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I watched Ben Affleck and Matt Damon make a movie at my high school that could never be made today

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Thirty-five years ago, a film crew descended on my high school, Worcester Academy.

Trailers filled with cameras and costumes arrived at the end of the summer before my sophomore year to shoot a movie about a prep school set in the 1950s. Apparently, our gym and pool, unrenovated for decades, were perfect for the vibe. A few of my classmates even got to be extras.

When I saw “School Ties” in theaters the following year, the setting seemed recognizable, but the scenes of rampant antisemitism could not have felt more foreign. Watching the movie again with my daughter a few weeks ago, however, they were sickeningly familiar. 

“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 family. He’s recruited to save an elite prep school’s failing football team from defeat at the hands of its rival. David, who’s played by Fraser, decides with the implicit encouragement of the coach that he should keep his Jewish identity to himself. Early in the film, he takes off his Star of David necklace and hides it in........

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