Antisemitism has been around for a long time, in one form or another, but it’s recently taken a bigger spotlight with the Kayne and Kyrie controversies. After the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements of recent years, antisemitism may have taken a bit of a backseat. But with the recent antisemitic and cabalistic statements about Jews in the entertainment industry, it’s interesting to look back on Hollywood has treated this subject from a long time, from 1981’s Chariots of Fire to the award-winning 2019 Jojo Rabbit.
One of these films is Robert Mandel’s 1997 prep school film School Ties, in which Brendan Fraser plays David Greene, a talented high school quarterback recruited to play at a prestigous Catholic prep school in the Northeast. Greene is not only from a working-class background, he’s also a practicing Jew – a fact that he keeps well-hidden from his classmates and teammates in a place where being Jewish isn’t accepted. Being the star quarterback, as we know from movies, brings with it a lot of perks, but high school social status can be a fickle thing.
The film is probably best known for introducing the world to a veritable slate of up-and-coming male teenage acting talent: in addition to Fraser, the movie features Matt Damon, Chris O’Donnell, Ben Affleck, Cole Hauser, and Anthony Rapp. It’s almost jarring to see how bright-eyed and impossibly young these then-unknown but clearly talented actors were (and yet another entry that indisputably proves that Matt Damon was, is, and always will be an inifinitely better villain/asshole than a hero). Casting aside, School Ties is also just a really solid high school film: it has sports, friendships, romances, inner fighting and outward angst about teachers, grades, and what the future brings.
What really sets the movie apart is its social commentary. Like in real life, the anti-semitic insults and slurs are not subtle, but can nevertheless be a symptom of a metastasized form of discrimination and racism. Racial passing is much more possible and likely with Jews than many other minority groups. David Greene here is our hero and becomes the ultimate example: he’s popular, handsome, intelligent, an athletic star, hardworking, and likeable. The only two strikes against him are that he’s poor and that (in Charlie Dillon’s words) “a damn Jew”. His peers and teachers are able to overlook the first transgression, but not the second, and they quickly turn to victim-blaming, pointing the finger at him for “lying” to them.
The film, through Fraser’s David Greene, makes the point that even casual anti-semitic remarks can affect people in ways that you may not expect. The ugliness of some of the blatant racism and high-nosed white nationalism might not be something that we’ve personally experienced on either side, but the dangers of groupthink most certainly are. This also begs the question, what would have happened to Jewish students not as smart, popular or successful as Greene? Our takeaway from the film is a sobering one, as is our realization that, even 25 years later, there’s a lot of work that remains to be done.
Now streaming on HBO Max.
