still, Schrader said the officers showed equal concern about the director's safety given an uptick in hate mail he has received after his original post was picked up by Infowars.com.
Yeah, let's all have a pity party for poor little Paul who is suffering oh so much at the hands of people who angrily reacted to his threat of violence against Trump.
Exit question: Will Newsweek writer Kurt Eichenwald also blame his unhealthy flirtation with internet child porn, which he later lied about, upon cabernet and Ambien?
