I'm a real sucker for boarding school stories. Dead Poets Society and The Emperor's Club are two of my favorite movies ever, and I liked the school plot line from Scent of a Woman. Thus I also enjoyed this movie, though perhaps not as much as I'd hoped. It explores various themes including anti Semitic prejudice, interfaith romance, friendship, class snobbery, honor, and so on.
The story is set in the 1950's at an expensive boys' prep school. David Green, is at the school to help its football team win, replacing former quarterback, Charlie, who is naturally jealous. David fears rejection because he is from a working class family. Not only that, but he is Jewish and is encouraged to hide the fact due to anti Semitic sentiments among the students, faculty, and parents. Further complications arise when David becomes involved with a pretty girl named Sally, whom Charlie claims as his own girlfriend.
The entire issue of anti Semitic prejudice is well explored. When it is discovered that the previously well liked David is Jewish, he is harassed with Charlie as ringleader. Not only that, but his religion taints his peer's perception of him such that, despite his earlier popularity, it becomes easy for the jealous, vengeful Charlie to push off his own cheating on an exam onto David, after crib notes are discovered by the teacher. Actually, perhaps most distressing is the Jewish ethnic jokes that are told in front of David and considered quite acceptable early in the movie, before his fellow students realize that he is in fact Jewish.
The superficial Sally does appear to be simply a bigot, I admit, when she no longer wishes to continue dating David once she discovers that he is Jewish. However, a girl in her situation might not be the villain of the piece, but genuinely anguished at having to make such a painful decision for legitimate rather than racist reasons. Dating often naturally progresses to marriage, and in reality, interfaith marriages are fraught with difficulties, especially if the couple has children. A Christian / Jewish marriage would certainly have its challenges. I applaud this movie's general anti bigotry theme, but take exception to its message that inter faith dating is just all warm and fuzzy.
The young actors acquit themselves well in this movie. Chris O'Donnell, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon went on to become famous stars. All in all, this is generally quite an engaging movie that makes a point of supposed friends proving otherwise because of racial issues.
The story is set in the 1950's at an expensive boys' prep school. David Green, is at the school to help its football team win, replacing former quarterback, Charlie, who is naturally jealous. David fears rejection because he is from a working class family. Not only that, but he is Jewish and is encouraged to hide the fact due to anti Semitic sentiments among the students, faculty, and parents. Further complications arise when David becomes involved with a pretty girl named Sally, whom Charlie claims as his own girlfriend.
The entire issue of anti Semitic prejudice is well explored. When it is discovered that the previously well liked David is Jewish, he is harassed with Charlie as ringleader. Not only that, but his religion taints his peer's perception of him such that, despite his earlier popularity, it becomes easy for the jealous, vengeful Charlie to push off his own cheating on an exam onto David, after crib notes are discovered by the teacher. Actually, perhaps most distressing is the Jewish ethnic jokes that are told in front of David and considered quite acceptable early in the movie, before his fellow students realize that he is in fact Jewish.
The superficial Sally does appear to be simply a bigot, I admit, when she no longer wishes to continue dating David once she discovers that he is Jewish. However, a girl in her situation might not be the villain of the piece, but genuinely anguished at having to make such a painful decision for legitimate rather than racist reasons. Dating often naturally progresses to marriage, and in reality, interfaith marriages are fraught with difficulties, especially if the couple has children. A Christian / Jewish marriage would certainly have its challenges. I applaud this movie's general anti bigotry theme, but take exception to its message that inter faith dating is just all warm and fuzzy.
The young actors acquit themselves well in this movie. Chris O'Donnell, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon went on to become famous stars. All in all, this is generally quite an engaging movie that makes a point of supposed friends proving otherwise because of racial issues.