Gentleman's Agreement | | Cast : | Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield | | Director : | Elia Kazan | | Studio : | Fox Home Entertainme | | Format : | Black & White, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | , 1947 | | DVD Released Date : | March 02, 2004 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | NR (Not Rated) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 11, 2005 | | Summary | Made good by Peck & Garfield in spite of many serious flaws | Content
 | Gentleman's Agreement is Elia Kazan's film from 1947 that stars Gregory Peck as a writer (Green) who pretends to be Jewish to find out about antisemitism. The concept is a good one, but there are many serious flaws to this film. First there is Dorothy McGuire completely miscast as Green's fiancee Kathy. And the idea of confronting relatively subtle antisemitism with no mention whatsoever of the Holocaust which ended just two years before the book and film is like ignoring the six million pound gorilla in the room. But that's not unique to this film; the Holocaust was a taboo subject in film until relatively recently.
The story is an interesting one, but much of it is filled in with preachy dialogue which is overacted and hurts believability. Especially some of the speeches given by the characters, such as when Green tells Ms. Wales (June Havoc), "Feel my hand, it's the same hand, the only thing different is the word 'Christian'". Seems a heavy-handed overreaction to say the least. And an inconsistency here is that Ms. Wales is at first an ally with Green as she tells him about the antisemitic policies of the magazine they work for, but then in the next scene she becomes the antisemite (though she is Jewish). Also the fact that she did the same thing he did (sent out two resumes, one Jewish and one not) seems more contrivance than coincidence.
John Garfield is great as always as Green's Jewish army buddy. But there is a scene with he and Kathy where he tells her to "hit back" at antisemites. Discounting McGuire's mediocre performance ("Can I? Can I?") the answer of hitting back is acceptable, but the film treats it as a profound truth.
Peck and Garfield are both great actors, so the flaws aren't a reflection on them. The film seems to begin on a first rate level, but goes downhill in dialogue quality. I like how Green tells the staff, "I'd feel the same way about this even if I wasn't Jewish myself", and the Jewish guy's reaction, "just let us handle it in our own way". Green's son Tommy is played by Dean Stockwell who was later excellent in "Long Day's Journey into Night". One flaw here is when Green tries to explain to Tommy what antisemitism is. He ends up defining Jewishness in the religious sense, though that's contradicted later by Dr. Lieberman's speech, "since many Jews are not religious there is only such a thing as a Jewish TYPE". I tend to agree with Lieberman (no relation to the rightwing Senator thankfully) on that.
Green's mother is played by the great Anne Revere, who was blacklisted under McCarthy (ironically she's a direct descendant of Paul Revere). The final speech she gives is overly intense and rambling, "suddenly I want to live to be very old...it's not the Russian century or the American century...it's got to be soon"...I don't know, it doesn't work for me.
Garfield was also blacklisted and some still don't forgive Kazan for cooperating with McCarthy. Anyway in spite of all this the film is worth seeing as a rare 1940s take on antisemitism. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 06, 2005 | | Summary | Thought Provoking Though Unconvincing | Content
| Good plot though Peck is unconvincing as a Jew. This may play to the movie's favor inasmuch as we see the predudicial reactions of others at the mere mention that someone is Jewish. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 06, 2005 | | Summary | GUILTY | Content
| It happens all the time. Someone tells a joke--or perhaps you tell one yourself. Just a little joke about "those people." I've done it, and very likely you have done it too. But it's really okay. We're not prejudiced, and we're not hurting any one. It's just a little private laugh between friends.
Based on the celebrated but now sadly neglected novel by Laura Z. Hobson, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT is a story about the little jokes that people tell because they want to fit in--and the jokes that people let pass because they don't want to make a scene. And it is about the way in which such incidents enable still darker prejudices that strike directly at the heart of all the people we make the little jokes about.
Philip Schuyler Green has been employed to write an expose of anti-Semitism in post-WWII America--and he has an inspiration. He will pretend to be Jewish himself and experience anti-Semitism first hand. But the little jokes are soon followed by little patronizations, the patronizations give way to ill-concealed racism and religious prejudice, and what began as a magazine job begins to shake Green to his very foundations. It will threaten his friendships, his relationship with the socialite he hopes to marry, the well-being of his mother, and ultimately the safety of his child.
