Product Details

• Actors: Barbra Streisand, Amy Irving, Mandy Patinkin, Nehemiah Persoff, Steven Hill
• Directors: Barbra Streisand
• Writers: Barbra Streisand, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jack Rosenthal
• Producers: Barbra Streisand, Larry DeWaay, Rusty Lemorande
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: December 31, 1992
• Run Time: 132 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (216 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301978587
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,342 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Barbra Streisand made her directorial debut with this 1983 adaptation of the Isaac Bashevis Singer story about a young Eastern European woman (Streisand) who disguises herself as a male at the turn of the century in order to get an education. Except for an excessive musical score with too many songs and Streisand's tiresome tendency to play characters who suppress their beauty, the film is crisp and engaging, and the gender-bending love story complications are fun, if gimmicky. Streisand gives a smart, vulnerable performance and gets fresh work from costars Mandy Patinkin and Amy Irving. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Item Name: Yentl (Two-Disc Directors Cut); Studio: MGM Entertainment

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why isn't this on DVD!, July 8, 2000

By 

Shelley Gammon "Geek" (Kaufman, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Yentl [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I just adore this movie. Great acting, sweet story, lots of culture and absolutely fabulous music... I listen to the soundtrack all the time.

Barbara Streisand is perfect at playing an intelligent, yet vulnerable woman in a time and place in which women were supposed to be illiterate and considered to be silly. Her father was a more forward-thinking man in a culture that considered teaching a woman to read something perverse and criminal. When her father dies,she loses everything... women can't read, own property or make decisions concerning the course of her life.

She decides that her persuit of knowledge of the holy scriptures is too important to let the opportunity slip through her fingers, so she cuts her hair and lives life as a male Rabbinical student. Life takes a twist she doesn't expect when she falls for her classmate and subsequently is forced to marry a young girl.

There are a lot of laughing-out-loud moments, but this is mostly just an extremely sweet story of love, sacrifice, tradition and freedom. It's definitely a feel-good movie that will put a lump in your throat. I highly recommend this film.

113 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yentl Is A Classic!!!! Release On DVD Please!!!!, August 24, 2004

By 

Bradly Briggs (TOLUCA LAKE, CALIFORNIA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

There are moments in your life you never forget and this is definitely one of them!! Why no release on DVD????? This is crazy when so much crap is out on DVD but not a classic once in a lifetime motion picture like Yentl!!!! Please wake up!!!!!

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How could anyone give this film anything but 5 stars?, April 13, 2006

By 

JGC - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Yentl [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is one of my favorite movies. It is a very interesting and moving picture and also very funny in some parts (Anshel's first night of wedded bliss with Hadass comes to mind.) Barbra Streisand was so talented in "Yentl." But I think Mandy Patinkin was just as entertaining, maybe more because the character of Avigdor was so multifaceted. They worked so well together. I don't understand how a classic like this is not on DVD? How could anyone give this film anything but 5 stars?