My Favorite Classic Movies: Gentleman's Agreement.

Bert McAnny: What? Now, Green, don't get me wrong. Why, some of my best friends are Jews.

Anne Dettrey: And some of your other best friends are Methodists, but you never bother to say that.

Gentleman's Agreement.

This is one of the really great movies and takes place in one of the most interesting times in US history. This move takes place in the post war years, that time between the end of World War II and the beginning of the Korean War and the 1950s. It also addresses anti-semitism at a time when anti-semitism was wide spread and tolerated. 

Plot.

Gregory Peck's character Philip Schuyler Green is a writer and a returned veteran with a new job at a New York magazine.  He is also a widower and lives with his son and mother. His first assignment is a piece on anti-semitism. Philip Green is not happy with the anti-semitism story because he feels it all has been done. Eventually he finds an angle to his story that would be original, he is going to pretend he is Jewish. He also meets two women so you have a romantic plot.

How I feel about this movie.

This movie is full of great actors, has a great script, and takes place at a very interesting time in US history. I love this movie. In away it brings so much hope to the screen and to me. You look at this movie and see just how bad things were at the time. Imagine the world of 1947. Masses of returned GIs, many with post traumatic stress syndrome and no real treatment because people didn't understand it. The world had changed from one of fabric covered biplanes to jet planes, rockets, and atomic bombs. The Nazi death camps were not something that happened long ago.  The US military was still occupying Germany and Japan. Most of the rest of Europe was still in shambles. One would think that the US would have been exhausted from the war but it was not. This movie reflects that imperfect world, but also a spirit in the US that no problem could not be fixed and that nothing was impossible.  When I see this movie it gives me hope. You see just how bad bigotry was then and how much things have changed. It also makes me wish that the US could find that same attitude today. 

Favorite quote

I love how the movie ends. 

Mrs. Green: You know something, Phil? I suddenly want to live to be very old. Very. I want to be around to see what happens. The world is stirring in very strange ways. Maybe this is the century for it. Maybe that's why it's so troubled. Other centuries had their driving forces. What will ours have been when men look back? Maybe it won't be the American century after all... or the Russian century or the atomic century. Wouldn't it be wonderful... if it turned out to be everybody's century... when people all over the world - free people - found a way to live together? I'd like to be around to see some of that... even the beginning. I may stick around for quite a while.

Movies that are Terrible: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

I have a great idea! Let's make a movie based on what might be the Beatles greatest album!

And to keep it fresh and modern.

We will cast the BeeGees and Peter Frampton as Billy Shears and the Band.

What follows is pure opinion.

I make no claims to being an expert on movies, music, books, poetry, art, fashion or even having good good taste. I do not even claim to be all that mentally stable. If you happen to like this movie please do not take my dislike of the movie as an insult. However, you may want to seek professional help or get a job in Hollywood. 

Watching this movie is just painful.

What really causes pain when watching this movie is that when I watch it I keep thinking... This could have been so good. I really wanted this movie to be great when I was young. Yes I was only four when the Beatles broke up, but I have always liked the Beatles.

What went wrong?

The Music?

That would be an easy place to lay blame. Let's face it, trying to cover songs from Sgt. Pepper's is a bold thing for any artist to try. Many of the songs from the album are actually good and the sound track sold like hot cakes.  I think part of the problem might have been that they tried to tell the entire story with songs plus some narration by George Burns. Making it all fit together was just not really easy. Some songs seemed like they where just stuck in because you had to have them in the movie. One problem I had was they left out Lovely Rita. On the plus side a high point for me was Steve Martin's performance of Maxwell's Silver Hammer. It takes silliness to a level that has got to be seen to be believed. The fight between Maxwell and Billy Shears is a great tip of the lightsaber to Star Wars. 

The Plot?

The Plot is Sgt. Pepper saves the world from the evil greedy villain. It is over the top, silly, and typically Beetles. You want deep? Not going to happen but it is no worse than The Yellow Submarine. I do not think this is the problem.

The Look?

This is part of the problem. It just does not age well at all and was not all that good when first released. The 60s had a sort of natural look that while today is dated at least looks honest. The 70s were all plastic and glitter. Add in some really bad special effects and the entire things feels super dated. The best way I could describe it is to imagine that cocaine addicted Disco Fever Hollywood of the late 1970s decided to mix LSD with their cocaine. On the plus side Lady GaGa would fit right in.

The Cast?

Here is where the problem lies, made all the more tragic because a lot of the cast was wonderful.  A cast that includes Steve Martin, George Burns, Billie Preston, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, and Earth, Wind, and Fire should have made this movie great! The problem is that Bee Gees and Peter Frampton just can not act. Every second the camera is on one of the them the movie dies a little. Here is probably the best example from the movie. It is the funeral of Strawberry Fields, Billy Shears true love. I have seen more emotion over a bad haircut.

The rest of the cast which are the supporting cast just point out just how bad the stars are! Just watch George Burn's face in the clip. He looks like a man that has just lost someone he cares about. That is why this movie is terrible. Not because it is all bad, but because it could have been so good. 

For me this was personal.
I was so excited to see this movie, I was 13 when this movie came out and was excited in the way only a 13 year old fan can be. I was expecting this to be the greatest movie in history. I was so excited to see it, but the movie was out of our local theater before I had the chance! I waited, and a year or so later, it was on HBO. I was so excited to finally get to see the movie. I finally saw it and it was awful. It was just so disappointing. If you want to see just how bad this movie is, I have good news for you. It is on Netflix streaming so knock yourself out.