Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
"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."
- Anne Revere as Mrs. Green
A movie about anti-Semitism in post-war America that doesn't stoop to cheap sensationalism to get its point across? What a pleasant surprise! I can't remember how it was recommended to me but thank you, whoever.
It even offers one of the most inspirational lines I've ever heard in a Hollywood movie: The hero's girl (Dorothy McGuire), is horrified when faced with her own apathy in the face of everyday racism and prejudice, and the hero's best friend, played by a brilliant John Garfield, gently explains:
"You're not cast in bronze, sweetie." A reminder that we're pliable, we can improve ourselves. Dangit if that line doesn't make me smile.
John Garfield is an interesting (and sad) bullet point in the history of prejudice himself: Born Jacob Garfinkle, he was advised to not participate in this movie because it could potentially stir up a hornet's nest, but he wasn't deterred. He went before the House of Unamerican Activities Committee for his troubles (funny how trying to convey the message that people should be halfway decent to each other meant you were a traitor to your country), was blacklisted (which obviously cut his promising career short) and died from a heart condition potentially worsened by the ordeal. Makes your blood boil.