From the Boot Camp to the Salon: An Analysis of the film You Don't Mess With the Zohan

Noel Marlu A. Agullo Eng103-B

INTRODUCTION The struggle between Israel and Palestine began with the Zionist Movement in Europe in the late 1890's, which wanted to establish a modern state for the Jews, which at the time were scattered all over Europe for nearly two thousand years as a result of the Roman occupation of Jerusalem way back in 70 AD. The state was first established in Ottoman Palestine in 1917, despite the lack of consultation to the Palestinians. The Jews immidiately started to migrate to the newly-formed state, and conflict between Jews and Palestinians broke out when the latter discovered that the Jews could drive them out of their own country. The situation took a turn for the worse with the various proposals over the years to partition Palestine between the Jews and the Palestinians. The conflict has been going on and off to this day.

ABOUT THE FILM The movie You Don't Mess with the Zohan is set upon the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. It tells the story of Zohan, an Israeli counterterrorist. Zohan, played by Adam Sandler, was pulled out of his vacation to capture the Palestinian terrorist known as the Phantom, played by John Turturro. While the two were having a fight, Zohan fakes his death in order to go to America and start a new life there as a professional hairdresser. Zohan enjoys a brief time of peace under a new hairstyle and a new name, Scrappy Coco. He finds new friends in America and works at a salon, albeit one owned by a Palestinian named Dalia. His peaceful life was disturbed when he found out that Phantom knew that he was still alive, and was coming to America to hunt him down. The two made peace when Phantom realized that the situation between Palestinians and Israelis in America were good, and that they were far away from all the fighting back in their countries. After fighting thugs sent by a man
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named Grant Walbridge which led to his arrest, the movie ends with the opening of a new mall in Zohan's neighborhood, and his parents fly in to visit him and his wife, Dalia.

DISCUSSION The movie, typical of comedy films, attempted to paint a serious issue in a more relaxed light. But the movie still sent a message to the other members of the audience even while drawing laughs from everybody else. The film gives the sublime message that even with all its military might, Israel cannot achieve peace with its neighboring states, particularly Palestine, without the aid and support of the United States of America. The film also attempts to subjugate the Jewish culture to make it look weak and helpless. The film was able to send this message and achieve its purpose by presenting Zohan as the castrated version of Samson; this, in turn, represents a weak and castrated Israel.

ZOHAN AS SAMSON: THE CONNECTIONS Zohan represents Samson because of the parallelisms that these two men share. It is important to note that Samson is one of the most popular figures in Jewish culture, and as such stands to be one of the more famous representations of Israel and the Jews, especially with respect to his physical strength being a symbol of the country's military might and prowess. Samson's story is found both in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. His story is found in the book of Judges, from chapters 13 to 16. The following passage tells about the conversation between Samson's mother and an angel:
The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other 2

fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head; because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. -Judges 13:3-5, New International Version

The Hair Connection A Nazirite is a consecrated person who takes a special to separate himself or herself to the Lord (Numbers 6:1), and as part of his/her sacrifice, a Nazirite cannot cut his or her hair until the appointed time, which is well into adulthood. In Samson's case, his enormous strength comes from God, and that his long hair represents his dedication to Him. This description of having long hair and enormous strength also holds true for Zohan, especially in the beginning of the film.

Zohan, center, surrounded by people on a beach. Notice that he is sporting a long hair and a beard, indicating that no razor was used on his head, similar to that of a Nazirite, such as Samson.

Unlike Samson, however, Zohan's strength does not come from his hair, as he was still

able to do superhuman feats even after he cut his hair and shaved his beard. He did this after faking his death so as to make himself unrecognizable by other people. In addition to the similarity between their looks, Samson and Zohan, in a way, share the same weakness: hair. Samson possessed enormous strength as long as his head was not shaved. He told this secret to Delilah and true enough, he became 'as weak as any other man' after his enemies shaved his head. While Samson's weakness was the absence of his hair, Zohan's perceived weakness in relation to hair was that he wanted to cut it. It was shown in the film that Zohan's dream was to become a professional hairdresser; what he really wanted to do was 'to make people silky smooth', as he told many times in the film. He did not tell other people of this dream for fear of ridicule and rejection. True enough, he experienced those feelings during a conversation with his parents over dinner. His father accused him of being a 'fagala', a term in the Middle East used to describe a homosexual man. He encountered the same fate even when he was in the US; a fan of his named Oori also called him a 'fagala'. Zohan explained to his parents that he likes to cut hair because it is peaceful and nobody gets hurt.

