Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Hester Street Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 17, 2022

There's a well worn but still on point and kind of darkly funny joke that is often told at any number of Jewish festivals, including but certainly not limited to celebrations like the very recent Passover and its attendant Seder: "They tried to kill us. They failed. (Or alternately: We survived.) Let's eat!" Joan Micklin Silver, who famously had to tilt at whatever the Jewish version of windmills are to get Hester Street financed and made, might want to slightly change that to, "They tried to ignore me. They failed. Let's make a movie!" Silver is on hand in several supplements included on this disc and while she's almost inherently sweet natured and almost reticent at times to get into too much detail, she does offer a number of anecdotes about what it was like back in the seventies as a woman attempting to mount her first feature film. Even in Silver's already existing career of shooting educational shorts, she had encountered sometimes odd pronouncements from on high, including when she was tasked with helming a featurette about immigration but was explicitly told not to focus on Jews. Nonetheless, in doing research for that project she ended up reading a novella entitled Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto by Abraham Cahan, which became the source material for Hester Street. Hester Street in turn became "the little movie that could", ending up raking in relatively considerable dough (considering its "niche" subject matter) and resulting in a well deserved Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for star Carol Kane, who delivers an unforgettable performance as a Jewish immigrant woman named Gitl.

Hester Street has had a prior Blu-ray outing courtesy of Scorpion Releasing, and for those wanting a plot summary, I refer you to my colleague Brian Orndorf's Hester Street Blu-ray review, which should suffice more than handily enough. I will add just a couple of comments as someone with family history that includes Jewish immigrant grandparents who came to the United States just a few years after Hester Street takes place, and also as someone who many years ago reviewed the at least tangentially connected Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem.

Kind of interestingly, the study group known as "Daf Yomi", whereby Jews can delve into the Talmud a day at a time, is concerned as this review is being written with so called "Levirate marriage", which is dictated after a woman's husband dies and she almost automatically becomes betrothed to her dead spouse's brother, at least if he's not married yet. Tractate Yevamot also at least touches on some of the vagaries of divorce, and for those who think either The Ten Commandments (so to speak) or the more strict and oft quoted 613 commandments for observant Jews might not be quite enough, I'd simply suggest attempting to wade into the arcane and sometimes outright baffling laws surrounding Jewish divorce.

In that regard, Gitl's "arc" is in a way at least somewhat like Silver's herself, in that the story follows a woman in a male dominated environment who has to adapt in order to survive, and who must fight for her own identity and freedom to do as she chooses. Silver's own experiences no doubt helped to inform the emotional veracity that is so evident in Hester Street, and the film, while lacking production finesse in some ways, has an immediacy and in fact relevance (even to today's jaded environment) that is quite striking.

Hester Street Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hester Street is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Cohen touts a "new 4K restoration" of the title, and a cursory comparison of screenshots between this review and Brian's of the Scorpion Releasing version suggests that this Cohen transfer is slightly darker with a more tightly resolved grain field. Detail levels are quite good throughout, especially on some intricate patterns on some of the fabrics of costumes (see screenshots 3 and 10 for a couple of good examples). Contrast is generally consistent, as is clarity, though there are a few minor variances, especially in some passing scenes involving Jake and Mamie, which can look at least a bit more roughhewn at times (see screenshot 15). While there are still some of the "baked in" deficiencies that Brian noted in his review, any signs of major damage to the element have been either eliminated or at least ameliorated.

Hester Street Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Cohen release of Hester Street sports a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that shows the same (probably unfixable) hiss and low level noise that Brian mentions in his review of the Scorpion Releasing Blu-ray. It tends to fade into the background in noisier moments (as when sewing machines are in use), but it's definitely noticeable otherwise. Dialogue is generally presented cleanly. The film features both English and Yiddish, with the Yiddish sections offering forced English subtitles. Otherwise optional English subtitles are available for the English language sections.

Hester Street Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Alternate Opening with Commentary by Daniel Kremer (HD; 8:23) is an interesting bit of "history" (in more ways than one, since it includes archival footage intercut with "new" material intentionally made to look old and distressed) which Kremer (whose book about Joan Micklin Silver is due in 2023) details. The actual opening is silent, save for some underscore (either inherent or added for this presentation).


• Conversations from the Quad is split into two portions, though they seem to have been recorded at the same time, with both featuring Shonni Enelow as moderator:

  Joan Micklin Silver on "Hester Street" (HD; 31:48)

  
  

  Joan Micklin Silver Career Overview (HD; 21:14)

• Interviews

  Carol Kane (SD; 9:07)

  
  

  Doris Roberts (SD; 8:23)

  
  

  Joan Micklin Silver (SD; 13:49)

  
  

  Raphael D. Silver (SD; 14:19)

• Trailer (HD; 00:54)


• Audio Commentary by Joan Micklin Silver and Raphael D. Silver can be accessed under the Setup Menu.

Hester Street Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Parts of Hester Street hit particularly close to home for me personally, not necessarily with regard to any family dysfunction but more so with regard to the almost mad rush by immigrant Jews to quickly and hopefully seamlessly assimilate into American culture, which is most certainly part of my own family's history. The emotional trauma suffered by Gitl is harrowing at times, but the fact that she is able to pick herself up and dust herself off is a testament to the strength of women generally and immigrant women in particular. This new release of Cohen offers generally secure technical merits, with an understanding that some deficits in production funding led to some unavoidable issues. The supplements are very enjoyable and easily trump the bare bones release from Scorpion. Highly recommended.