Gentleman's Agreement - The Oscar Project Part XX

In 1947, the movie “Gentleman’s Agreement” was released and would go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. The War was over and the clean up was still occurring. A big portion of this was the exposure of the Holocaust to the general public and the discussion of the creation of the Jewish state of Israel. The movie takes advantage of what is currently going on to make a statement about Judaism. The film more than any I have watched, other than “Mrs. Miniver”, was a movie with a message.

The movie focuses on journalist Phillip Green, who is a widowed single father, as he attempts to write a story that exposes prejudice against those who are Jewish. He takes the approach of pretending that he is Jewish and writing about his experiences. Over the course of the movie he is refused service and treated differently. He even begins having problems with his personal life as the ruse he is putting up is beginning to effect a new relationship that he has started up. The movie makes a big point that there was a lot of prejudice going on. This makes the movie very political for the time period and I can see this as being part of the beginning of the view as Hollywood trying to be very political with how it gives out its awards. Something that doesn’t seem to be as present today.

Directed by Elia Kazan, the movie doesn’t really break any new movie making ground. It felt standard from that perspective. The real draw to the movie was due to the script and to the acting. Gregory Peck carries the movie and he is one of the few actors that don’t have a problem doing that. He has so much gravitas when he is performing it is almost impossible to look away. He is also able to portray a lot of emotion without trying. The script was also solid and had a natural progression that stuck with me long after the movie was finished.

“Gentleman’s Agreement” was a solid movie that surprised me in how good it was. The only problem is that I don’t view the problem that it is stating as being a problem anymore. It makes the movie less relevant and since it presses its message so hard it loses a lot of its punch. Still a good movie is a good movie and it gets 4 out of 5 stars.