Zohan's parents had a good laugh when they heard what his dream was.

Zohan's dream as a hairdresser is perceived as a weakness against him because it was unimaginable for him to do such a job, especially when compared to the job that he held that time: a counterterrorist. The switch from handling guns and grenades to comb and scissors was too much to handle for people who knew him. Aside from that, a hairdresser suffers from a stereotype that is a job limited to women and homosexuals.

The Superhuman Connection Aside from the hair connection, Samson and Zohan share the trait of superhuman strength. Samson was known to kill a lion using only his bare hands (Judges 14:5-6); he also killed a thousand men using only a donkey's jawbone (Judges 15:15-16). Zohan, on the other hand, was able to punch (or kick) holes through walls, deflect a rocket-propelled grenade by kicking it, and was impervious to bullets. He could also do push-ups without using his hands, among other things. Such feats of superhuman strength gained admiration and dread from other people. During Samson's time, his enemies and people alike are afraid of what he might to them. In Zohan's case, he gained fans because of his exploits during his days as a counterterrorist. Their superhuman traits made them renowned to the people.

The Woman Connection Another area in which Samson and Zohan drew parallels was with the women they fell in love with. Samson fell in love twice; his first affair was with an unnamed Philistine woman, and the second was with Delilah, the one responsible for his downfall.
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Zohan, on the other hand, had sex with his customers, which were elderly women, but he ultimately fell in love with Dalia, the owner of the salon which would give him his big break. With the assumption that the character of Zohan was based on Samson, it can also be said that Dalia was based on Delilah. While they may be polar opposites in terms of traits and behavior, they are basically the same in some aspects. The name 'Dalia' can easily be taken as a variation of 'Delilah'; in the book of Judges, Delilah was mentioned to live on the Valley of Sorek, which is a boundary between Israel and Philistines. In the film, Dalia's salon is across the street from the Israeli neighborhood and stores, and even Zohan was reluctant at first to seek employment there when he learned that it was owned by a Palestinian woman. Even the similarity between where they came from can also be cited, though Middle East historians argue whether there is a connection between the Philistine mentioned in the Old Testament, and the modern-day Palestine.

The Conflict Connection Another connection or parallelism that Samson and Zohan share is the conflict concerning their countries. In Samson's time, as well as the entire book of Judges, the Israelites were still settling into the land of Canaan. Following their Exodus from Egypt, led by Moses and Joshua, the Israelites settled into Canaan and was fighting off other tribes in the area to secure their place in the land. The Israelites' rivals for Canaan include the Philistines, the Midianites, the Ammonites, among others. There was constant fighting over land, not to mention the fact that the Philistines ruled over the Israelites, as they had no king at the time, which they deemed as vital to their stability as a nation. In the film, Zohan faced the similar surrounding and atmosphere of constant conflicts and
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skirmishes between his country and its neighbors, particularly Palestine. He finally decided to leave the country and start a new life in America because he realized that the fighting would never end. He was especially frustrated that he was tasked to re-capture Phantom because the Israeli authorities made a prisoner swap deal with Palestine, thus setting Phantom loose once more to wreck havoc on Israel.

