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Yentl

Yentl

Music · Drama · Romance · 1983

In a time when girls were forbidden to study religious scriptures, a Jewish girl masquerades as a boy to enter religious training and unexpectedly finds love along the way.

Movie details

Yentl

“In a time when the world of study belonged only to men, there lived a girl who dared to ask..."why?"”

1983 Music · Drama · Romance 2h 12m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.7 / 10

Community rating

In a time when girls were forbidden to study religious scriptures, a Jewish girl masquerades as a boy to enter religious training and unexpectedly finds love along the way.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Yentl?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Barbra Streisand

Written by

Barbra Streisand · Jack Rosenthal

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Yentl

Mandy Patinkin

Mandy Patinkin

Avigdor

Amy Irving

Amy Irving

Hadass

Nehemiah Persoff

Nehemiah Persoff

Rebbe Mendel

Steven Hill

Steven Hill

Reb Alter Vishkower

Allan Corduner

Allan Corduner

Shimmele

R

Ruth Goring

Esther Rachel

Court is in session

Put Yentl on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.