Those who are too young to have lived amidst the post Second World War culture of the U.S. might be shocked to know that, in the aftermath of Hitler’s defeat and when the Holocaust was fresh in everyone’s mind, anti-Semitism was still widespread in America. Jews sometimes had difficulty getting work, housing or finding a place to eat. Based on the novel by Laura Z. Hobson, Gentleman’s Agreement exposes that reality and makes a powerful, although somewhat heavy-handed statement against prejudice.
The film follows Phil Green (Gregory Peck), a writer who takes on a new job for a liberal-minded New York-based magazine. His first assignment is to write about anti-Semitism, which he decides to experience first-hand by posing as a Jew. Phil encounters everything he expects – some employers who are willing to hire him as a gentile brush him off immediately if he applies with a Jewish-sounding name. A doctor warns him about the business practices of ‘some’ Jewish physicians. A ritzy resort refuses to rent him a room. Phil isn’t just gathering information for his story – he’s on a crusade. And his target isn’t just the obvious anti-Semite, but also those who quietly go along, or who disapprove but don’t stand up and say so. His absolute stance on this eventually brings him into conflict with the woman he loves (Dorothy McGuire) who happens to have come up with the story idea in the first place.
Gentleman’s Agreement is heavy-handed in its preachiness, and this can only partly be attributed to its era – a time when anti-Semitism was far more common in everyday life than it is today. The film’s point could have been made without Phil making so many morally superior speeches, and it would have hit home more powerfully if it had been made that way. However, the point is still made well. What makes the film most effective isn’t its criticism of those who are openly anti-Semitic, nor even those who keep their anti-Jewish feelings under wraps. Its real power comes when the film exposes those who cluck their tongues at anti-Semitism, but don’t really do anything about it. The uncompromising moral stance of Phil, and the movie, makes it difficult for audience members to watch and not question their own day-to-day behaviour.
The performances here are good, particularly that of Dorothy McGuire, who faced the challenge of playing a character who is well intentioned, but not quite as morally pure as she thinks she is. Peck has the right voice to deliver sermons, but his performance would have been more appealing if they’d given him fewer to deliver.
Gentleman’s Agreement was honoured with multiple Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and to Elia Kazan for best director. It’s ironic that Kazan would be honoured for directing a film about taking a firm stand on principle, and then turn around five years later and rat on his friends before the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee, but who says that life must always imitate art?
