Entertainment M-Z
Mambo Italiano Canada, 2003	Comedy about a young Italian-Canadian (Luke Kirby) coming out to his parents. They tell the parents of his hunky cop lover, Nino (Peter Miller), ending their affair. To prove his heterosexuality Nino marries, and at the wedding, the priest (Michel Perron) says: "I have known Nino all his life: I baptised him; I gave him his first communion; and when he hit puberty and started to have certain problems caused by his rapidly increasing, um, size, it was I who advised him to be circumcised." (Reviewers disagree over whether the gay and Italian stereotypes are sympathetic or tedious, but the movie was named sixth worst for the year 2003 by David Eliott of the San Diego Union-Tribune : 6. Ethnic humor came canned and clotted in the sitcom revels of "Mambo Italiano." Cute Eye-talians pig on pasta, slap each other on the side of the head, are freaked by gay offspring, then turn PC as if by remote control. It came from Canada (or hell) and has a Catholic priest telling a circumcision joke at a wedding. Circumcision is just used as an embarassing personal detail to illustrate the priest's crassness. There is of course no problem caused by rapidly increasing, um, size that necessitates circumcision.
Meet the Fockers USA, 2005	(Farce, sequel to "Meet the Parents", in which the name in the title is milked for more than it is worth) Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) and his bride-to-be and uptight inlaws (Robert DeNiro and Blythe Danner) meet Gaylord's sexually liberated parents (Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand) for the first time and stay at their house. Over a very tense first meal Mrs Focker whips out her scrapbook of Gaylord's childhood. She comes to a picture of a rabbi holding a baby and starts describing Gaylord's bris. She gleefully tells how the heater was broken that winter and the mohel couldn't get "the turtle to come out of its shell." As Gaylord tries to crawl under the table she continues that that is why he ended up with a "semi-circ ... somewhere between a turtleneck and a German army helmet." Then a little ring of something falls out of the scrapbook and she exclaims, "That's his foreskin!" Gaylord tries to catch it, but accidentally swats it: it flies up and hits the patio bug-zapper with a purple flash, then falls into the simmering fondue that the family was eating. As with Mambo Italiano, circumcision is presented only as something embarassing and personal. The issue is talking about it, not having done it, even badly. A baby's glans is fused to his foreskin and can not be made to come out without force.. Incomplete circumcision can result in phimosis (because of the scar tissue) requiring further treatment. Parents do not get to keep the foreskin after a brit milah - nor would they want to.
Moolaadé Senegal/France, 2004	A strong-willed woman (Fatoumata Coulibaly) from an African village battles against, and takes great pains to prevent, ritual female circumcision. One contributor to the Internet Movie Database summarizes it as: "Six girls from a rural village in Burkina Faso escape from a 'purification' ceremony, the female circumcision ritual that is still practiced in 34 of the 58 nations in the African Union. Two head for the city. The other four know of a woman in the village who, some years earlier, had prevented her own daughter from being cut. They run to her home, where she is the second of three wives of a man whose brother is a figure in the town's power structure. To protect them, she pronounces a moolaadé, an unbreakable spell of sanctuary that can only be dissolved by her word, and which is marked simply by stretching some colored strands of yarn across the enclave's doorway. ... this remarkable motion picture [is] beautifully filmed & amazingly acted, full of agitprop theatrics & yet as tightly & deeply scripted - I mean this literally - as any Shakespearean tragedy. [It] won the Un Certain Regard award [for 2004] at Cannes & was relegated to the Planet Africa series at Turin...." Male genital cutting is not mentioned, though in the Muslim environment of the film it would be virtually universal.
Mrs. Henderson Presents UK, 2005	Recently widowed well-to-do Laura Henderson (Judi Dench) is at a bit of a loose end in inter-war London. On a whim she buys the derelict Windmill theatre in the West End and persuades impresario Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) to run it, despite the fact the two don't seem to get on at all. When he first identifies himself as Dutch, she replies, you're Jewish. He says "No" (without explanation). Later she sees him naked (at some distance in a large group of men and women) and comments, "You are Jewish!" Implying that all and only Jews are circumcised. Many Englishmen of this period were too.
Mukhbir Informer India, 2006	Bollywood film about espionage in the Hyderabad underworld. Sammir Dattani plays a mukhbir (informer) who has to assume various disguises - so many that you don’t know his real identity. He poses as a Muslim and there is a suggestion that he has undergone circumcision, because a gang that only allows Muslim members will put him through a lot of tests. In India only Muslims are circumcised. In fact of course it would be very difficult to pass as Muslim without also being fluent in Arabic, knowing a lot of the Qu'ran, etc. Thanks to NORM-UK
Munich USA, 2005	Two Israeli undercover men are assigned to kill Palestinians responsible for the Munich massacres. They get into an argument; one says, "He's probably a spy - let's take his pants down and have a look." (an insult, not seriously believed). The second man responds furiously. If he had been Muslim, he would have been circumcised too.
