3 Page Movie Essay

7/31/2019 3 Page Movie Essay

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Heron Chan

Communication 10

Professor Jacki Horwitz

The movie Gentlemans Agreement is about how Jewish was unfairly treated. During

the entire movie, we can see many different kinds of anti-Semitism (a word that means

discrimination of Jews) like by using calling some offensive nicknames to Jews, push Jews to live

in some restricted area, confronting some hurtful jokes against the Jews.. On the other hand, we

can see some people choose to oppose anti-Semitism, for instance, publishing articles discussing

about anti-Semitism, or criticize people who support anti-Semitism.

Philip Schuyler Green (Phil) is the main character in the movie. He does not suffer

prejudice, but are able to understand the feelings of the discriminated group. He pretends a Jewish

for eight weeks, and he understands what the Jews feel when facing against antisemitism, even

though he is not Jewish himself. As people start to realize the bad of antisemitism, they can feel

how the Jews are prejudiced, thus this cause them to fight against antisemitism, or at least also help

others fight their war against their prejudice. Phil also showed his prejudice against female at 8:48

and 11:05 in the movie, just like how some people may hold prejudice B against others even

though they are fighting against prejudice A; which is to say that people with good intentions still

has their own defect, and can still improve themselves too.

John Minify (John) is a company magazine publisher. He has similar character as Phil, but

he is more mature and has more experience. At 35:20, he argues with Phil about the way to oppose

anti-Semitism. He prefers fighting the war by using mass media publishing to change the general

public, while Phil suggests changing individual opinion, which may leads to a victory such as at

41:30, or at defeat such as at 1:26:40.

Kathy Lacey (Kathy) is the fiance of the main character. She is caught between a war

against prejudice that people are fighting. Although Phil has good intentions by fighting against


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anti-Semitism, he causes Kathy frustrated by accusing her of being anti-Semitic when she chooses

to fight anti-Semitism by using remaining silent or avoiding the problem altogether. They have an

opposite point of views on the method of fighting anti-Semitism, Phil thinks that it is actually

promoting anti-Semitism if Kathy choose to remain silent or avoid the problem altogether. He also

feels there are no middle grounds in this war against anti-Semitism, which is how some people

misgive that their loved ones might distant from them because they are too enthusiastic and ignore

their loved ones. Nonetheless, at the end of the movie, she finally makes her decision and chooses

to fight against anti-Semitism alongside with Phi. She fights against anti-Semitism and helps Dave

Goldman out by selling one of the houses she owns to him. The movie ends with a happy ending

that Kathy deciding to fight against anti-Semitism.

Elaine Wales (Elaine) is the secretary for the main character and Irving Weisman (Irving)

is a good friend of John Minify (John), who is also the magazine publisher in this movie. Elaine

and Irving both are suffering anti-Semitism. They both want to the world to be rid of anti-

Semitism, but in the same time, do not want to agitate people who promote anti-Semitism. Elaine

dislikes the ideas of more Jewish being hired into the liberal publishing magazine company,

despite that she is Jewish. She scares that (50:15) some bad Jewish people would disrepute Jewish,

which may give the anti-Semitic people more evidences to promote anti-Semitism. Similarly,

Irving (35:15) also tells John about his fear of stronger anti-Semitism due to the publishing articles

against anti-Semitism. It reflects the contradict feelings of some people are being discriminated

and do not want to suffer the prejudices, but does not want to arouse the anger of anti-Semitic

group of people.

Dave Goldman (Dave) is the main characters best friend. He suffers from prejudice since

birth, which is different from Phil who understands the prejudice felt by the victims through


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empathy. At 1:11:55, a passerby says I told you, I don't like officers. I especially don't like them

if they're yids. This causes Dave to have a violent reaction. At 1:38:45, Dave tells Phil about the

death of a Jewish soldier who was bombed, and the last words he ever heard was give me a hand

with this sheeny, which makes Dave really angry and want to murder someone. The feelings that

Dave felt were much more extreme than compared with Phils feelings because he suffers first

hand from prejudice.

Tommy Green (Tom) is the main characters son. Tom is a teenager who knows nothing

about why people promote prejudice among others. Tom is just meaninglessly continues on the

tradition of what his parents believe in. At 11:14, where Tom finally gets his information about

anti-Semitism from Phil in the first breakfast scene. This helps Tom to know what happens and

start to think about prejudice instead of following blindly what his parents inculcate him.

Professor Fred Lieberman (Professor) is the famous Jewish physicist that Phil and Kathy

meets at 58:00. Professor is a mature guy who able to explain the relation of many prejudices,

religions, race, etc. Professor explains to us about what is a Jewish race, what is meant by being

religious. He then explains about the advantage of not revealing that they are a Jew, or the pride of

calling themselves a Jew. Some people want to sort out the reason of prejudice, which allows

them to better analyze the prejudice they suffer, but not all people can do so. This confusion to

people is harmful because they may not learn how to objectify the situation and distance

themselves away from the prejudice; thus terminate discrimination..

This is a thought-provoking video. Each character shows me different point of views and

attitudes towards anti-Semitism. Some of them try to end prejudice at a larger scale level (John),

or at an individual level (Phil). Another way is to understand the prejudice and sort the finer the

details out (Professor), or to avoid the promoters of prejudice altogether (Elaine and Irving). I also


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can understand some of the consequences of the differences in the coping methods. But most

important, I understand why the victims may prefer to use violence to solve the prejudices they

face (Dave), and ways to start fighting against anti-Semitism (Tom). Though the movie, I learnt

that it is a long-lasting war to make a stand against prejudice.

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3 Page Movie Essay