GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT

It’s sad to me that the theme of this movie is one that we are still dealing with 60 years later. While anti-Semitism may not be as openly rampant as it was in the 1940s, the assumption of gentile superiority still exists and has been joined with the assumption of white superiority, heterosexual superiority, Christian superiority, and cis-gender superiority. And of course, all of these were preceded by the long-time assumption of male superiority. Sadly, there have always been those in society who imagine it is their right to tell others what their place will be. 1948’s Oscar-winning film, Gentleman’s Agreement, addresses the assumption of gentile superiority head-on. And it does so superbly.

Gregory Peck plays Philip Green, a widowed writer who has moved from California to New York City with his son (a very young Dean Stockwell) and mother. The progressive magazine company he goes to work for requests him to write a story on anti-Semitism. Being a new citizen of the city, he decides he can use this to his advantage, and tell all those in his new job and social circle, that he is a Jew (even though he isn’t). It takes no time at all for this information to spread throughout the company and for him to begin experiencing the belittling stings of discrimination. This discrimination eventually gets extended to his son and to his new girlfriend. The discrimination is dealt with from all levels, from outright refusal to be given a hotel room or be allowed to live within certain neighborhoods, down to Jews who have changed their names in order to better fit in and who don’t want other Jews to have the same advantages they have obtained. The movie also addresses how being Jewish is not an actual race, but an identity, and how most religiously non-practicing Jews still identified as Jewish, and the socially constructed reasons for this.

The height of conflict comes from the relationship between Phillip and his eventual fiancée, Kathy (Dorothy McGuire). She is not anti-Semitic (the article Phillip is writing was her initial idea), but through Phillip’s “Jewish” eyes, he can’t help but come to see her as a contributor to the spread of such discrimination because of her acceptance of social norms, and her desire to politely excuse it when confronted by it. Providing heart, insight, and non-conformity to such prejudices is co-worker Anne (Celeste Holmes), who radiates with every scene she shares with Phillip. Celeste won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this performance, and one can easily see why. As a viewer of all their worlds, you can’t help but root for Anne to hopefully win over Phillip’s affection.

The goal of the film is to address discrimination bluntly by clobbering it. Speaking out is not the job of the brave, but the job of all, regardless of how disrupting it can be to the status quo. This film was highly controversial when it premiered. Many of the actors (and director Elia Kazan) were blacklisted and called up to appear before the egregious House Un-American Committee of the day. The clobbering of the evils of discrimination is needed just as much today as when this film debuted. The world Phillip's mother predicted his article would usher, hasn't happened. But for many, we will continue to strive for it.