My wife is an Actress Ma femme est une actrice France, 2001	Yvan (Yvan Attal, who also wrote and directed) is a sports writer, jealous of his wife Charlotte (Attal's real-life partner Charlotte Gainsbourg)'s on-camera love scenes (with Terence Stamp). His pregnant sister Nathalie (Noémie Lvovsky) "more Jewish than your brother", browbeats her gentile husband Vincent (Laurent Bateau): Vincent (on the phone): Let's ask your brother. Nathalie: There's no problem. If he's a boy, he's circumcised. Vincent: Find out if he's a boy. Nathalie: What's the difference? Vincent: You'd circumcise a girl? There's only a problem if it's a boy. ... (In a doctor's office: we see an ultrasound image of a baby.) Doctor: It's a boy. Vincent: Great! A little boy! Nathalie: Don't pretend. Doctor: For a dad, nothing like a girl. Nathalie: Dr Djaoui. You're Jewish. Vincent: What? Talk now? Nathalie: He's a doctor. Vincent: Let's talk to a goy doctor. Nathalie: That exists? ... (Back home) Nathalie: So he'll feel Jewish and inadequate? Vincent: Right, so let him decide to do it or not. Nathalie: At a certain age, it's hard. Vincent: That'll be a measure of how Jewish he feels. Nathalie: Could you do it now? Vincent: Why have my dick cut? Nathalie: To have one like your son. Vincent: I want him to have one like me. Nathalie: Your son in your own image? Like you're God? Vincent: Why shouldn't he? Nathalie: Get circumcised. (pause) I'm serious. Vincent: On the way home from the game. (pause) Pass me the phone, I'll make the appointment. (She passes it.) What's it listed under? (He dials.) Hello, yeah. Your sister's nuts! In the main story, parallel tit-for-tattery: Charlotte demands that if she is to be naked in a love scene, all the cast and crew must also. Yvan walks onto the soundstage with flowers, sees them all and faints. He goes to drama classes and other students flirt with him. (At Vincent and Nathalie's. Yvan is talking to Nathalie when Vincent arrives.) Nathalie: Your son is Jewish because his mother is. Vincent: For the Jews. Nathalie: For the goys too! Enough to send him to the camps! ... (Yvan and Nathalie are at dinner with their parents. Nathalie answers the phone and leaves the table.) Nathalie: In the US lots of non-Jews... So a doctor can do it. (She returns to the table. Yvan has been telling his parents that he and Charlotte are living apart.) So how about me? Since your son married an actress, it's like he's Mr Perfect. I'm going to have a little boy. We argue every day about one of the world's great problems [presumably Jewish-gentile relations in general, not just circumcision], and it's all him. Fuck the little people! Mother: The mouth on her! Yvan: Enough! Nathalie: When they gas six million actresses, then we'll talk. ... (Vincent and Nathalie are in bed. They begin to make love. Nathalie goes down under the covers. Vincent smiles blissfully.) Vincent: Pretty good foreskin, huh? Nathalie: Asshole! (She slaps him.) ... (Vincent and Yvan are at a football game, ogling woman spectators.) Yvan: Do it for her. It bothers you so much? Vincent: I'm not Jewish, or religious. Yvan: So who cares? Vincent: It's a religious thing. She goes to the Synagogue once a year. Yvan: It's sentimental. We all have to be white, uncircumcised...? Vincent: We are all the same. ... Yvan: Just have your son circumcised. Charlotte and Yvan are reconciled and Nathalie and Vincent's son is born. Charlotte greets him by name, Moses. (In the hospital) Vincent (to Yvan): We're having him circumcised. ... I've never cut myself so much. [?] Nathalie: Just cut it off once and for all. (They begin to argue and Yvan and Charlotte leave.) Predictibly, circumcision is only a token for the conflict between a husband and wife to counterpoint the conflict between the main couple. The value of a foreskin to its owner is not touched on.
Naked Boys Singing USA, 2007	Film of the stage show with these variations:. In the song "Bliss of a Bris" the mohel carries a huge pair of shears and one cast member turns away to vomit as the "baby" is circumcised. The credits include: No penises were injured during the cutting of this film. www.nocirc.org
The Nativity Story USA, 2006	You know the story... A couple of wide-eyed boys witness the circumcision of the baby John the Baptist. A little knife goes beneath the bundled boy. There is a flick of the wrist, the two boys give a startled jump and scurry off. ...typically minimising and trivialising what actually happens. Some reviewers call this "an amusing bit".
Nine Dead Gay Guys UK, 2002	(A UK "Bob & Ted's Excellent Adventure" meets "Father Ted") Two down-and-out Irish youths in London batten on gay men to get some money, using sex and/or theft. (The film is perceptive about their own sexualities. Penis-size is a theme, but none are shown.) The film deliberately includes every stereotype - queens, a fat ferocious lesbian, an ill-hung and hence desperate dwarf, four well-hung blacks, a rich Orthodox Jew - and "Dick-cheese Deepak" an Indian taxi-driver with a "foreskin problem". It has not retracted in five years, and he has not had oral sex for the same time. One youth gags, the other solves the problem by filling his mouth with vodka, but Deepak's reaction is so intense that he crashes the taxi, becoming Dead Gay Guy #5. US readers should note that the existence of Deepak's foreskin is not at issue, only its non-retractility.
Nine Months US, 1995	Comedy about a reluctant father. Has had generally poor reviews. Rebecca Taylor (Julianne Moore) is in labour. Dr Kosevich (Robin Williams) says women are the ones who give birth "'cause men can handle the pain!" He sees a large syringe and faints. The baby is born. Samual Faulkner (Hugh Grant) father chats with the doctor, and asks him if he has been drinking. He replies "Yes, and now I'm going to circumcise your son..." and takes the baby away. Faulkner laughs for a second, before realising that he might not be joking and runs to follow him. The film makers imply the risk is the only reason he should be stopped, perhaps not knowing that British fathers now almost never have their sons circumcised.
The Perfumed Nightmare [Mababangong bangungot] Philippines, 1977	In this autobiographical fantasy, the narrator (Kidlat Tahimik), a boy growing up in the Philippines, is circumcised with his friends, in accordance with custom. Includes closeups, not for the squeamish.
A Price Above Rubies US, 1998	Sonia Horowitz (Renee Zelweger) is a Jewish mother who is questioning her husband's strict Hasidism and has a baby son. At his bris, she says, "It's like they're sacrificing him." Her sister-in-law tells her, "Don't watch" and she replies, "If they can do it, I can watch." As though it was about them or her.
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Australia, 1994	A comedy road-movie through the Australian outback. Trumpet, younger partner of transsexual Bernadette (Terence Stamp), dies in Sydney. At his funeral, a trumpet is on his coffin. To take Bernadette's mind off her loss, drag-queen Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) invites her to perform in Alice Springs. (Priscilla is their bus.) In the outback, they talk: Mitzi: I never heard Trumpet play Bernadette: Play? He didn't play, dear. Trumpet didn't have a single musical bone in his body. No, Trumpet had an unusually large foreskin. So large that he could wrap the entire thing around a Monte Carlo biscuit. This whole scene was cut from the US version of the film. The Simply Australia website describes the Monte Carlo biscuit (US: cookie) as "a coconut shortbread style of biscuit sandwiched with a raspberry cream filling". A Monte Carlo biscuit today is 6cm x 4.6cm x 2.3cm (2.4" x 1.8" x 0.9"). This film is remarkable in referring to the foreskin but not circumcision. Circumcision was already declining in Australia when Trumpet would have been born, so the existence of his foreskin is not at issue, only its size. Even so, it would not have to be as large as you might think, because the foreskin is remarkably elastic.
