1947: Gentleman’s Agreement
Definition—gentleman’s agreement: an arrangement, usually unwritten, based upon the trust of both or all parties, rather than being legally binding; often related to interactions between classes and races in business and real estate.
This 1947 Best Picture winner was directed by Elia Kazan and based on the work by Laura Z. Hobson. The film stars Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Dean Stockwell, and June Havoc.
Themes/Truths:
- Good people who decline action perpetuate the racist system.
- Action must be interpersonal to be effective.
- People are good, and people are bad, regardless of race or religion.
- Humans have a natural instinct to set themselves above or apart.
- A marriage works best when two people can converse on the deep things.
We follow our protagonist, Philip Schuyler Green (Phil), a widower with a young son, who has recently moved from California to New York City to live with his mother and write a magazine feature on anti-Semitism. He spends much of the beginning of the film struggling to define his angle for the piece. We learn that his best friend, Dave, is Jewish, and Phil thinks maybe interviewing him could be the angle. The magazine editor wants the feature to convey feelings, not just facts and figures.
And then in a moment of inspiration, Phil realizes that he has just moved to the City, and nobody knows him. He himself will be Jewish for eight weeks.
This film is a character-driven study, and the themes play out over quiet conversations. Phil and his mother. Phil and his girl, Kathy.Kathy and Dave. Phil’s mother and son. Phil and his secretary, Miss Wales. Phil’s mother is his sounding board, and conversations with Tommy help us understand the simple truths.
It’s through these conversations that I learned that there seemed to be an us/them complex even among the Jewish. It’s like we have this innate need to be superior and set apart.
I also noticed that the script is deliberate in its word choice: the characters refer to the Jewish people, or the Jewish religion, instead of using “Jew”.
As the film progresses and Phil shares that he is Jewish, other characters’ true colors appear. In many interactions, we see people who would likely claim to be above anti-Semitism react to Phil and then backpedal or put him at a distance.
The film falls prey a little bit to insta-love between Phil and Kathy, but the consequences of that play out realistically as Phil embraces being Jewish and Kathy wrestles what anti-anti-Semitism really looks like. Kathy’s character represents the good American. When Phil and Kathy get engaged, they are to attend an engagement party at her sister’s place in Connecticut. Phil knows that the premise for his feature, pretending to be Jewish, will only work if it’s a total secret shared only with Kathy and his editor. Kathy insists that her family be let in on the secret. She says, “Oh they won’t tell; they want to fight this awful thing as much as you and I.” The irony is that it’s like she’s decided it’s okay for Phil to be Jewish but only because it’s not real. In her world, anti-Semitism is wrong, but once it gets personal, like being engaged to a Jewish person, it gets awkward.
Meanwhile, Phil’s best friend Dave has just come to town out of the army. He’s been offered a great job in New York and wants to bring his family out. However, he is Jewish. And finding housing for his family has proven impossible because of real estate restrictions. Kathy has a house on her sister’s property,and Phil wants to gift it to his friend so they can all be together. Kathy insists that it will be too difficult for Dave to live there, what with the gentleman’s agreement between neighbors and all.
Further, Tommy gets attacked in the street, and Kathy comforts him on the basis that he’s not really Jewish, so everything will be okay, instead of on the basis that it’s wrong to beat up a Jewish person.
Phil calls her attitude aiding and abetting.
Throughout all this, I really liked Phil’s coworker Ann. She seems a little floozy, but she’s lively and kind and accepts Phil for Phil. Plot-wise she adds some interest to the insta-love situation, too.
The climactic conversation takes place between Kathy and Dave,after things end with Phil. Dave gently but firmly guides Kathy to realize that actions between people are the things that are going to change the world. And so she acts.
This film came out just after WWII. It was perfect timing to address the anti-Semitism issue in the United States. However, I found it interesting that it also came out during the era of Jim Crow and major segregation. Perhaps anti-Semitism was a safer issue to tackle first; maybe this film got the ball rolling in people’s minds.
The film ends with two rays of hope. Dave tells Kathy she is not cast in bronze. People are changeable.
And Phil’s mom, who has spent much of the film being ill, says, “I may stick around for awhile. What if this is everybody’s century?”
