Benefit
Bluelighter
Gentleman's Agreement, starring Gregory Peck, is another in a long line of films from the 1940s that attempted to blend Hollywood melodrama with a social conscience. Some of those films, like The Grapes of Wrath, succeeded in doing just that. Most of those films, like Gentleman's Agreement, failed.
Gentleman's Agreement is about a popular reporter who poses as a Jewish man for a few weeks in order to do a story on anti-Semitism. Predictably, he encounters anti-Semitic prejudice from basically every sector of society including his girlfriend who is not overtly prejudiced but turns out to be subconsciously opposed to the idea of being married to a Jewish person. One of the major failures of the film is that after that revelation is made, the girlfriend character is forgiven and we assume that the two of them get married anyway, with the promise that she will try to be more open-minded in the future. If the film actually wanted to make a social statement, he would have kicked her out on her spoiled anti-Semitic ass. Not only that but Dorothy McGuire, the actress who plays this character, looks like a cross between Nibbler from Futurama and a coyote.
The film in general is just boring. It's basically the same scene played out over and over: Gregory Peck goes somewhere, says he's Jewish, gets the cold shoulder, then fights with his girlfriend about it. It doesn't even actually say anything insightful about society, other than that discrimination exists. And if you think Jews had it bad in 1947, you should probably go back in time and hang out with a black family for a few days. Not to mention, Gregory Peck is utterly wooden in his performance. I hope he is better in Twelve Angry Men (which I haven't seen yet), or I will be pretty disappointed.
This is just a bad film. It should not be considered a classic. But it is, which I feel is discriminating against good films that aren't considered classic. The world is such an unjust mistress!
Gentleman's Agreement is about a popular reporter who poses as a Jewish man for a few weeks in order to do a story on anti-Semitism. Predictably, he encounters anti-Semitic prejudice from basically every sector of society including his girlfriend who is not overtly prejudiced but turns out to be subconsciously opposed to the idea of being married to a Jewish person. One of the major failures of the film is that after that revelation is made, the girlfriend character is forgiven and we assume that the two of them get married anyway, with the promise that she will try to be more open-minded in the future. If the film actually wanted to make a social statement, he would have kicked her out on her spoiled anti-Semitic ass. Not only that but Dorothy McGuire, the actress who plays this character, looks like a cross between Nibbler from Futurama and a coyote.
The film in general is just boring. It's basically the same scene played out over and over: Gregory Peck goes somewhere, says he's Jewish, gets the cold shoulder, then fights with his girlfriend about it. It doesn't even actually say anything insightful about society, other than that discrimination exists. And if you think Jews had it bad in 1947, you should probably go back in time and hang out with a black family for a few days. Not to mention, Gregory Peck is utterly wooden in his performance. I hope he is better in Twelve Angry Men (which I haven't seen yet), or I will be pretty disappointed.
This is just a bad film. It should not be considered a classic. But it is, which I feel is discriminating against good films that aren't considered classic. The world is such an unjust mistress!