Quinceaños US, 2006	In contemporary Latino Los Angeles, an Anglo gay man tells his friends about a recent sexual adventure with a young Hispanic man: "It was great. Eight inches...uncut!" A rare exception, perhaps because of its Latino context, to the theme that "The foreskin is disgusting."
Resurrection US, 1999	(Interlight Pictures, Baldwin-Cohen Productions) A cop, trying to humor his wounded partner, says: "Hey Andy - Two boys were sharing a hospital room. So, one boy asked the other why he's there for. So the boy says, 'A circumcision.' And the other boy says, 'Oh man, I had that done right after I was born and I couldn't walk for a year.'" Andy: "That's the worst fucking joke I ever heard, John." John: "I know, I know." The joke has an underlying message: "Circumcision isn't that bad."
Riding in Cars with Boys US, 2001	A couple are expecting a girl, but when the newborn baby is presented to them in the recovery room, he has a penis (shown for two seconds) - already circumcised and healed. The film makers either think all boy babies are circumcised without the parents being consulted, or weren't able to get hold of an intact baby boy, or don't know the difference. Other anomalous circumcisions.
Robin Hood: Men in Tights US, 1993	(Dir: Mel Brooks) Mel Brooks plays a travelling rabbi who enters on a horsedrawn wagon with a sign on the side advertising circumcisions: "10% off". He pitches the idea to the Merry Men, who all say "OK, sure, I'll try it," until Mel demonstrates the procedure using a miniature gilloutine and a carrot. Suddenly they all change their minds, making excuses like, "Oh I forgot, I already had one." In the legendary time of Robin Hood, it would have been true that only Jews circumcise, but not that they offered it to gentiles, or that rabbis did it. It's encouraging that it is presented as something people would turn down - reflecting Brooks' own ambivalence towards it?
The Rugrats Movie US, 2000	A young (presumably female) baby says to another in the hospital nursery "They cut my cord", looking at her bellybutton. The boy in the next bassinet looks down his diaper and says, "you should see what they cut on me". - inviting adults to laugh at the innocence of children and an early start to gender rivalry, but not to consider the actual issues.
Scary Movie 4 US, 2006	Leslie Nielsen plays the U.S. President at a time of an alien invasion spoof of "The War of the Worlds." In a parody of how President Bush was informed of the World Trade Center attacks, Nielsen is visiting an elementary school class and listening to a teacher reading about a pet duck. Upon being informed of the alien attacks, Nielsen first seems to care more about the fate of the duck, then panics the children, then suggests they move on to the book he's holding, calling it: "Rumple Foreskin." He is corrected by an aide, who says it's Rumplestiltskin. Later, Nielsen addresses the UN General Assembly about the alien threat. He begins with a mélange of parts of old off-color jokes (a la "A priest, a Mexican and a Texan are on an airplane. The pilot announces ....") There are two circumcision references in the disordered speech that follows, one about separating the uncircumcised from the circumcised in the group, and another that made less sense. While the sequences play foreskins and circumcision for uncomfortable laughs, it was not clearly tilted. The speech was such a mess it will require transcription once home copies are available.
Sepet [Chinese Eye] Malaysia, 2004	Two Chinese youths, Jason/Ah Loong (Choo Seong Ng) and Keong (Linus Chung), are sitting in a restaurant waiting for Jason's girlfriend, a Malaysian Muslim. Keong: Chinese boy should not go out with a Malay girl. They'll only be troubles later. It'll only break your parents' heart. You have to change your name, your religion, no more roast pork for you. Jason: I know Keong: They'll snip off the tip of your little brother. (He reaches for Jason's crotch. Jason tries to avoid him) Though shaky on the details, Keong is in no doubt that circumcision is harmful.
Shadowboxer US, 2005	(Thriller) Rose (Helen Mirren) and stepson Mikey (Cuba Gooding Jr.) are contract killers. They spare Vickie (Vanessa Ferlito) because she is pregnant and deliver the baby themselves, then call seedy Dr. Don (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who brings along his girlfriend Precious (Mo'Nique). Later, at Dr Don's office: Dr Don: Do you want me to circumcise him? Precious (taking the baby): Hell no. They don't want you going anywhere near his damn dick. This is apparently more a swing at the character than anything contrary to circumcision.
She Hate Me (sic) US, 2004	(Comedy directed by Spike Lee) Biotech executive John Henry "Jack" Armstrong (Anthony Mackie) is fired when he informs on his corrupt bosses. When his former girlfriend offers him cash to impregnate her and her new girlfriend, he is persuaded and soon in the baby-making business at $10,000 a try. Most reviews are unfavourable. A potential client: Is he circumcised? If not, (looks disgusted) then I won't even get close to him. Reinforces the tedious theme that intact penises are "dirty".
Shriek if you know what I did last Friday the 13th US, 2000	(Splatter comedy) Teacher asks teenage pupils if they knew Frankenstein was circumcised. More details needed (but the movie is so uniformly panned that it would be inadvisable to watch it all just to find out).
Sixty six UK, 2006	Comedy/drama about Bernie Reubens (Gregg Sulkin), about to have his Bar Mitzvah. It clashes with the World Cup final and has to be radically scaled down. Friend: Will you have your tonker cut off? Bernie: What? Friend: My mum said when you have your bar mitzvah you have your tonker cut off by a rabbi with a cake knife. Bernie: It's not called a tonker, it's called a cock and I've already had a bit cut off. (Friend's dad looks up in astonishment.) Gentiles commonly confuse Bar Mitzvah and Brit Milah, but the cake knife and penectomy are an added touches. Cake knives are especially blunt. The lines are presumably to illustrate Bernie's knowledge and urbanity, but the scriptwriters' own knowledge of Judaism is shaky: a rabbi tells Bernie there's nothing in "the Old Testament" about hoping your home side loses. ("Old Testament" is a Christian expression; Jews acknowledge no other.)
The South Park Movie: Bigger, Longer & Uncut US, 1999	In the TV trailer, after the word "Uncut", the cartoon boys can be heard in the background shouting "Eeeewwwww!" This casual bigotry against intactness is one of the most insidious ways circumcision is promoted. For South Park, the TV series, see the TV Sitcoms pages, S-Z.
