77: Gentleman's Agreement

 

77 years ago this Monday (November 11, 1947) “Gentleman's Agreement” – a film directed by Elia Kazan with Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, Celeste Holm, etc. premiered.

The movie (based on the 1947 book of the same name by Laura Hobson) follows Peck’s Character (Philip Green) who is a Journalist and a Gentile (ie a Non-Jew) who poses as a Jew to Friends and Strangers in order to show the overt and covert Anti-Semitism (ie. hating Jews) that prevailed throughout every level of American Society.

It was produced, filmed and released completely after World War 2 and the Holocaust (ie the murder of 6 Million Jews by the Germans.)

The film was an unexpected Box Office success. It was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won 3 (for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director.)

In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Even though it was made 77 years ago and is in Black-and-White it continues to have meaning today – with the rise of Anti-Semitism inside the United States and in most countries around the world.

My Mom made me watch the movie when I was a Teenager and living in Germany (learning about the Holocaust) to show me that even after the Holocaust ended in 1945 there were and are still many attacks on Jews (in the US and around the world.) She ordered it on VHS from the States – I still have that copy  - but rewatched it via Streaming.

If you have a chance to watch this movie you definitely should because it shows you the two kinds of discrimination (the overt/open kind that is easy to see and the covert/hidden kind that is harder to see, but tends to be everywhere.)