this movie pack a punch . there be a few every now and then that make me think deeply and and disturb me a lot . i could see myself in this same predicament passively allow thing to happen around me and not stand up for the right and decent thing and just try to avoid trouble . how often do we avoid make wave or stick our neck out . how often do our inaction condone the evil action of others . we would never join them and we tell ourselves and we recognize that what they be do be bad and but do we do anything about it . lawrence newman ( william h. macey ) be a low key and nerdy office worker who have pay off his home in brooklyn and ny in the waning day of world war ii . he rarely get engage in what be go on around him and have never marry and rarely socializes and just go to work and care for his invalid mother . then a series of event in his very white little neighborhood pull him out of his complacent shell into a maelstrom of event . it start a he witness from his bedroom window the rape of a puerto rican girl by the son of his neighbor . soon after he get glass because of poor vision . a he be now well able to see and he become less able to deal with the circumstance of his life . the one bright spot be a new love in his life and and he marry and hop to continue on in his normalcy . then the virulent anti semitism on that street catch him and despite his credential a a presbyterian wasp . a thing spiral far out of control and he discover he must make an important decision do he take a stand or do he simply go away . i can not how anybody can view this movie without be affect and have to think very much about themselves and what they really stand for . post war anti semitism be the setting here and but there be injustice at all time and in all place . it be for the individual to decide where he or she stand .