State and Main US, 2000	A woman is about to make love to a man and asks him if he is Jewish. He replies, "Yes, why do you ask?" She says, "I love Jewish men." He asks, "Why?" She then looks at his crotch excitedly and says, "Ohh, you know why!" This reinforces the first myth, that only Jews (and all Jews) circumcise. (She might as well have asked, "Are you American?") For him to know why would assume that all women prefer circumcised penises.
Summer Storm [Sommersturm] Germany, 2004	A comedy about a young rower coming to terms with being gay during a training session camped by a lake. One of the rowers is brought to the camp in agony. His body is hunched up, and when they force his arms and legs apart one lifts the blanket that wraps him and says "His foreskin is caught in his zipper." Then some woman rowers come to complain that a man has been peeking at them, and they identify him as the culprit. He is taken away to see a doctor. Some of the youths joke about serving his foreskin at a barbecue. At the end of the film he confesses to one of the women that he had been "choking the chicken" and she slaps his face. Having a foreskin is taken for granted. There is only a comical suggestion that it, rather than the zipper, will be sacrificed.
Superman US, 1978	The baby Superman walks out of the crash-landed rocket from Krypton, circumcised. (One has to ask, what with?)
Superman II US, 1980	The infant Superman is again shown circumcised. Other anomalous circumcisions.
Things I Never Told You [Cosas que nunca te dije] Spain/US, 1996	In two scenes of traffic jams, we can hear the drivers' thoughts. In the first, a man says, "Why was I circumcised, anyway?" In the next, he answers himself, "It's cleaner and healthier, women prefer it."
Threads Khait Errouh Morocco, 2003	Producer's synopsis: Hayat, a young American woman, accompanies her dying father, Mehdi, on a trip to his childhood home in Bejjaad - a small Moroccan town teeming with people she may never meet, but whose lives unfold before our eyes: Karim (Mohamed Farhat), a young boy, is plagued with nightmares on the eve of his circumcision. ... As each of these characters undergoes a rite of passage, Mehdi embraces the end of his life. ... and well he might have had nightmares.
Tiyabu Biru Senegal, 1978	Made in the Soninke language, English title "Circumcision". No other information available.
A touch of spice (Politiki kouzina) Greece, 2003	A drama set in Greece and Turkey. A Turkish customer and his son enter a spice shop owned by a Greek in Istanbul. The son is dressed in festive garments resembling a king's or sultans's dress. While the two men talk about politics, the boy approaches the merchant's grandson, but his father forbids him from doing so. He explains to the merchant that the son is to be circumcised shortly, but he will allow him to come another day to play with his grandson. (Later in the movie the two boys meet again as men and we realise that the promised visit - after the circumcision - never took place.)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story 95 mins UK, 2005	"An unfilmable 18th century literary classic becomes a comic film-about-a-film." Laurence Sterne's 'The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman' is a mock autobiography renowned for its digressions and its asides, These are paralled in this film version by stepping out of the story into its filming. During the re-creation of a crucial point in Shandy's childhood, when he was circumcised by a plunging sash window, this painful accident is interrupted by Steve Coogan as Shandy hectoring the child actor (Conal Murphy) for his poor performance.
The Two Of Us Le viel homme et l'enfant France, 1967	Drama The parents of a little Jewish boy (Alain Cohen) decide to evacuate him at the height of the bombing of their town in 1944. He goes to stay with an elderly couple. Jews are being rounded up and the old man (Michel Simon) is superficially anti-Semitic, so the boy is told to say he is Catholic, and even learns the Lord's Prayer. The drama is about the developing relationship between the boy and the man. He has a couple of near-disclosures, especially when he's told to bathe in the iron bath in the middle of the kitchen. We see his "problem", the determined old lady (Luce Fabiole) who wants to wash him does not.
Tuli Philippines, 2005	A lesbian feminist film. Daisy (Desiree Del Valle) has inherited, from her abusive father, the role of circumcising all the young men in the village, and she bristles against the expectation that she must then marry one of them. “Let’s show all the men here our world doesn’t revolve around their balls,” she tells her friend Botchok (Vanna Garcia). There are several scenes of circumcisions in the first hour.
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Uncut Canada, 1997	A comedy set in Ottawa in 1979, about three gay men named Peter - one, Cort (Matthew Ferguson), is writing a book about male circumcision; another, Koosens (Michael Achtman), is transcribing that book in a typing agency and is obsessed with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to a degree that draws the attention of a police officer; the third, Peter Denham (Damon D'Oliveira), seduces the first two and then betrays them both. "[a] witty, imaginative and frequently subversive reapraisal of cinematic form... this is certainly different and refreshing viewing." - Time Out
View from the Top US, 2003	A romantic comedy about becoming a flight attendant. At a dinner party, a veteran flight attendant, Sally Weston (Candice Bergen) married to a rich Texan, is host to several new flight attendants. Donna (Gwyneth Paltrow): So what was it like, Mrs Weston, when you started flying? Sally: Sally, please. Oh, it was wonderful! The exotic cities - Christine (Christina Applegate): I hear all those Europe men are uncircumcised. Randy (Joshua Malina, informatively): Uh, not all. (Mr Weston looks pained) The humour lies in the inappropriateness of the question, topped by the inappropriateness of the answer, with a mildly homophobic dig at Randy's supposed promiscuity (though one circumcised European would be sufficient for him to be correct). On another level, it is anti-intact: he is reassuring her that she can date a European without having to put up with a foreskin.
Virtual Sexuality UK, 1999	Romantic comedy with a touch of sci-fi. Justine Parker (Laura Fraser), 17, wants to lose her virginity. She goes to a virtual reality fair for a date with self-styled superstud Alex Thorne (Kieran O'Brien), but he stands her up and she goes with her friend Chas Lovett (Luke de Lacey). In a machine intended to give her a virtual makeover, she sets the controls for her ideal man (Rupert Penry-Jones) instead. An explosion puts her into his body and she calls herself Jake, but has much to learn about being a man. Jake and Chas are in a locker-room, where naked men are horsing around: Jake: Jesus, would you look at Carter's. Chas: Don't point. Jake: But he's got no - the inside's showing. Chas: He's been circumcised. Jake: Poor bastard! A scene that would probably have been turned on its head in the US.
