Yossi & Jagger : This was a wonderful and remarkable film…

Sad that so few may see it.I was most impressed that it captures a slice of reality that most of us may miss in our lives. Wonderful romance..I loved it!!

Yes, it took my breath away when I saw it in Tel Aviv.

Not a dry eye in the house.

by - LSnicketRox on Sat Jan 22 2005 23:18:08
"Are you people GAY? I haven't seen this movie, but I saw the preview, and it looked to me like an excuse for Israeli Gay Porn. I would've expected better from Israel, I really would've. The fact that these guys are SOLDIERS makes me SICK!"
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The fact that you seem to assume that all gay relationships between soldiers are, as you say in your own words, "Sick" only proves that you do have a huge problem with gay relationships in general. Since armies have been in existence there have always been gays in them, and gay relationships going on between gay soldiers. I suggest that you watch the film, it may change your rather purile, prejudiced little mind on this rather serious subject.

What's your problem with gay Israeli soldiers?

If there was a "sick relationship" in the movie, it was the officer who was obviously coercing the female clerk into a sex act she wasn't thrilled with.

Or didn't you understand why she wanted to wash her hair so much?

And the characters were being portrayed as bravely serving their country, something a lot of hetrosexual fundamentalist Jews in Israel don't do.

"I haven't seen this movie" But you feel qualified to comment on it? That's a bit sad, don't you think?

Why would you "expect better from Israel"? They're just as big an exporter of *beep* as most other countries and more than some, which is one point in their favour in my book.

You haven't even seen the movie and you have the *beep* chutzpah to criticise it? What kind of a person are you?

Watch the film please. Everyone loves a good love story, even if it's love between two guys.

The movie is fantastic, nudity is nowhere to be seen and even if there was any, it would still not take away from the fact that it is a brilliant movie about gays, the army and life in general. Perhaps you should have viewed it before making your opinion.

The fact that you're so willing to assume it's porn, just because of a gay kiss in it, speaks volume of you. Doesn't it?

And I have a surprise for you. Gay soldiers serve in the IDF because it is the people's army, meant to defend the country. No sensible army can afford throwing away 10% of the men who serve in it, because of their sexual identity. Not even the American army does that, and it has a far bigger potential for recruits than the IDF.

However, while the IDF accepts its gay soldiers, most other armies silence it up, including the American one. We'll use you, just as long as you won't remind us who the heck you are.

I have nothing against Gays. But the fact that these guys aren't being professional is stupid and wrong.
Sure. Because everyone screams "are you people GAY?" when we see a movie about a woman and a man who are soldiers carrying an affair. Whatever you say, not the least bit homophobia contained in your post.
/sarcasm < in case you missed it

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I used to have a , but damnit do I want a !

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Basic background info from The Jewish Film Archive Online:

Jewish Film Archive Online
www.Jewishfilm.com


YOSSI AND JAGGER
TITLE: YOSSI AND JAGGER
YEAR: 2002
DIR/PROD: Eytan Fox / Amir Harel, Gal Uchovsky
COUNTRY: ISRAEL
LANGUAGE: Hebrew w/ English subtitles
TIME: 71
SOURCE: Larna productions at larna@barak.net.IL or Wouter Barendrecht Fortissimo Film Sales Veemarkt 77-99 Amsterdam, 1019 DA Phone: 31 20 627 32 15 Fax: 31 20 626 11 55 Email: info@fortissimo.nl or in the USA contact STRAND RELEASING in Santa Monica CA Phone: (310) 395-5002 or go to their webpage of www.YossiAndJagger.com

TEXT: Stars Ohad Knoller, Yehuda Levi, Assi Cohen, Hani Furstenberg. EYtan Fox scores once again with a tender emotional hit. The story is of the love affair between two Israeli army officers. Yossi is a brooding commander. Jagger (or Lior AmiChai, but nicknamed Jagger cuz he has the energy of appeal of a rock star) is one of his squad leaders, open minded and deft. They are stationed at the Lebanese border in the Golan in bitter cold and snow. The group has an amalgam of slightly off kilter soldiers. The territory is dangerous, and their secret relationship is dangerous as well. The story is about the stupidity of war as well as love in the midst of muck. The editing of the snow scene brings the love of life to the screen amidst the fear and terror of being in the army and facing ambushes. The film was shot in the Golan during the Winter of a huge snowfall. The budget was $200,000 and the IDF did not cooperate
David Kwok writes, “A surprise crossover hit in its home country Israel, Yossi & Jagger is a forthright but sophisticated portrayal of Israeli military life. Director Eytan Fox paints a modest and poignant tale of young love waning within an oppressive and rigid system. Israel's system of mandatory military service for men and women means most soldiers are in the prime of their youths, like Yossi and Jagger. Yossi is the company leader and Jagger is the platoon commander in a military company at the Israel-Lebanon border. The two men are also lovers who make their rounds together so they can be alone. The focus on the delicate details accentuates the intimacy of Yossi and Jagger's relationship. Already complicated by military standards, things grow even more complex for the couple with other soldiers in the platoon, specifically Yaeli, a young female soldier who has a crush on Jagger but is unaware of his secret. Yossi is determined to keep their relationship private and be the good soldier that he is. Jagger, on the other hand, would like Yossi to leave the army when Jagger's service is over so they can be a real couple. The tension continues to grow in preparation for a dangerous ambush. Elegantly paced and written, and with DV work that gives it a candid immediacy, Yossi & Jagger vibrantly captures the universal complexities of adolescence against the backdrop of the harsh realities of the Israeli military.”


