A New Film Focuses on Anti-Semitism in the 1940s

The timing was eerily prescient. In the same week that the New York Times Magazine ran a disturbing article by Jonathan Rosen on the re-emergence of anti-Semitism, Focus--a new film about the spread of virulent anti-Semitism in the 1940s--was released.

Based on renowned playwright Arthur Miller's first novel, Focus is an intense, powerful and magnetically acted film starring Laura Dern and William H. Macy.

Set in Brooklyn in the 1940s, the film focuses on an "Everyman" in the person of Lawrence Newman (Macy). Initially a docile bachelor, Newman is a man of routines. For thirty years he has taken the same route to the same job as a personnel manager, and then returned home each night to his mother. When he hears a rape occurring right outside his window, Newman is too timid to intervene or to even report it. And when neighborhood toughs begin to organize to keep "them" out, meaning the Jews, non-Jewish Newman, although reluctant to join in, is afraid not to.

Newman's life begins to change when he purchases a pair of eye glasses that make him look Jewish. His boss is upset that he hired a woman who appears to be Jewish, Gertrude Hart (Dern), and orders him to fire her. When Newman does so, giving a lame excuse, she immediately realizes what is happening and accuses Newman of being a coward. She denies that she is Jewish and leaves angrily. Newman then gets demoted and loses his private office, apparently because his employer believes that he is either Jewish himself or a Jew-sympathizer.

Angry at the demotion, Newman quits his job but is unable to find a new one. The economy is in a slump, and people continue to mistake him for a Jew. Eventually he runs into Gertrude, who helps him get a job where she now works, at a Jewish firm. Their roles have reversed: he is now the job-seeker and she is the interviewer. The two opposites--he, repressed and uptight; she, loose and spontaneous--find themselves attracted to each other, and soon marry.

Meanwhile local vigilantes, spurred on by a radio hate monger loosely based on the infamous Fr. Coughlin, are becoming more active. Gertrude convinces Newman to attend a vigilante meeting to show they are on the right side. But the plan backfires and they suspect Newman of being a spy.

Eventually, Newman realizes that he has to stand up to the bullies. He and Finkelstein, the Jewish man who lives down the block, fight them together. Newman has grown from a timid, repressed soul to a man who summons enough courage to report the identity of the rapist to the police.

Although earlier in the film Newman and Gertrude try desperately to convince others that they aren't Jewish, later, when the policeman mistakenly assumes they are, they let it stand. At this point, there is no good reason to differentiate themselves from Jews. Everyone believes they are Jewish and will treat them as such. What they need to do now is prevent the mistreatment of Jews.

Laura Dern excels at showing, with perfect pitch, both vulnerability and brashness, street smarts and naivete. Again in this film, as in Smooth Talk, for which she won the Los Angeles Film Critics New Generation Award, and Rambling Rose, for which she was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, she renders a stunning, nuanced performance.

William H. Macy, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Fargo, renders a powerful performance as Newman, a man who grows greatly in self-esteem and courage. David Paymer plays Finkelstein, a man who knows he has no other option than to stand and fight the vigilantes.

This is an interesting film for intermarried couples to watch. By directing the anti-Semitism at the non-Jewish Newman, the film enables non-Jews to imagine what it would feel like to be an innocent target of hatred. It may also educate Jews, born into a country that, since the 1950s has seen anti-Semitism decline dramatically, and help them imagine what it felt like to be Jewish in a less-accepting time.

In light of Jonathan Rosen's article, and the shifting winds at home and abroad, let's hope Focus isn't preparing us all for what is to come.