Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

"Some of your best friends are Methodists, too, but you never seem to mention that."

Do you, as do I, have to fight an urge to run for cover when the term "message movie" crops up? Not to worry, because in this case GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT (1947) is a fine movie with a great cast, excellent pacing, and just enough wit and verve to highlight its headon treatment of post-World War Two anti-semitism.

Gregory Peck plays Philip Green, writer for a NEWSWEEK-type weekly magazine, who sells himself on the subject of anti-semitism and goes semi-underground as "Philip Greenberg," a Jewish American who is determined to negotiate his life and get to all the good stuff (club memberships, social life, personal acceptance) that the then-WASP aristocracy controlled with varying degrees of denial and arrogance.

Phil finds himself not only making waves trying to do some of the things he could effortlessly have done the week before (check into a ritzy resort, for one example), but his fictional life spills over into his personal life almost before he realizes it. His son is ostracized at school and called a "Dirty Jew"; his girlfriend (beguilingly portrayed by Dorothy McGuire), while originally supportive, backs down and asks Phil to drop the Jewish moniker.

Along the way other veins of anti-semitism are mined. These include Phil's own secretary, a self-loathing type who changed her name from "Walinsky" to "Wales," knowing that "Wales" was the only way to get a job at the supposedly-liberal magazine. Also, a coterie of Manhattan-based Jewish businessmen get wind of what the magazine is researching, go to Phil's boss the editor, and ask him kindly to drop the subject and let them handle it "their way." According to the Internet Movie Data Base, this scene had a real-life origin: Early in the film's production, Twentieth Century-Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck (a German-American Christian) was confronted by a number of Jewish studio heads who asked him please not to make a movie on the subject of anti-semitism.

Peck's quiet integrity as an actor goes a long way toward selling this show, even in places where it might get a little preachy. He is surrounded by a marvelous supporting cast, including not only Dorothy McGuire but Jane Wyatt, Celeste Holm, young Dean Stockwell as his school-age son, and John Garfield (born Julius Garfinckel), Phil's Army buddy who offered the insight that anti-semitism is everywhere, whether conscious, personal and cruel, or aloof, unacknowledged and institutional.

GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT is by all measure a good solid film that can be viewed with profit even today. While watching it, I was reminded of later attempts by other groups (including, but not limited to African-Americans, Feminists, gay people and Hispanics) to make the case that they, too, had been excluded from the American dream due to stereotypes, prejudices, and the failure of good people to come to their aid. Amazon's low DVD price makes this film especially attractive.

April 27, 2008

Entertaining Yet Disturbing Film! Too Bad About the DVD!

There are many aspects about this film that I really liked in addition to the very pertinent and disturbing coverage on the issue of discrimination. While anti-Semitism is addressed specifically in the film, one can easily apply the issues raised to all sorts of discrimination and for this reason, this film ages rather well and remains entertaining for audiences today. I liked the fact that no overboard, irritating soundtracks or scores that were so prevalent among films of those days e.g. "Best Years of Our Lives" and "The 3rd Man" was included in this film. It was a quiet as can be and for me, it made me enjoy the film a lot better. I thought the acting and screenplay were quite good and although this film is not one of the great classics, it is still a good film to watch.

My real beef is with the quality or should I say lack of it of this DVD version. Although the Special Features are better than most and includes a short documentary about the making of the film, the sound quality which comes in both Stereo and Mono options are just average but the picture quality is really very poor. The reason for this is that unlike other Fox releases such as "The Song of Bernadette" or "The Grapes of Wrath", this version has not been restored or remastered in any way. This means this film is riddled with visual imperfections from start to finish which takes away greatly from one's overall enjoyment of an otherwise pretty good film.

Here's hoping with the advent of Blu-Ray that they decide to do a proper restoration job adding sound options for at least Dolby Digital or DTS/THX 5.1 surround sound to cater to today's audiences. My advice in the meantime is to avoid this particular version of the DVD until a much better restored/remastered version becomes available. April 15, 2008

As they say and I hope

I'm very satisfaced with this product it's exactly what they said it's and I was hoping to recive.
It was shipped perfectly too.
I pologice for my english it's the better I've been able :-) March 28, 2008

GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT

GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT - 1947

RATED - NR but probably G/PG for mature themes.

RATINGS - 29 Amazon (4.5/5), 63,325 Netflix (3.7/5), 2,612 IMDB (7.3/10), TV Guide (5/5)

STARRING - Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield.

AWARDS - 3 Academy Awards including BEST PICTURE plus 5 Academy nominations. AFI TOP 100 Movies nominee.

THEMES - Prejudice, discrimination, justice, morality.

STORY - Gregory Peck stars as successful report Philip Schuyler who is given an assignment to write on anti-semitism. Looking for an angle for the story, he poses as a Jewish man with his son (he is recently widowed). At first, it's just about getting a more inside look for the story. It becomes very personal when both he and his son actually experience the prejudice he's writing about. Interspersed is a romance with Kathy Lacy (Dorothy McGuire), the divorced niece of the editor. While she is supportive and actually initiated the idea for the story, Philip finds there is a real difference between those who intellectually oppose prejudice and those willing to actually do something about it. When he finds out she owns a home in an area where there is a GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT not to ever sell to anyone Jewish, the romance hits the rocks and he turns into a crusader for the Jewish people. While the story may be somewhat outdated (it was actually shocking in 1947) the question to ask ourselves is where are we more like Kathy in areas of our lives that we should be outspoken about. Where can we make a difference by standing up for those who are experiencing discrimination or something less than equality? A film well worth watching and discussing. www.lusreviews.blogspot.com.

March 16, 2008

Anti-Semitism in the 1940's

This is a very interesting, intense film that must have been really amazing in its time. From the perspective of this day and age, one can only imagine how it must have been taken. As such it is a valuable history lesson and one can, of course, draw parallels to today's versions of racial intolerance.

As far as film, I found it rather preachy, but again one has to forgive that because they were trying to make their point. I found it long, too, and wonder how they could have condensed the many many scenes in which the principles, Peck and Malone, argued about their points of view.
I also had to feel that there were some human issues that were sidetracked, such as the wisdom of subjecting the boy to the hatred of his schoolmates, just for the sake of the father's project. It seems that the "project" got ahold of him and had a life of its own and he felt morally justified in sacrificing everyone else's happiness for it. This side of the story was not told, so I did find it somewhat one-noted and tedious. It could have been a much more interesting story if the issue was not presented in such a black and white way and the characters were not all so one-sided, but that was not the intention of the movie makers, obviously.

Gregory Peck is a gorgeous man whom I could look at for hours, which is a good thing--otherwise I might have given up early on. I didn't find Dorothy Malone to be very beautiful so it was hard to see the instant attraction there. She did have a certain softness which was appealing, but mostly she came across as rather dowdy. As many others have noted, Celeste Holm brightens the screen in her every appearance and, for a while, I was hoping that Peck would leave poor Dorothy to her relatives up in Darien and get it on with the sparkling Celeste.

"Ma" was played by Anne Revere with the sort of salt-of-the-earth, down home sentimentality that was loved at the time, which sort of makes me cringe. Likewise the John Garfield character was another stock character---the good ol' war buddy who suffers but can do no wrong--that likewise makes me want to run out of the room, but again these types were obviously much beloved in their day.

This is a film that requires the modern day viewer to make quite a few allowances for the attitudes of the time. (Don't look for Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Indians or Arabs here!) Everyone may not want to bother, but for those who do, there is still something to enjoy. February 28, 2008

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