Rent Yentl (1983)

Yentl - Yentl review by MG

A thoroughly absorbing film with stellar performances by the three main stars and an unusual musical format with a wonderful score and vocals.

The commentary on the Blu-ray by director Barbra Streisand and co-producer Rusty Lemorande is well worth a listen and gives insight into the creative and technical processes of making the film.

Disc 1 contains deleted scenes, some of which are in the director’s cut present on the disc. In the Extras section these are left with all the scratches, blemishes and marks on the film still present. For the main Theatrical/Director’s presentations the whole film has been remastered and cleaned up. The respectful transfer shows what a great job was done lighting the scenes at the time of shooting. I loved the way the shots were long and moved between characters. I did not see Disc 2 but am interested to see if it is available for rental also as the description page says there are more extras on there.

Uplifting Musical for its time, whilst tackling issues of discrimination and gender! - Yentl review by CS

I never saw this film when it first came out, because being a vehicle for Streisand, it came across as the usual yawn some and false tale of how hard done by Jews are in society. But when I did finally get around to watching it, I was pleasantly surprised that it's not what I thought it was going to be at all! Rather surprisingly, this is actually a story of sexual discrimination within Jewish Society and how women are treated by so called intellectual males! The basic storyline being that of a woman who is forced to disguise herself and pretend to be a man, so that she can go to college and further her education, in a society where women are prohibited from engaging in such pursuits as the thirst for knowledge. Enter an amusing and interesting love triangle, because she is believed to be a man, she falls for her male friend, who wrongly thinks she could be gay and the women he is pursuing falls for her believing she is a man! The film, set at the turn of the century, is quite sensitive in it's arrangement and delivery, very much a musical but with a very strong dramatic delivery that would work well on the stage. A very strong performance is given by most of the cast and the photography is excellent for the time. This has some quite upbeat moments, but also some lows and in the end is quite a sad tale about how women were treated in that particular society at that period in time and possibly still are today!