The Hebrew Hammer

Synopsis: Mordechai Jefferson Carver (Adam Goldberg) is a persecuted Jewish kid at the St Peter Paul & Mary school, ridiculed by his Gentile classmates and even his teacher. As an adult he metamorphoses into a hero for the Jews as The Hebrew Hammer, fighting prejudice and crimem  to the Jews what Shaft was to the Afro-Americans. A hero on the Brooklyn streets, Mordechai now runs a private detective business. When Santa’s evil son Damien (Andy Dick) murders his benevolent dad and dons the Santa cap, the trouble begins. Damian launches a worldwide campaign to wipe out the Jewish holiday of Hannukah. The Jewish Justice League (JJL) headed by Bloomenbergensteinthal (Peter Coyote) reluctantly calls in the Hammer to deal with the situation. Helped by cute chick Esther (Judy Greer) and Mohammed (Mario van Peebles), leader of the African-American Kwanza Liberation Front, and ever-tyrannised by his overbearing Jewish mother (Nora Dunn), the Hammer flies into action to save the Hannukah.

Oy weh!! What a convoluted synopsis – and that’s only the start of it! With added attractions like Neo-Nazi skinheads, black Muslim elves, a misch-masch of genre spoof scenes and the biggest collection of stereotypes this side of a Mel Brooks movie, this is a film to be relished for its delicious satire and over-the-top digs at every sacred cow you can think of.

Director Kesselman studied a lot of Blaxploitation films to get a feel for the genre (Melvin Van Peebles, who plays Mohammed, was the creative force behind, and star of, Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song, 1971, a classic of the style). The obvious homage to Shaft is in the hilarious theme song about the “Bad Heeb” and The Hammer’s ultra-70s wardrobe. There’s also an obvious nod to The Grinch not to mention the Dickensian Christmas Carol with Tiny Tim (Sean Whalen) having grown up to be a nasty henchman of Damian. And at one point the film launches into a terrific take on film noir but at other times it also lurches dangerously close to some sort of slapstick Mel Brooks and Naked Gun type of humour.

The acting is sound, with Adam Goldberg over-exaggerating every aspect of his character’s Jewishness and Nora Dunn blitzing as the Jewish mama from hell. Peter Coyote is particularly impressive in his role as the leader of the JJL. With his eyepatch and spot-on accent he’s a total laugh.

A strength and a weakness of the film is its plentiful use of Yiddish expressions – for those in the know it’s wonderful but if you don’t know the lingo a lot of the laughs could be lost on you. People who take their religion or race seriously could get offended but this is strictly comedy and well worth a look, especially for Yiddish speakers with a good sense of fun.

 

 

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