Critics are fond of pointing out that the film is flawed. That is true enough: the first quarter hour feels a bit slow, leading man Gregory Pecks seems to lack conviction in his earliest scenes, and the script often calls upon its characters to philosophize in an unlikely way; the last scene in the film also rings false. In terms of performance, the cast is stylistically divided: half perform in what might be called "the standard Hollywood style" of the day, half adopt an approach that we recognize as modern. Nonetheless, these become trivial issues in the face of the powerful statement involved; everything goes down before it, and if you unexpectedly and most unpleasantly see yourself reflected in one or more characters or situations, don't feel alone.
Critics are also fond of stating that changing times have left the subject dated. Well, you tell me... when was the last time you heard one of those "little jokes?" True enough, it may not have been about Jews. It might have been about African-Americans. Or Mexicans. Or gays. Or was it, given today's environment, just a little joke about Moslems? To our great shame, the overall point of GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT remains as deadly accurate today as it was more than half a century ago.
The DVD has several bonuses. Most notable are the "Back Story" documentary produced by AMC and the commentary led by critic Richard Schickel. The transfer, although not excellent, is good. And the story is as unfortunately pertinent as ever.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
In Memory of Bob Zeidler, Amazon Reviewer
Greatly Missed and Not Forgotten |
| Rating | | | Date | September 12, 2004 | | Summary | A winning adapatation ! | Content
| Laura Z Hobson novel allowed to adapt to screen this original script in which a writter pretends to be jewish and he will be surprised before such pedestrian and obtuse anti semitism .
One of the most powerful films of the forties .Fine acting of Gregory Peck and astonishing direction of Elia Kazan .
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| Rating | | | Date | April 08, 2004 | | Summary | Superb DVD presentation of classic film | Content
| Kudos to Fox Home Entertainment for a very satisfying DVD presentation of "Gentleman's Agreement," the 1947 Best Picture Academy Award winner. The film itself is deserving of all of the accolades it received, both upon its initial release, and in all the years since. I'm assuming that most of the people considering a purchase of the DVD have already seen the movie, so I'd like to focus here on the incisive commentary by Richard Schickel, long-time film critic for Time magazine. Stars June Havoc and Celeste Holm are also heard on the track, recorded separately, and while their remarks are interesting, this is Schickel's showcase, and he runs with it.
As it happened, I wound up listening to this commentary over the course of three nights. This kind of gradual exposure allowed me to really absorb Schickel's observations. The critic is no sycophantic fan of "Gentleman's Agreement." While he admires its aims, and much of its execution (primarily the achievements of director Elia Kazan), he has some reservations about the script, and some of the acting. He demonstrates a complete understanding of the conventions of 1940s studio filmmaking, but doesn't always accept the necessity that "Gentleman's Agreement" had to adhere to those norms. I didn't always agree with Schickel's criticisms of the film, but they certainly made me think, and I never found them off-putting. Schickel wisely underscores the contribution of John Garfield, whose training in The Group Theater gave him a more realistic acting style than anyone else in the film. "Garfield seems to be acting in an entirely different movie," Schickel says, and it is not a criticism. The Garfield performance leads on a direct path to Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire," also directed by Kazan, and Schickel makes this clear. It is at this point that he makes the single most fascinating statement in the entire commentary, which I won't spoil for you here. Suffice it to say that it's something that may strike you as intuitive, but put into this context, becomes something of a revelation. I've seen Web-based reviews of this DVD that criticize Schickel for doing too much plot summary. I disagree; he doesn't merely give a blow-by-blow account of what's hapening. He mentions plot points, but goes on to offer an opinion about how well the moment is conveyed, or about what real-life parallels the film is touching upon, or something else that is valuable to the viewer. DVD commentaries just don't get much better than this. The other extras on the disc, among them an AMC backstory presentation and a selection of 1947 newsreels, are nice additions. |
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