School Ties

 

One would think that after the atrocities that Hitler committed against the Jewish Race and evidence of the Holocaust, the world would have been more sympathetic, understanding and less hostile to the Jews. However, to the upper elite of Massachusetts, anti-Semitism runs as deep as their pockets and as strong as their bloodlines. It's a prejudice that runs from generation to generation. Children parrot off their parents, not fully understanding what they're going on about and too narrowminded to educate themselves about what they're criticizing. 

Truth can be one of the most wounding and hurtful virtues. To hide the truth is painful, to reveal the truth can be detrimental, but to understand the truth can be impossible. For a young man with all the potential in the world to be the absolute best, the truth of who he is will make or break him in a society that disregards any sense of difference.

In the 1950s, David Greene (played by a young and irresistibly handsome Brendan Fraser) comes from a close-knit working class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Due to his excellence on the football field, David gets the win of a lifetime when he is granted a scholarship to one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country. Built from Massachusetts money and bound together by tradition and staunch Protestantism, St. Matthews is a world David never thought he would see. It's a world that his father fears for him to enter. Growing up in a devout Jewish family, David has always shown great pride in his Jewish heritage and woe be to anyone who insults him or his history. Yet, the halls of St. Matthews have little understanding and less tolerance about those outside their circle. If they can't be like us, they shouldn't be around us.

Having to make the painful decision to hide who he is, David is immediately accepted by the 'big men on campus.' Yet, within hours of his arrival, David already has to face anti-Semitic jokes and opinions, but has no choice but to keep his mouth shut. His scholarship and his possible entry into Harvard all depend on his silence and hiding the truth. It's not long before David becomes one of the most popular students at St. Matthews. He's handsome, intelligent, athletic and charming. The model senior student. He's loyal to his friends and refuses to allow injustice to take place.

However, that same code of loyalty and justice is denied to David when the truth of his Jewish heritage is revealed to the whole school. David is immediately ridiculed, mocked, harassed and ultimately abandoned by most of his friends and the girl that he loves. Now alone, David must reevaluate what true honor and justice is in a world so filled with malice and hostility. And if truth is really worth knowing and understanding. 

The whole school felt as if David owed them truth of who he was. As if somehow being Jewish had to be as known and as visible as a yellow star on your jacket. David owed these people nothing though. Who he was and what he was and the decision to protect his identity to save his scholarship were born from a lifetime of survival and fighting. Once David comes to the understanding that school officials disregarded him being a Jew to only save the football team, he realizes that game can be played both ways.

School Ties was a fairly simple storyline with some hard hitting truths. You want to hate and despise these children for what they believe, but are they really to blame? Prejudice is generational. Some of these kids had never even been face to face with a Jew. David was the first Jew most of them had ever met. Suddenly the 'supposed truth' they grew up with conflicts with the reality that the Jews are well...just like them in many ways. 

The reality of the story is that things aren't going to change overnight with David. He's always going to be Jewish and he's always going to be proud to be Jewish. There will always be prejudice and anti-Semitism and those who are going to be proud of to be prejudicial and anti-Sematic. The truth damaged David in many ways, but at the same time, it was the truth that freed him from fear and hiding, and finding himself stronger in a world that wants to tear him down.