sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (01/09/84)
I saw "Yentl" this weekend, and was completely unprepared for the emotional impact it had on me. I was expecting two hours of mindless Hollywood entertainment. I was entertained, but moved as well, in quite surprising ways. The story concerns a young girl in Eastern Europe at the turn of the century who wishes to study the Torah. When her father dies, she runs off to a distant village, disguising herself as a boy named Anshel so that she can pursue her studies. She arrives at a yeshiva and becomes friends with a fellow student, Avigdor. The movie's "schtick", if you will, involves the sexual ambiguity inherent in their friendship. Avigdor treats Anshel as a close confidant, while Yentl finds herself falling more and more in love with Avigdor, all the time struggling to keep her feelings under control and unexpressed. Her love for Avigdor leads her to do the unthinkable, marrying Avigdor's former fiancee, that he might stay with them, rather than leave their village. The metaphor, of course, is the issue of unexpressed, unexpressable, and unrequited love, something that many gay people have confronted, especially in their adolescence. The remarkable thing is how true the situations in the movie resonate, despite the fact that they are ultimately couched in a heterosexual ethos. For myself, I thought I had buried my adolescent crushes and emotions a decade ago, yet "Yentl" dragged them all up to the surface. I re-experienced along with Anshel/Yentl the sweet pain and sorrow of loving someone yet daring not express it. Which is not to say that the movie was unenjoyable (especially with Mandy Patinkin as Avigdor!)--merely, like any good drama, the emotions it brings up are purged and resolved, as it reaches its conclusion. I've spoken to several friends since then, many of whom report the same reactions. A couple of gay people who've come out rather late in life haven't felt this way. I think that the reviewers who gave "Yentl" a fair-to-middling review were oblivious to this theme. I urge anyone who wants to (re)experience what it's like to love someone, yet be restrained from expressing it, both by yourself and by society, to see this movie. I also posted a more conventional review of "Yentl" to 'net.movies'. It isn't a perfect movie by any means, yet any movie that can shake me out of my torpor, and make me feel real emotions, and make me trust it despite all its failings, is a movie I have to recommend. -- /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca