Gentleman's Agreement & The Sun Also Rises

[poetman]

Anyone seen either of these films? Any thoughts on them?

thanks

 

[Harp]

Gentleman's Agreement, which starred Gregory Peck is
an excellent study of anti-semitism; controversial for its postwar
release but provocative as was another of Peck's films,
To Kill A Mockingbird.

I believe The Sun Also Rises to be the best of Hemingway's
writing although its film adaptation somewhat tame compared to
its underlying subject.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Gentleman's Agreement was about as weak tea a movie as it might be possible to make regarding anti-Semitism.
The moral of the film seems to be "Be careful about dissing Jews 'cause they might really turn out to be Gentiles." I mean REALLY. How in the world do you make a movie about anti-Semitism. In 1947. And never mention. The Holocaust. Not once? [huh] I mean talk about your 800 Lb. Gorillas, eh?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Gentleman's Agreement, which starred Gregory Peck is
an excellent study of anti-semiticism; controversial for its postwar
release but provocative as was another of Peck's films,
To Kill A Mockingbird.

Bugs Bunny language! lol

.

 

[Harp]

Bugs Bunny language! lol

.

Ahhhh...correction made.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Gentleman's Agreement was about as weak tea a movie as it might be possible to make regarding anti-Semitism.
The moral of the film seems to be "Be careful about dissing Jews 'cause they might really turn out to be Gentiles." I mean REALLY. How in the world do you make a movie about anti-Semitism. In 1947. And never mention. The Holocaust. Not once? [huh] I mean talk about your 800 Lb. Gorillas, eh?

I actually liked it a whole lot because it addressed nefarious forms of socially acceptable (for the time) antisemitism.

 

[Rick Blaine]

I actually liked it a whole lot because it addressed nefarious forms of socially acceptable (for the time) antisemitism.

I guess my point is that to have a film about anti-Semitism where the protagonist is not, in fact, a Jew, seems to me to be a cop-out.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the idea was more to make a film about anti-Semitism that the mass Gentile audience could directly identify with -- had they tried to tell an actual story of the Holocaust, for example, they'd have a film pigeonholed as "ethnic," which in the context of late-forties mass-market Hollywood would have been seen as a guaranteed box-office flop. Probably not too palatable an explanation to modern sensibilities, but Hollywood moguls in 1947 didn't reflect today's sensibilities.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Quite right

I think the idea was more to make a film about anti-Semitism that the mass Gentile audience could directly identify with -- had they tried to tell an actual story of the Holocaust, for example, they'd have a film pigeonholed as "ethnic," which in the context of late-forties mass-market Hollywood would have been seen as a guaranteed box-office flop. Probably not too palatable an explanation to modern sensibilities, but Hollywood moguls in 1947 didn't reflect today's sensibilities.

In fact in Neal Gabler's "An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood" the author states quite explicitly that the Movie Moguls, due to their perception of their own ethnic "otherness" were loathe to touch upon much of anything that might draw into the spotlight their religion. The vast majority of movies produced by Hollywood in the twenties, thirties, and forties contained no identifiably Jewish characters. Although an astonishing majority of the people producing the movies were ethnically if not religiously (i. e. practicing) Jews. Not only that but almost exclusively first & second generation Ashkenazi (eastern European ) Jewish imigrants.

 

[Jeynne]

I thought Gentleman's Agreement was a great film. (And the novel was just as good.)

It's not just about people that are openly anti-semitic. It's about the "nice" people that are so against anti-semitism, yet they help further it along by sitting silently by and allowing other people to make jokes and stereotypical, and often untrue, comments about Jewish people. It also shows how anti-semitism was an issue among Jews themselves (as shown in this passage from the book):

"They don't hire any girls that are loud and vulgar. What makes you think they'll suddenly start?"
"Well, it isn't only that." She suddenly turned on him with spirit. "You're just sort of heckling me, Mr. Green. You know the kind that just starts trouble in a place like this, and the kind that doesn't, like you or me, so what's the sense of pinning me down?"
"You mean because we don't look especially Jewish."
"Well--" She smiled confidently.
That was it, then. They were O.K. Jews; they were "white" Jews; with them about, the issue could lie mousy and quiet.

I don't think it was a cop-out that Phil wasn't really Jewish. He became more conscious of anti-semitism by posing as a Jew. He sees, firsthand, what they had to go through. Sure, at the end of the day, he could just tell everyone the truth and be done with it. But that doesn't change the way he felt when he had to listen to the derogatory comments people made to/about him, or the things his son had to go through. (I don't want to give anything away.)

The only thing that I didn't like was the very end of the movie. Given everything that Phil had learned...It just didn't make sense to me.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Jeynne, very well said!

 

[Jeynne]

Thank you.

 

[Rick Blaine]

I guess my major 'beef' w/ the film (as well as many similar 'message' films of the period) is that the acceptability of "the other" was really gauged & measured by how far he/she deviated from the "normative, standard or control", the defacto center which was; white, Protestant, Christian & male"

According to the film, Jewishness is mainly a matter of not being Gentile (& being the target of bigotry because of that). So when Gregory Peck can "pass" as a Jew it is equal to the real thing. And because Jews have to be "just like us" in order to be given (pity) privileges the film never gets around to acknowledging Judaism's long and vibrant cultural history. In the final analysis it winds up suppressing anything remotly Jewish to be more acceptable to a Gentile audience--not, you'll agree, an acceptable path to goodwill & tolerance.