The Ben Affleck and Matt Damon movie they’d never make today…
Thirty-five years in the past, a movie crew descended on my high college, Worcester Academy.
Trailers crammed with cameras and costumes arrived at the end of the summer time before my sophomore 12 months to shoot a movie about a prep college set in the Nineteen Fifties. Apparently, our gymnasium and pool, unrenovated for many years, had been excellent for the vibe. A few of my classmates even received to be extras.
When I noticed “School Ties” in theaters the following 12 months, the setting appeared recognizable, however the scenes of rampant antisemitism couldn’t have felt more overseas. Watching the movie again with my daughter a few weeks in the past, however, they had been sickeningly acquainted.
B. Fraser, clockwise from middle, R. Batinkoff, A. Lowery, A. Rapp, C. O’Donnell, B. Affleck, C. Hauser and M. Damon are shown in the 1992 movie “School Ties.” ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
“School Ties” — which starred Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris O’Donnell — is the story of a Jewish high-school quarterback, David Greene, from a working-class Scranton household. He’s recruited to save lots of an elite prep college’s failing soccer team from defeat at the fingers of its rival. David, who’s performed by Fraser, decides with the implicit encouragement of the coach that he ought to preserve his Jewish identification to himself. Early in the movie, he takes off his Star of David necklace and hides it in his top drawer — subtlety isn’t considered one of the movie’s strengths.
Dexter Hall is pictured at Worcester Academy on Friday, October 29, 2004. Hannes Röst/ Wikipedia
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Within hours of his arrival, David hears considered one of his classmates use the phrase “Jew him down” to imply getting a better value for one thing. Some boys surprise how another one might select Harvard instead of a different Ivy League college given the large variety of Jews there.
When there’s a soccer game on Rosh Hashanah, David doesn’t inform anybody despite the fact that his father instructs him over the cellphone to go to synagogue. He dons his tallis and yarmulke and goes to wish by himself in the chapel late that evening; the headmaster finds him and lectures him about “you people.”
Matt Damon and Brendan Fraser seem in a scene from the 1992 movie “School Ties.” ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
Eventually, Charlie Dillon (performed by Damon) learns from an older alum about David’s secret. Charlie, who has been supplanted on the team by David, seizes this info. He begins telling Jewish jokes in the bathe and then reveals to everybody David’s true identification. Hearing David called a “k–e” and a “sheeny bastard” in 1992 was fairly actually the first time I recall those phrases spoken aloud. And when David finds a flag with a swastika and the phrases “Jew Go Home” hung over his mattress, I bear in mind pondering these people may as nicely live on a different planet.
What a distinction 35 years make. It is true that I grew up at a time that people now confer with as “the golden age” of Jews in America. My personal prep college class was in all probability about 1 / 4 Jewish. I assumed that antisemitism was an issue of the past, not one thing I, let alone my youngsters, must confront.
A flag with a Jewish star, New York University branding, and a swastika is seen flying atop the NYU Steinhardt Building, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. The banner was raised above the NYU constructing named after a billionaire donor to Jewish causes during a commencement week event. CBSNews New York
But right here we’re. Antisemitic slurs are an everyday feature of discourse on the proper and the left. Hate crimes against Jews have skyrocketed. A flag with the Star of David and two swastikas was raised on a constructing over NYU in May.
Perhaps the most stunning a part of watching “School Ties” today is realizing that not too way back, Hollywood’s largest stars had been prepared to lecture the American public about the ignorance of antisemitism. Don’t inform Maggie Gyllenhaal, who just lately explained in a press convention how Israelis waging struggle in Gaza are perpetrating another Holocaust.
Maggie Gyllenhaal attends the “Bunker” screening during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival at Sala Grande in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, September 8, 2026. GIorio / SplashNews.com
When Charlie is being pushed away from college after being expelled for violating the honor code — one thing he tries to get the other college students to imagine that David did — he shrugs it off. “In 10 years no one will remember any of this. But you’ll still be a goddamn Jew.” David replies, “And you’ll still be a prick.”
These days, it’s onerous to think about Hollywood giving any Jewish character the ethical high floor. The protests alone would make headlines for weeks.
I used to be fortunate to develop up in a bubble shielded from the world’s oldest hatred. My youngsters will never know that world. The bubble has burst. There’s no going again.
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