Waiting for Guffman US, 1996	A semi-improvised comedy. Blaine, Missouri. To celebrate the town's 150th anniversary, an off5-Broadway director is mounting an historical pageant. (Guffman is a Broadway theatre critic who has been invited to the opening night.) Two of the cast - a travel agent who has left town only once and the dentist - and their partners are having dinner together. Ron Albertson (Fred Willard): How'd you find this place? Dr. Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy, who played Dr Wasserman in "Off Centre" ): Well, we've been, uh coming here for many years Sheila Albertson (Catherine O'Hara rather the worse for wear) What's it.. what's it.. Ron: Shhh ... Sheila: Girl talk. What's it like to be with a circumcised man? Mrs [first name not given] Pearl (Linda Kash) reacts. Sheila : I'd ask you more about that but Ron said the whole Jew thing... Ron whispers in Sheila's ear. Reaction from Dr Pearl. Sheila: When Ron had his surgery... when Ron had his surgery ... Ron (interrupting): All right, all right ... Sheila: ... I said, 'Hey circumcise it while you're at it,' you know... because I had never been with anyone else. Ron's the only man I've been with. [This does not follow. ~75% of the world's women have never been with any but intact men.] Dr. Pearl: What surgery did he have? Ron: A minor corrective surgery. (to a waiter) Can we have some coffee at the table please? Sheila (sarcastically): It's not minor anymore. [?] Dr. Pearl (noticing Ron's embarrassment): Well maybe we should change the subject. Ron: I had, uh, what most guys would, um, dream of: I had penis reduction surgery. Dr. Pearl (startled): I'm sorry? Ron: Penis reduction surgery. Which there aren't many. You're gonna say, 'I've never heard of that,' because there haven't been that many cases. (Reaction from Mrs Pearl) Sheila: I said, 'Ron do something' and he said, 'Why don't you get one of those vagina enlargements?' The scene continues without further reference to circumcision.
Walk on Water Israel, 2004	Explores Israeli-German and straight-gay relationships, among other things. An Israeli intelligence man, Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi), is hunting down an old Nazi. He poses as a tourist guide and befriends the Nazi's grandson, Axel Himmelman (Knut Berger). They are showering after swimming in the Dead Sea. Eyal: So they didn't circumcise you? I think I never saw one. You know, we used to talk about it in the army. If it looks bigger and if it's better in bed. Axel: I don't know. It's the only one I ever had. Eyal: Is everybody like that in Europe? Axel (as they get dressed): In Germany, hardly nobody's circumcised - except for the Turks. In other countries of Europe...? Let me think... Italians? Definitely not circumcised. Also the English and the French. Definitely not. Actually, only the Muslims are circumcised in Europe. And the Jews, of course. I think it looks better circumcised. Eyal (thoughtfully): I see you know quite a lot about it. Circumcision is a plot device to develop the relationship between the men. Axel is giving away that he is gay, but Eyon doesn't notice. Not many gay Germans would think a circumcised penis looks better than their own - perhaps he is flirting.
Wassup Rockers USA, 2005	Dramatised documentary by Larry Clark about Hispanic youths coming of age in Los Angeles Girl: You're not circumcised. Jonathan (Jonathan Velasquez): No, I'm Latino. Perhaps intended as a humorous non-sequitur, but in fact a more-or-less accurate correlation.
What's Cooking? USA, 2000	Comedy-drama about two days - around Thanksgiving - in the lives of four Los Angeles families, African-American,Vietnamese, Latino and Jewish. On Thanksgiving morning, Ruth Seelig (Lainie Kazan) is showing Carla (Julianna Margulies), the partner of her daugher Rachel (Kyra Sedgwick), how to stuff the turkey, and complaining about her son, Art, and his wife. RuthCarla: Mmm, that's my favorite part. Ruth: I mean, our only grandson not cirumcised, yet. It's a shanda [disgrace, scandal]. And, and, and they spoke to the moyel in Beverly Hills about the bris and everything. Rachel (who is pregnant by artificial insemination, unknown to her mother): But it's up to his parents! Ruth: It's tradition! As usual, circumcision is not treated seriously in its own right, this time merely as a prop to illustrate the generation gap, and the grandson's rights or wishes do not get a look in.
When Father was away on Business [Otac na sluzbenom putu], Yugoslavia, 1985	A drama-comedy directed by Emir Kusturica and set in 1950s Yugoslavia. Early on the film, the father decides to have his two boys, Mesa (Miki Manojlovic), aged about nine, and Malik (Moreno D'E Bartolli ), 12, circumcised. The adults throw a little party in the house. The boys are presented and circumcised by their uncle who is a butcher. Their father tells the butcher to "go easy" with the skin and is told that there is "enough skin left for a good fuck". Later on, Mesa shares a bathtub with a little girl. He resents being circumcised since a friend of his "can stick a stone in, while he can't". The girl tells him that her father, who is a doctor, performs such operations and that it is better to be cut by a doctor.
The Wicker Man UK, 1973	Cult suspense/horror. A Calvanistic Scottish police sergeant (Edward Woodward) goes alone to an offshore island where the locals, led by their Lord (Christopher Lee), have abandoned Christianity in favour of pagan fertility rites, and becomes more involved than is good for him. A scene in the local chemist/photographer's shop opens with a closeup of jars labelled "Foreskins" and "Dimethyl glyoxime" and tracks past jars containing "Rat Brains", a weasel, "Snake Oil Embrocation", "Brains" and "Hearts" and ends on a tank of calf embryos. If circumcision is among the island's rites, it is not mentioned elsewhere. The foreskins seem merely intended to be grotesque, and possibly comic. (Dimethyl glyoxime is a real chemical, used to detect nickel. It has no apparent significance.)
