Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

I am beginning to have a clear picture of the films Paul Haggis must have in his collection. Those he admires most and after which he models his writing.

Gentleman's Agreement is ostensibly about anti-Semitism and how terrible it is with Gregory Peck going under-cover as it were as a Jew to write a magazine article about the impacts of anti-Semitism. The problem is that it's about a gentile going under cover as a Jew to expose gentile beliefs and most of the movie is spent on conflicts between Peck and his in-on-it fiance (who he's known for about 5 minutes) because of the considerable strain it puts on their relationship and the way she chooses to handle anti-Semitism by not handling it. While Peck wants to fight every fight, the fiance would rather turn her nose up at it but not say anything in the moment. Then we get the real Jew in on the action who is only visibly persecuted once in the film and has trouble finding an apartment (but there is no on-screen confrontation). The trouble with the whole movie is that while it does expose some of the horrible things done to the Jewish population, it's really all about liberal gentile guilt. The terrible things are done to Peck who we know isn't Jewish so those people watching the movie who are anti-Semitic would think oh that's terrible that one of ours is being treated that way not oh that's terrible that we treat Jews that way.

In addition to those considerable problems, the movie is preachy and speech-y (a la Haggis). The movie turns around when the fiance learns she must take some form of action and rents her place to the Jewish friend thus resolving the conflict between she and Peck. Unfortunately, the whole movie comes off as condescending. No, we shouldn't tolerate any sort of hate or hate crime but slugging men in restaurants is not the answer either. I understand this movie was forward for its time and caused considerable trouble for those involved thanks to McCarthy era witch-hunting but it doesn't hold up and shouldn't be used as a model for social action movies now.