Yentl (1983)

Looks just like a boy, doesn't she?

Several years ago, a homeless young woman decided she would be safer on the streets as a boy than as a woman. She dressed like a boy and got picked up police who thought she was a homeless kid. They took her to a group home. A social worker talked to her and became suspicious. Her looks and her voice seemed more feminine than androgynous, but they took her into a room and the first thing she did was jump up on the top bunk of the bunk bed and that convinced them she was a kid. It wasn't until they took her to a doctor for check up that her ruse was revealed.

I was inspired to watch Barbra Streisand's Yentl after reading about her bizarre pro-molestation interview. Before that I had also read about Streisand's version of A Star Is Born, seen at the time as a vanity project.

Yentl was awful. 41-year-old Barbra Streisand plays a Jewish woman in "Eastern Europe" (that's as specific as it got although they mention Riga at some point) in 1904. She wants to study the Talmud for some reason but women aren't allowed into yeshivas, so she gives herself a stylish 1980's boy's haircut, puts on men's clothing and sets off to the yeshiva.

She looks, sounds and acts like a middle-aged woman. She also wears eye makeup and lipstick. I didn't realize she had such a high-pitched voice. But everyone thinks she's a boy.

At one point, her friend, Mandy Patinkin, wants to marry Amy Irving, but her father won't allow it. But he WILL allow Barbra Streisand to marry her even though they think Streisand is a prepubescent teenager whose voice hasn't changed and has no secondary sexual characteristics. The father wouldn't let his daughter marry Patinkin because of his family background, but he'll let her marry Streisand knowing nothing at all about "his" background.

So she marries Amy Irving. I wasn't clear on why. It was Mandy Patinkin's idea.

Yentl comes up with a religious reason why they can't consummate their marriage, but she was impersonating a male who hadn't gone through puberty. Did she really need an excuse?

At no point in the movie is Streisand believable. You never forget she's Barbra Streisand. The singing doesn't help.

One problem with it was that the stakes were so low. I didn't care if Yentl got to study the Talmud. What difference did it make? Was she going to make some startling discovery that would knock Judaism on its ear?

Streisand directed this thing. She's convinced that sexism was the only reason she didn't get an Oscar for it. 

A better movie was Yidl Mitn Fidl (Poland, 1936, in Yiddish). Molly Picon and her father are evicted from their home and forced to become traveling musicians. For safety, she disguises herself as a boy.