Y tu mamá también [And your mother, too] Mexico, 2001	Two best friends, 17 years old, spend most of their time horsing around, swearing, smoking dope and having sex with their girlfriends. One, Tenoch (Diego Luna), is the son of a leading politician and a psychotherapist (very well off). The other, Julio (Gael García Bernal), is the son of a secretary (middle to middle/lower class) whose husband ran off many years ago. In an early scene, the boys are showering together alone at a country club. As Julio dries off, Tenoch comments on his "ugly dick." Julio ignores the comment but Tenoch continues by saying Julio's penis looks like a "deflated balloon." Julio tells him to "blow up my balloon, faggot!" winning the exchange. Later, during a road-trip with a Spanish relation of Tenoch's, Luisa (Maribel Verdú), they banter about the relative size of their penises. Tenoch: Plus, Julio has a really ugly cock. Luisa: Oh really? Why do you say that? Tenoch: It looks like a deflated balloon. It has a hood on it; it's really gross. Luisa: Mmm, yummy. Foreskins. I love them! Tenoch: Well, I think a hood is just gross. Julio: Ah, you're just jealous 'cause I'm bigger. As the film goes on, they express the sexual tension between them in class terms. Tenoch calls Julio "white trash" and "a peasant", while Julio calls Tenoch a "spoiled preppie" and the beneficiary of a corrupt politician father. A voice-over mentions that Tenoch uses his foot to lift the toilet seat in Julio's home. Circumcision is just one clear line in the sand. The message is that boys in upper- and middle-class Mexican families are routinely circumcised, like the Americans they envy, while intactness is a mark of social inferiority in sophisticated Mexico City, where both boys live. Julio is unfussed about being intact, but Tenoch has a hangup about foreskins - not that they're dirty, but rather that they label social class. His best friend's intactness is a daily reminder that they're from different sides of the tracks. The connection is made very deliberately. Diego Luna is actually intact, but was made to wear a circumcised stunt penis in the nude scenes.
Documentary
Africa Ama Italy, 1971	Sensationalistic documentary shows circumcisions of crying male and female children (with broken glass or a razor blade) clearly, and an infibulation. Female circumcision is described as severe mutilation, male circumcision as a just a hygienic measure.
Circoncision, un film de Nurith Aviv France, 2000 (52 min)	From a review: "Sensitively done interviews, in English and French with subtitles, with a variety of people from various cultural backgrounds, circumcising and non-circumcising, and especially mixed couples, discussing their feelings about circumcision and facing the decision whether to circumcise. "One secular Algerian man describes how, under colonial French rule, to be circumcised was a proud mark that one was not French. In Paris, his family threatened to disown him if he didn't have his sons, 6-8 years old, circumcised. His French wife was opposed. They ultimately didn't, and he was ostracized from his family of origin. The film honored the depth of people's emotions and conflicts, while leaving no doubt that circumcision was a violent and sexually and emotionally disruptive thing." - Billy Ray Boyd "sober and penetrating documentary" - Ha'aretz (Israel) From the film's own website: This film doesn't explore the religious dimensions of circumcision; the men and women expressing their views here are not religious. However, for them circumcision remains a major issue. Their questions focus upon this mar[k]ing of the body, but also upon lineage, cultural heritage and its transmission. These are particularly sensitive issues for mixed couples, for whom the decision of whether to circumcise or not can give rise to powerful emotions, sometimes leading to conflict.
Couper Court Cut Short Canada, 2007	Official summary: Infant circumcision is a delicate subject. For some, it stands as a religious law, impossible to circumvent; for others, it amounts to a serious lapse from children's right to physical integrity. This documentary gives an opportunity to men and to women to express freely their concern with this question. 52 minutes Producer: Evelyne Guay Production Productions VF Inc.
Cut USA, 2007	A documentary by Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon which examines male circumcision from a religious, scientific and ethical perspective. "Using cutting-edge research, in addition to interview footage of rabbis, philosophers, and scientists, Cut challenges the viewer to confront their biases by asking difficult questions about this long-standing practice." Primarily about Brit Milah, the Religious News Service says the film "respectfully questions the ritual". After its theatrical premiere in Chicago on September 9, 2007, the director answered questions from the audience. An independent review: I approached the film with a complex set of preconceptions and, to the filmmaker's great credit, after it was over my certainties were utterly shaken. It would be entirely too easy to make a joke about the subject of Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon’s thoughtful new documentary, “Cut:Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision.” After all, Jewish comedians have been doing that for decades. And at the beginning of his film, one expects from its tone that Ungar-Sargon may be planning to do the same. But “Cut” is a deadly serious and admirably balanced look at the medical, sociological, ethical and religious aspects of male circumcision. The filmmaker interviews a profusion of doctors, activists and rabbis, returning periodically to a non-observant Jewish couple who are preparing for the brit milah of their second son, which we see towards the end of the film. Ungar-Sargon was himself raised as an Orthodox Jew, and describes his uneasy investigation of this issue as one more step in his “lifelong struggle with Jewish tradition.” As his father notes, he was circumcised by the same mohel who had performed the rite on the filmmaker’s grandfather and father, a detail that underlines the significance of circumcision as a practice that unites Jewish men across generations. Despite his own misgivings about circumcision, Ungar-Sargon is admirably even-handed in his choice of witnesses and the use of their statements. It would be very easy to caricature some of the odder “intactivist” activists , and one cannot help but bristle a little at the non-Jewish anti-circumcision organizer who says, “I don’t prescribe for Jews at all,” with a certain air of disdain, or the non-observant Jewish anthropologist who takes obvious delight in pointing out the preponderance of Jewish physicians doing research to support the purported medical benefits of the procedure. [It would be even easier to caricature quite mainstream circumcision activists. He would bristle even more at Intactivists who do prescribe for Jews - damned if we do and damned if we don't, it seems. Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon: Would you argue that Jews should discontinue the practice of circumcision? Harry Meislahn (NOCIRC Illinois): No, I don't - I don't prescribe for Jews at all. This is an absolute loser, I'm not Jewish. One of the other things about it is that I would maintain that a Jewish baby feels pain just as a non-Jewish baby feels pain, and there are Jewish men, just like non-Jewish men, who are real angry that this was done to them so at that point I withdraw from this field because it generates lots of heat, very little light, and I understand a lot of people have used arguments against circumcision - hundreds of years ago - to convert Jews from Judaism, and Jews know that. Disdain? Prof. Leonard Glick: As I studied the history of American circumcision, the names that came up repeatedly with most prominence - Wolbarst, Ravich, [Fink], Weiss, Schoen (still active today) - the names - with the single exception of Thomas Wiswell (who's the main proponent for [circumcision to prevent] Urinary Tract Infections) - but with that single exception, really in recent times, I think it's accurate and reasonable and fair to say that the names of Jewish physicians are inordinately prominent. Were these men being insincere in some sense? Did they have "ulterior motives"? I really don't think so. I think in their own conscious minds, what they were doing was recommending a Jewish practice that had turned out to be a very good medical practice, one that everyone should adopt. Were they at all influenced by the fact that they were Jewish? I think it's pretty hard to conclude that they probably were not. I would say that, whether consciously or unconsciously, they would have been pleased or satisfied to know that a Jewish practice that had been vilified for centuries was now being accepted by their fellow physicians - non-Jewish physicians - as something worth doing. (Prof. Glick spells this out in more detail on page 183ff of his book.) Delight?] Yet it is hard not to be moved when both a midwife and anti-circumcision speaker and the woman rabbi who runs the Reform movement’s Berit Milah program speaking passionately about the responsibility to protect our children. The question remains, of course, whether that is best done by circumcising the male infants or eschewing that practice. In a sense, the entire film is leading up to the final scene between the director and his father, who has been a highly articulate but intransigent defender of Orthodox ritual. Over the course of making the film, Ungar-Sargon returns to his father in his home study repeatedly, but it is only in their final chat that the older man admits that even he is prepared to acknowledge that the question is a fraught one and that he can live with his son’s answer (or lack thereof). The questions surrounding male circumcision do not admit of any easy answers but, to his credit, Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon has resisted the easy laugh and the pat response to convey something of the thorniness of the issue. He has confronted in a specifically and intensely Jewish way, and that is all you could possibly ask of a filmmaker under these circumstances. Cut is a sound piece of documentary filmmaking on a difficult issue. George Robinson in Cine-Journal Blogspot DVDs of "Cut" are available from the film's website.