For those who will die unless they can here the music again from the film.. please note that the two main songs are YOUR SOUL by RITA, and then IVRI LIDER (THE NEW PEOPLE) sings YOUR SOUL at the end, without changing the gender case of “YOU”. “Your Soul” (Rita); “Titchaneni Elay” (Evyatar Banay); “Part Of The Process” (Morcheeba); “Your Favorite Music” (Clem Snide); “Enlightened Evolution” (Astral Projection); “Your Soul” (Ivri Lider) Lyrics: Miri Feigenboym Music: Rami Kleinstein Helikon


Eytan Fox writes the following: “It is the older and supposedly wiser men who decide about wars. And it is always naive young men manipulated by elders who fight these wars. Armies around the world, in Israel, Britain, Palestine, the U.S., Germany, Serbia and Iraq, are composed primarily of 20-year-olds. Young men and women who at this stage of their life should have been celebrating freedom and enjoying love. Instead they are learning to obey orders and fight. Kill and get killed. In Israel army service is mandatory. It's not a choice. Therefore the army is a microcosm and a melting pot of Israeli society. A place where people shape their identities. I was a soldier in the Israeli army. I was there during the shameful unnecessary Lebanon war. Besides the terrible fear and anguish shared by all the soldiers during that time I had my own inner struggle. It was my private war. A war that in those days could hardly be dealt with publicly let alone in the army. A war I believed had to remain a secret. The movie Yossi & Jagger, which is based on a true story, is about that secret. Scriptwriter Avner Bernheimer and myself wanted to make a film that opposes militarism but loves the soldiers. A movie that could laugh with their jokes but still feel terribly sad for them. A movie on how bad kept secrets are, and how they ruin our lives. A movie that makes you want to pray everyday for peace and the disarming of the world (but still allows you to think soldiers can sometimes be really hot). We hope this unique love story will touch your hearts as it touched ours.”


SPOILER SPOILERS.. don’t read more until after you see it. This is based on a true story. There are many stories like it I am sure, but one story in particular was the kernel for this story. It concerned two soldiers, one of whom was a “lone soldier”, meaning his parents were no longer living in Israel. When he was killed, his parents came to Israel to retrieve the body and bury it in France. The soldier’s commander said to them, “he was loved and a fine brave soldier.” He did not mention to them that he and their son were in a committed loving relationship for the past two years. NOTE TO FILE: I wonder if Lior Ami-Chai’s last name is significant?


MORE… Eytan Fox told the following on May 7, at the Tribeca Film Festival. When he learned that his film would be screened at Tribeca, his mother said, :we shall go to NYC, go to the fest, I will buy a new dress, you will buy a suit, and we will have a corned beef sandwich at the Carnegie Deli. Eytan wasn’t planning on buying a suit for the single use of the Tribeca fest. But his mother, committed to gay rights and the peace movement, and Jerusalem and city planning, and equal housing for all, was diagnosed with lung cancer, and died three months before the NYC trip. Eytan bought the suit, but the sandwich was not as special without her.

The NYT writes: “The affair is not without its tensions. Yossi, the more macho and closeted, is not entirely comfortable with his sexuality and disapproves of his partner's fondness for "diva music" and other nonmanly tastes. The handsomer, more free-spirited and playful Jagger is a shameless coquette who pressures Yossi to consider leaving the army and living with him. Emotionally needy, Jagger petulantly hounds Yossi to put his love into words and deliver the Hollywood romantic fantasy he craves. When two attractive female soldiers, Goldie (Hani Furstenberg) and Yaeli (Aya Koren), arrive at the base, the suppressed sexual tensions among the soldiers intensify, and you worry that the lovers will be found out and disgraced. For the blond, sexually aggressive Goldie, the visits offer a welcome opportunity for hot, recreational sex. The dark-haired, moony-eyed Yaeli is a romantic who nurtures schoolgirl fantasies of a Champagne-and-roses affair with Jagger, whom she recognizes as special because of his sensitivity.

Even after her forlorn inquiries about Jagger's tastes in women elicit discouraging responses, Yaeli refuses to give up her dream. One soldier, Ofir (Assi Cohen), pines for her. When she rebuffs him, he focuses his resentment on Jagger.

If the situation has all the ingredients of a shrill, tearful melodrama, the filmmaker, working from a taut screenplay by Avner Bernheimer that doesn't waste a word or a gesture, keeps the emotional lid firmly in place. And this restraint lends the psychological undercurrents among the characters a resonance they would not otherwise have. Each of the soldiers, from the playful cook, Yaniv (Erez Kahana), to a tough, war-mongering colonel (Sharon Regniano), who pays a surprise visit, is incisively drawn. And the performances of Mr. Knoller and Mr. Levi (a leading Israeli soap opera star) distill the emotional chemistry of their precarious relationship.

"Yossi and Jagger" may be a gay love story. But the movie, which ends with a wallop, is an unusually subtle and convincing study of group psychology and fluctuating morale among professionals under stress in close quarters.
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Help! Urgent! I have been abducted

Hey Everyone.

I was way wrong about this. I was talking to my friend Elon (who lives in Israel) about this movie. He said it was brilliant, so he told me where I could find it.

It was brilliantly made. At least it's not one of those in-your-face movies like Brokeback Mountain 9that movie made me sick).

It is truly NOT what I thought it was, and I want to say I'm sorry.

Hope all can forgive me. I said some pretty spiteful things.

"Just because you don't understand doesn't mean it isn't so"
-The Bad Beginning

Perhaps you should watch Brokeback one more time. I cannot imagine liking Yossi &Jagger and hating Brokeback. Something's missing here.

Well, I found Brokeback Mountain very dull and the story was kinda off. This movie was about more than being gay; it was about honor and protecting your country.

"Just because you don't understand doesn't mean it isn't so"
-The Bad Beginning

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ZacAttackFeels Good: Well, I found Brokeback Mountain very dull and the story was kinda off.

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I can only echo what most have said. Yossi and Jagger is a very fine film with superb acting across the board. I saw it at a gay film festival when it was new a couple years ago, and just watched it again on DVD (the Boston Public Library has two copiesyay, BPL!) And having seen Brokeback Mountain in the interim, I'm struck by the parallels, particularly the similarity of Yossi to Ennis. Their circumstances and settings could hardly be more different, but the essence of both characters is their introversion and emotional repression from which they can only be freed by one other person: Jagger for Yossi and Jack for Ennis. At the end of each film there is a glimmer of hope that both Yossi and Ennis are starting to break free of their emotional prisons but only after having paid the most terrible price.

Another major parallel is the restraint that characterizes both films. In both cases, the emotional intensity is actually heightened by this restraint, a fact that most Hollywood filmmakers seem not to grasp; they seem to want everything to be "in-your-face" and emotionally manipulative. Restraint is uncommon these days. When I encounter it, it feels refreshing and bracing (kind of like a snowball in the face from a lover!). When you, Zac, said in your first post that Brokeback was "in-your-face", no disrespect, but I had to wonder if you'd seen the film at all. BBM is a masterpiece of subtlety and restraint, the exact opposite of "in-your-face." This (as well as the more deliberate pacing of a 134-minute film versus a 71-minute one) causes some people to find it dull the first time they see it, but the second time is often a whole new story. Compare Y&J's final scene to Ennis's visit to Jack's parents. There is so much that goes unspoken but is communicated powerfully by the actors' faces and gestures. Also, consider the final minute of each film in which both actors somehow convey that their characters' depth of feeling is infinitely greater than what we see on the surfacesuperlative acting from Knoller and Ledger. Anyway, the bottom line is, if you had a change of heart about Yossi and Jagger, then you owe it to yourself to give Brokeback Mountain another try. It so richly rewards repeated viewings.

"Don't be a jerk. Of course I love you." Yossi to dying Jagger
"Tell you what . . . the truth is . . . sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it." Jack to Ennis on their last night together

I thought this film was amazing, very well acting and very sad :( my only criticism was that it was a little too short, had it been longer and we'd see their relationship flourish a little more, it would have been better. Ive not seen any Israeli films before but I definitly will look out for more. oh and its made me really want to learn Hebrew!!! lol.

* Lutons / finest / export *

SomethinglikeSarah, I'm glad to hear you liked the movie. If your interested in learning a few Hebrew words there are some books on Amazon. I'm in the process of trying to learn the basic Hebrew alphabet. It's slow going :-)

If you have not yet, watch "Walk On Water" also directed by Eytan Fox. Not so sad and I'm sure you will like it also.