crossthreaded

I made it through the last forty minutes of “A Gentleman’s Agreement” last night, and it was great. The movie speaks to getting up and doing something to correct something when we see it isn’t right.

The best part of the whole movie occurs when Gregory Peck’s character’s son comes home upset from playing with some kids. Peck is arguing with his fiance about why she passively allows anti-semitism to occur around her. Peck leaves her, and he tends to his son. He asks him what happened, and the boy says he was called names by some other kids for being Jewish. He never once let on that he was, in fact, not Jewish. His dad said that that it was a good thing he didn’t. It was good, even if his son was hurt, because, if he did admit that he was not Jewish, he would be admitting to the world that there is something superior in not being Jewish. He could have done so to make the kids get off his case, but he didn’t.

I want to be that kid when I grow up.

We began watching “A Gentleman’s Agreement,” starring Gregory Peck, last night. The movie was made in 1947, but it seems to still ring true today on several levels. I started to nod off during the middle of the movie last night more because I was exhausted than the movie being boring.

Peck plays a writer who moves to New York City to write a series of magazine articles about anti-semitism. He searches and searches for a way to present the issue in a new way that will truly grab people by the collar and make them pay attention. World War II had been over for two years, and the subject had been overdone in a lot of ways, especially in always being presented with “facts and figures.” Facts and figures are what Peck has to try to avoid in his writing, according to his editor.

Peck hits upon pretending to be Jewish himself as a way to get at the heart of anti-semitism, and this causes a lot of problems with his fiance, and in his world of work. On top of everything else, kids at school make comments to his son about being Jewish, and his mom has heart problems.

Winning three Oscars, being nominated for more, and winning several other awards, this movie struck a chord with the American public at a time when the nation of Israel was coming into being and the Second World War was finally over.