Evan D. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. Gentleman’s Agreement is the twentieth film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. One thing I have noticed — and written about! — working my way through the history of Best Picture winners is how, despite the diversity in quality of these films or how they hold up today, you can almost always see why the voters chose that film in that moment. Sometimes — with films like Casablanca or It Happened One Night -- the winner is just a really phenomenal film. Other times — think Cimmeron or The Broadway Musical — the winner represents some evolution in film worth recognizing even if the picture itself has issues. The third type of film honored is one that is perfectly of the moment, a movie that captures some spirit of the year in which it won, often so much so that its hard to imagine it getting made today. In my mind, Elia Kazan’s Gentleman’s Agreement is one of this last type of Best Picture winner.
That is not to say that Gentleman’s Agreement is bad or wholly unworthy. Kazan’s film about a gentile journalist posing as Jewish to experience the full brunt of antisemitism in America is well crafted and certainly has its heart in the right place. Still it is hard to imagine this movie getting made, let alone winning Best Picture, any time other than the immediate aftermath of World War II. Schuyler Green (Gregory Peck) is a widowed journalist, well known for his in depth investigative work. He and his family are summoned from California to New York by the editor of the paper who wants Schuyler to do an exposé on antisemitism. Schuyler is hesitant, not for any lack of sympathy but because he doesn’t feel as if he has the sort of credibility on the matter. After turning over ideas in his head, he finally realizes that the only way to get this assignment right is to pose as a Jewish man and see if he is treated any differently. What Schuyler discovers is even more sinister and deep rooted than even he had anticipated and it threatens to upend relationships with those he holds dearest. For as fraught a subject as it has, at no point does Gentleman’s Agreement feel poorly intentioned. Exposing the antisemitism lurking in the United States was already a noble cause and it had to be especially brave to make this film immediately after the Americans had just won a war combatting a deeply antisemitic enemy overseas. It is nonetheless difficult to imagine a movie like this being made and having the same impact in today’s context. The idea of someone moonlighting as a minority and credibly writing from any place outside of their long-standing perch of privilege is not easy to get past. Kazan’s film is also hyper-focused on its subject. Again its morals are right when it comes to exposing anti-semitism but that mission does at times come at the expense of developing the characters and overall consistency of message. We see that Schuyler is a passionate advocate against the antisemites and the casual antisemitism from polite socialites. That part of the message is something Gentlemen’s Agreement is especially smart about. Kazan and his film recognize that the insidiousness of bigotry is how it seeps into the hearts and minds of even those who claim to care. On the other hand the movie delivers this message scene after scene to rooms full of white people with nary a mention of other forms of bigotry. At one point Schuyler decries the anti-Jewish hiring discrimination of the magazine he writes for, completely ignoring that the entire staff is white. Of course the film has its focus but excluding any real criticism of racism dulls the impact somewhat. Despite the bluntness of the script, Peck delivers with a heartfelt and passionate performance. Dorothy McGuire, who plays Schuyler’s love interest Kathy, embodies an important role as the socialite activist who harbors her own prejudices but struggles to make her character feel genuine. The real standout though is John Garfield, playing Schuyler’s Jewish childhood friend. He joined the film in a featured role because he believed in the message and you can feel it in the performance. His Dave is the only character that truly feels fully realized. All of its triumphs and faults make Gentleman’s Agreement feel like an important but fleeting winner of Hollywood’s biggest prize. Fighting antisemitism is still a noble goal but the way this film goes about it is undoubtedly a relic of the late 1940s. Keeping that context in mind, the film works but you can feel its warts watching now. 6/10
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