Cutting Silence South Africa, 2008	A 29-minute dramatised documentary about Somalian FGC. Synopsis: The film tells the story of a small contemporary North African family having to deal with the traditional practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). The main focus of the film falls on a young mute woman, Haadiya, who has lived with the effects of FGM all her life. Now that the time has come for her own daughter, Karida, to be circumcised, lost memories about her own experience start to return and fill her mind with doubt. However, a culture that demands the infabulation for social acceptance makes her situation more complex. When Tawvah, bearing the scars of her own infabulation, shows up to do the circumcision on Karida, Haadiya is forced to make a quick and drastic decision. The film investigates the cultural reasons for the continuation of this practice in North African societies. During this short period, actual experiences and scientific facts are condensed into the lives of the five fictional characters, predominantly on the four female characters, who are forced to evaluate their roles as women bound by tradition as well as the life-long damage this cultural practice inflicts on their minds and bodies. The film thus examines through the genre of docudrama the cultural and personal reasons why such a practice still exists in Africa today. Trailer
The Day I Will Never Forget UK (TV), 2002	A low-key documentary with little commmentary. From a review: Set in the Somali community of Nairobi, Kenya, where female genital mutilation is still a common practice, The Day I Will Never Forget takes a many-faceted look at the complex social and cultural forces that continue to thwart effective reform. A Western-trained nurse confronts a new husband with his wife's need for corrective surgery, only to see him put his fear of being shamed by his friends before his wife's well-being. A men's fraternity leader, wearing traditional dress, claims that the clitoris is no different from the foreskin and therefore must be removed. Middle-class mothers sit around a living room rationalizing their own suffering and justifying why they have passed the practice on to their daughters. But filmmaker Kim Longinotto ... provides a larger context for the practice with a look into Somalian marriage customs... Ultimately hope is found in a group of young girls who petition the court for a restraining order against their parents. - Jeannine Lanourette San Francisco Film Festival Justifications offered for FGM are tradition, to keep girls from sleeping around, and cleanliness. The elder argues that the clitoris is the male organ in the female, as the foreskin is the female organ in the male, and claims God has ordered both to be removed. Opposition to (female) circumcision is largely Christian-based, and religious justification for it vaguely Muslim (the man who puts this forward is sure there is something in the Qu'ran about it.) The most harrowing scene is of a young girl, who has just watched her elder sister being mutilated, being suddenly and unexpectedly held down and subjected to the same process.
The 8th Day US (TV), 2001	A video documentary about two Jewish couples wrestling with the decision whether to circumcise their sons. Karen Markuze made the video as her master's thesis in broadcast journalism.
Facing Circumcision: Eight Physicians Tell Their Stories US (TV), 1998 (20 mins)	Seven family practice physicians and one emergency room physician in Santa Fe, NM, struggle with their consciences as they examine the ethical and human rights issues of infant circumcision. Three of them tell why they stopped circumcising, the others why they continue to circumcise or to advocate circumcision and discuss what might lead them to change their minds. Available through NOHARMM:
It's a Boy! UK (TV), 1995	This documentary proved to be more anti-circumcision than its makers ever intended: the bris they were filming went wrong. The mohel told them to stop the camera but they carried on. The baby had to go to hospital, where he developed an infection, went into intensive care and needed antibiotics, oxygen and drips. Excerpts from this circumcision were used in a mainly pro-circ US current affairs item, with the outcome not mentioned. The makers of "It's a Boy!" were, predictibly, denounced as anti-Semitic and the filming was blamed for the mishap, yet brisot are commonly videotaped by relatives, as in "The Nanny", and the producer, Victor Schoenfeld, is the Jewish father of a circumcised son. He also presents details of two babies who died as a result of their circumcisions and an interview with the mother of a third who almost bled to death. It reveals cases of permanent genital disfigurement, claiming that, at a conservative estimate one in 50 circumcisions leads to serious complications. The film also shows Muslim circumcisions.
Keep the River on your Right: a modern cannibal tale US, 2000	Includes documentary footage (virtually irrelevant to the subject, an elderly anthropologist, Tobias Schneebaum, who wrote an important book of the same title) of Muslim ritual circumcision of terrified Malaysian boys. Includes close-ups, not for the squeamish.
Nurses of St. Vincent's: Saying NO to Circumcision US (TV), 19	In 1992, more than 20 nurses of St Vincent Hospital, Santa Fe, NM, refused to perform any more circumcisions, and in 1995, two of them, Mary Conant and Betty Katz Sperlich, founded Nurses for the Rights of the Child. This is their story.
