Yid Vid: Adam Sandler as Mossad-Agent-Turned-Hairdresser
So Sandler has made a film in which he plays a crack Mossad agent who decides to move to New York to be a hairdresser.
Weird? Yes. Profound? Maybe.
Sandler, in my humble opinion, perfectly captured the zeitgeist of American Jewry in “50 First Dates,” the film in which he wooed an amnesiac Drew Barrymore. (I’d explain how, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise ending.) From watching the trailer for his upcoming film, “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” it seems like Sandler’s summed up the mood of a certain segment of the Israeli populace (i.e. life is hard in Israel, much better to be a hairdresser in New York).
JTA’s Ami Eden (from whom I filched this video) seems to see a certain parallel with Steven Spielberg’s “Munich.” In my view, the parallels go deeper than the cloak-and-dagger stuff. In both films, the protagonists flee to New York, and, for both, their previous line of work follows them across the Atlantic. But I doubt Sandler’s latest will spark much in the way of Jewish communal controversy. (Although we’ll have to wait and see what Leon Wieseltier thinks.)
In any case, there are no Jewish profundities lurking beneath the surface of my favorite Adam Sandler film, “Happy Gilmore.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO