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After watching these two films, I noticed that in both films
the journalist became an active part of the theme of their articles.
They both held strong beliefs about those articles, and were willing
to actively take action in defending those beliefs. Even though the
issues were not directly effecting them, they still presevered for
those it did effect.
In 777, the journalist investigates a conspicuous ad in the newspaper
for evidence about an 11 year old murder. He meets the submitter of
the ad, the mother of the boy who she claims was wrongly accused of
the murder, and has been working for 11 years to try to get him
freed. Knowing it could just be a case of misplaced faith, he looks
at the evidence presented in the case and meets the man in jail. He
soon realizes that the man could very well be innocent and tries to
get enough evidence to get another trial. He was foiled more than
once but he kept on trying to prove the man innocent, even after
being told by the man himself not to make a fuss about it. He put
himself at risk, researching and interviewing in dangerous areas, to
achieve a goal that would not benefit himself. Through his
determination for proving the truth, the man was found innocent by a
pardoning committee.
In Gentleman's Agreement, the journalist is asked to do an article on
Anti-Semitism. He decides the best way to get an accurate article is
to pretend to be Jewish since no one knows him in the town. He was
surprised by just how many people harbored ill will towards the
entire Jewish group. He keeps up the charade, causeing him and his
family a lot of problems, but he knew that Anti-Semitism was wrong
and refused to declare his true religion, knowing that would be just
as good as saying that they are right. He is even willing to go
through with it after his young son comes home crying after being
called names by the other children. He even puts his marriage at risk
when his wife-to-be, who claimed to be fully against Anti-Semitism,
does nothing while it goes on around her. He believed strongly enough
that not acting Anti-Semitic was not good enough, rather you had to
do something against it.
In both movies, the journalist shows a strong moral code and the
willingness to back it up with action, often putting himself and
those around him through though situations that they would not
otherwise have had to go through. Although fighting for his beliefs
would effect his own situation little, they both showed great
strength of character in fighting for those who would be effected.
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