Prince for a Day US (TV), 2000	In 1998, after speaking at a congress for Indonesian midwives, Royal Philips went on a cruise in the Banda sea. At the island of Sumbawa, she witnessed the circumcision of 41 terrified boys, in circumstances very similar to the Schneebaum documentary above. Her documentary makes one small but very telling connection with routine infant circumcision. Not for the squeamish.
The Quest for the Missing Piece Israel, 2007	"A gay look at the practice of circumcision" Dir: Oded Lotan. Described by Brandon Jodell as "endearing".
They Cut Babies, Don't They? US (TV), 1999 (30 mins)	Subtitled "one man's struggle against circumcision". Angered by his own circumcision, James Loewen documents anti-circumcision protests, creates a series of satirical photographs about doctors who circumcise, lobbied politicians, and chalks slogans on busy sidewalks. He is also restoring his foreskin. Available from NOHARMM:
The Truth About Gay Sex UK (TV), 2002	This UK documentary, aimed at a heterosexual audience, mainly takes intactness for granted, but the only direct reference to the foreskin is to say it can be retracted for oral sex, and a discussion of anal sex uses a (US-made?) diagram of "The Male Reproductive System" on which the penis is circumcised a discussion of how gross penises may appear shows only intact penises it covers such byways as rimming (oral-anal sex) and fisting, but not the only thing that gay men can do that a heterosexual couple can not, docking.
Whose Body, Whose Rights US (TV), 1995	Uses footage of a circumcision and interviews with restoring men and others hurt by circumcision to build a powerful case. Available from NOHARMM:

The stage
Foreskin's Lament New Zealand, 1981	The first act is set in a rugby changing room. In a practice heard but not seen, an ambitious but unsuccessful cop known as Clean covertly kicks his captain, Ken, in the head (in order to take over the position), and the issues around this - fair play vs winning - are discussed (largely in the nude, since they're headed for the showers), mainly by Tupper the win-at-all-costs coach, and Foreskin (real name Seymour), a non-conformist universty student. In a rugby match between the two acts, Clean kicks Ken again, and during the second act (set at the after-match party) Ken dies in hospital. Foreskin's lament, for Ken but also for rugby, which he is giving up, and for human values, closes the play. There is only a passing reference to circumcision, and that ambivalent: Moira (Foreskin's girlfriend): Why the funny names ... Foreskin? I never noticed it. Foreskin: Are they that unusual ... Honey? Moira: All right. Foreskin: Progress has a lot of chops to answer for - trees, animals, sensibilities of all kinds, what's a piece of skin? Moira: Can cover a lot of sensibilities. Foreskin: Ha ha. Moira: Well? Foreskin: Pretersensual pain - the chop I missed and have always been bound for. (The playwright Greg McGee says he based the name on someone nicknamed "Foreskin" because his real name was Fawcett.) Since 1981 the play has been revived several times, and the title is so familiar that at least six newspaper articles about circumcision have used it as a title, and variants have been used on unrelated topics, such as "Forwards' Lament" about Rugby and "Foreshores Lament" about seashore ownership. From this it may be concluded that the concept "foreskin" has no negative connotations in New Zealand. A radically revised version was first broadcast on New Zealand TV on October 19, 2003. Renamed "Skin and Bone", the lament is replaced by an upbeat hymn of praise to rugby, Seymour's nickname is reduced to "Skin" and he explains it to Moira as being because he used to be skinny, "all skin and bone". This could be because the decline in circumcision in New Zealand means a foreskin is no longer the distinguishing feature among men of rugby-playing age that it was in 1981. Foreskin's Lament is also the title of a 2007 book.
Love's Labours Lost UK, c.1590	Moth farewells Costard with "Adieu!" Apparently mishearing - or pretending to - Costard replies "My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony [pretty, delicate] Jew!" (iii 1 142) In modern, literal English, perhaps: "Me with this cute foreskin? Some Jew!" On stage, he would probably use some business to indicate his meaning.
The Merchant of Venice UK, c.1595	When Jessica runs away from her father Shylock to marry the Christian Lorenzo, his friend Gratiano jokes that Jessica is "...by my hood, a gent[i]le and no Jew" (ii 4 52) and his "hood" in this context is his foreskin, Shakespeare taking the opportunity for some easy bawdry on a common word. Circumcision is never directly mentioned in the Merchant. Shylock proposes that if Antonio forfeits his debt, Shylock will take a pound of his flesh "in what part of your body pleaseth me." (I 3 150). But "flesh" was a euphemism for penis, so an Elizabethan audience would understand that Shylock intended to circumcise/castrate Antonio. Only in the trial scene does Portia specify that the flesh is "to be by him cut off / Nearest the merchant's heart" (IV 1 21-2) In Shakespeare and the Jews, James Shapiro points out that "Shylock will cut his Christian adversary in that part of the body where the Christians believe themselves to be truly circumcised." (quoted in Glick, p 104) Thus, Shapiro points out, forcing Shylock to convert to Christianity is a particularly accurate turning of the tables: Shylock's baptism "will metaphorically uncircumcise him," and "the circumcising Jew is metamophosed through conversion into a gentle Christian."
Naked Boys Singing USA, 2004	Musical revue about male anxieties, largely presented in the nude by nine men. Includes a number, "The Bliss of a Bris", sung by a Jewish man "remembering" how he was feted and admired up to the moment of his circumcision, which is presented as comic, without blood or significant pain - or any change to his penis, visible throughout. The emphasis is on the change in treatment of his sexuality thereafter. Another song, about varieties of penises, includes a chant "Cut! Uncut!" but the fact that most of the men in the show are circumcised (or all, depending on the production) goes unremarked. Filmed with slight changes in 2007.
Othello UK, c.1604	As Othello kills himself he reminds his hearers that depite his despicable killing of Desdemona, he did the state some service: I took by the throat the circumciséd dog, and smote him - thus. (v ii 354)Othello, being a Moor, would have been, like his Turkish foe, "circumciséd". It is not clear that Shakespeare knew that. Regardless of these ambiguities, there is no doubt that Shakespeare valued the foreskin and deplored circumcision.

Related pages:

• TV
• Circumcision in Shakespeare

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