The words ring clearly from the Mayfair screen and there is no mistake in confusing their meaning. They are not lost on the wind, but fight completely in the face, so that you sit down and take the strength behind them. Gentleman`s Agreement is the kind of film that contains the usual drama of a Zanuck movie, but the subject is what makes the film so pioneering. Can a gentleman`s Agreement be a good movie while being too twisted? Maybe it`s because I look back on it today, but gentleman`s Agreement mostly plays hokey and sermons. The film was controversial in its day, as was a similar film on the same theme, Crossfire, released the same year (while this film was originally a story of homophobia, which was later turned into anti-Semitism). The film was an unexpected box office success. According to Variety, he earned $3.9 million in rent in the United States in 1948. [9] Gentleman`s Agreement was generally well received by the influential New York Times critic, Bosley Crowther. Crowther stated that „every point about the prejudices that Miss Hobson had to make in her book was made with superior illustration and more graphic demonstration in the film, so that the momentum of her moral indignation is not only broadened, but is strengthened.“ But Crowther also said the film shared the novel`s failures by „narrowly limiting explorations at the social and professional level of the upper class, to which it is immediately exposed.“ He also said that the main character`s shock at the scale of anti-Semitism lacked credibility: „It`s an extraordinarily naïve role in careful analysis.“ [7] I`ve seen a lot of people describe this film as „a play of time“ and a great film, but irrelevant in our time. But this film has lessons that any new generation should learn. The lessons taught in this film can be applied to other forms of prejudice such as sexism, racism and homophobia, among others.

Even today, our society is full of „nice“ people who hate bigotry and intolerance, but who stand idly by when they get there directly. If you watch this movie, it could change everything. The film is as powerful today as it was at the Award for Best Picture a few years after the end of the Hitler genocide in Europe. Gentleman`s Agreement not only won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, but was also one of Fox`s most successful films in 1947. However, the political nature of the film angered the House Un-American Activities Committee, with Elia Kazan, Darryl Zanuck, John Garfield and Anne Revere all called to testify before the committee. Revere refused to testify, and although Garfield appeared, he refused to „give names.“