Gentlemen's Agreement (Reviewed on Jan. 13/99)
Starring Gregory Peck
In "Gentlemen's Agreement", Gregory Peck stars as a reporter who assumes a Jewish identity in order to expose the biases of 1940's society. Watching the movie from a 90's perspective, it was a little difficult for me to associate with what Peck's character was trying to do. I think it's safe to say that, in 1999, overt and obvious anti-semeticism has been virtually eliminated. Yes, there remains a number of individuals who still feel that one particular race is superior over another, but that kind of racism is no longer as polite as it was back in the 1940's. Nowadays, people hurl bricks through "offensive" stores and burn crosses; back then, according to "Gentlemen's Agreement", people were refused employment and stared at in public places.
The movie does have a lot of important things to say, it's just that most of it is moot in this day and age. It seems to be saying that back in the 40's, it was okay to be racist, as long as you were subtle and somewhat polite about it.
Peck gives an excellent performance as the writer who starts to alienate his friends as he falls deeper and deeper into his story. His obsession with finding out the truth ends up doing more harm to his life than good. When he discovers that a woman he has been seeing is an anti-semite (a good-natured anti-semite, but an anti-semite nonetheless), he quickly drops her.
An entertaining film throughout, "Gentleman's Agreement" is nevertheless about half an hour too long. This is pretty much a one-note film, and after a while, the subject matter begins to take over and drag down the pace. Despite this, Peck and the other actors managed to hold my interest just because they are such fine actors.
The director, Elia Kazan, was likely taking a huge leap of faith with this picture, but watching it today, it comes off rather tame. It's well made, don't get me wrong, the subject matter just seems like such a non-issue in this day and age.
*** out of ****
David Nusair dnusair@chat.carleton.ca
:"Yesterday, the last professional hockey player to play without a helmet : ; announced he's retiring. His actual words were, `I no play hockey never ; : more.'" -Conan O'Brien :
Dept. of Good Vibes, Come visit my Reel Film Reviews site Carleton University at "http://chat.carleton.ca/~dnusair"
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