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P«ge 14 THE SOLTHERS ISRAELITE August 17, 1979
HAN'S GAftOeN
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Everybody Mts and drinks, but few can appreciate the nicety of taste
TJTfcXAt* Confucius
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Film Review
Ride ‘em, Rabbi!
Gene Wilder as the Frisco Kid.
by Faith Powell
A new twist to an old story: Boy
gets Torah, boy loses Torah, boy
finds Torah, boy spends rest of
time rescuing Torah from bandits,
Indians, fire and snow.
“Frisco Kid,” the new comedy
film starring Gene Wilder and
Harrison Ford, is neither belly
laugh nor a belly flop. (But, a
better title might have been “Fiddler
on the Roof Meets the Sundance
Kid")
This is the tale of a not-so-
promising rabbi, Avram
Belinsky, (played by Wilder) who is
sent from Poland to lead a
congregation in San Francisco in
the 1850s. He is plagued by train
robbers, thieves and murderers
during his journey across America.
He meets up with a desperado with
a heart of gold (of course) who
becomes his tsuris and his savior.
The jokes are amusing, the
acting good to excellent, the plot is
a bit predictable.
All that aside, the film does
make one breakthrough. Rabbi
Belinsky is not a typical movieland
Jew. He is very real. Director
Robert Aldrich has some very
moving scenes of Wilder davening
and laying tefillin. These scenes are
so tender that they seem almost out
of place in this comedy. But still,
they are there, along with the
expected “Oy gevalts, meshuganas
and tuches.” Wilder’s accent is
cute, but not the overworked film
version of an “old country dialect .”
I wonder though, if some of the
humor won’t go over the neads of
many non-Jews. The Yiddish is easy
enough to grab hold of, but a good
part of the rabbi’s action and
motivation is based on his religious
beliefs. He refuses to ride his horse,
even though he is beingchased by a
hanging party, because it is
Saturday and the sun has not set.
Solution: He picks a very tall
mountain and waits for the sun to
set on the mountain peak A funny
scene, but can only another Jew
understand the real dilemma?
Adults will have a few laughs, a
few sighs. The children will get a
good dose of a rabbi’s lighter side,
as well as some interesting
philosophy—A young boy asks
Rabbi Belinsky how it was that he
was not a farmer like the rest of his
family. Belinsky answers “I think
God had enough farmers.”
So, how is it that I recommend
this film? I think audiences have
had enough Portnoys, Duddy
Kravitzes, and nagging Jewish
mothers for awhile.
ROSH HASHANA:
September 22, 1979
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper / or Southern Jewry
Our 55th Year
We will publish our
Annual Rosh Hashana Holiday Issue
on September 21.
We invite you to join your many friends and relatives, as
in years past, and insert your Personal New Year
Greetings in this gala issue!
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