HOW SAMSON AND ISRAEL WAS CASTRATED THROUGH ZOHAN Now that Zohan's representation of Samson was established, the inquiry can now be made as to how the film castrated Samson-as well as Israel- through the depiction of Zohan. It is at this point that the theory of Orientalism was infused into the film. Orientalism, as coined by its creator Edward Said, is a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient's special place in European Western experience. In a way, Orientalism is how the West views the East through its own lens. A key assumption in Orientalism is that the West views the East as exotic, both its culture, as well as its people. This is done through creating stereotypes of these categories. The one of the stereotypes that the film applied to Zohan was of the effeminate male. In Beginning Postcolonialism, it is mentioned that [t]he Oriental male was frequently deemed insufficiently 'manly' and displayed a luxuriousness and foppishness that made him appear a grotesque parody of the (itself stereotyped) 'gentler' female sex, (p.45). As discussed earlier, Zohan's dream was to become a hairdresser, a job that considered only done by females and homosexuals. Although there are heterosexual men who are hairdressers in real life, the stereotype regarding this specific line of work exists. Aside from Zohan's preferred career, the film also depicted him as an effeminate male through his clothing. In numerous instances in the film, Zohan was shown to wear Mariah Carey
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shirts; in other instances, he was shown to wear clothes with designs inspired by women's clothes.

Zohan wearing shirts with Mariah Carey's picture at the front, a symbol of his effeminate nature.

Another stereotype that was portrayed in the film did not concern Zohan, but rather the Middle East region directly. This was the statements made that the Palestinians and Jews in America live harmoniously together, because they were far away from all the hate and the fighting, as Dalia attested. This is refers to the Western stereotype of the Middle East as region, because it is perceived that the region is inhabited by savages who are not as civilized as those living in the West, and that conflicts are linked to the geography of the region.

The Need for US Intervention and the Myth of Opportunity The worst weakness of Zohan that was portrayed in the film was his inability to stop the conflict in his homeland. Even with all enormous strength and training, he was unable to end the fighting, and ultimately had to flee to the US just to escape and start a new life there. And though he was also involved in a conflict against the landlord Grant Walbridge and his thugs, he became victorious because the conflict was not as grand as the one he unsuccessfully fought.
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The hope of a new and better life in America, especially in the US, is one of the dominant myths in the world today. The myth of opportunity and new beginnings in America is the primary reason that people from all over the world desire to go and settle there, with the promise that they can do anything they want, since America is a country that ensures freedom to all its people. The film showed that the American myth of opportunity and its ideal of liberty and freedom helped Zohan become successful personally, as well as achieve peace between the Palestinians and the Jews. This proves the point that Israel cannot achieve peace and end its conflict with Palestine without the US support and intervention. The US is then seen as the hope and savior in the Middle East, thus justifying its interest and presence in the region, and along the way, castrating and subjugating Israel and its neighbors, making them subservient to America.

THE REAL-WORLD CONNECTION As mentioned before, the film's message of the achieving peace in the Middle East through US intervention justifies the country's interest and presence in the region. US involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began when it voted to officially recognize Israel as a legitimate state during the United Nations convention in 1948. The US supported the Jewish state for several reasons, including using Israel to exert its influence in the area to gain wealth and land, and to serve as deterrent to the growing Communist threat, which was making its way into the region after the Second World War. The US also serves as a peace broker between Israel and Palestine to this day. Several US Administrations, along with its allies in Europe, have tried to make the two nations have peace with each other through splitting the land between them. This dispute for land is oftentimes the
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root of the struggle, as both Jews and Palestinians claim for exclusivity over the contested territories. One of the bloodiest conflicts between the two nations happened during 2008 to 2009, around the time when the film was released. The conflict began when Palestinians fired homemade rockets from Gaza Strip to the Jewish territories injuring not just Jews, but Palestinians as well. Israel countered by mobilizing tank divisions and ordering air strikes over the Gaza Strip. The resulting death toll was severe, and nations all over the world condemned the action of both countries. To this day, brief exchanges and encounters still continue between Israel and Palestine, and the US continues to exert its influence and presence not just in the two countries, but to the entire region as well to protect its interests, especially with events such as the Arab Spring and the War Against Terror have taken place and changed the political landscape of the region, adding instability to an already highly-unstable region. But the West, with US taking the lead, still believes that peace can be achieved in the region with their help. In the end, the US still believes that it can and will save the day and bring peace to the region, a feat that Israel- along with Samson and Zohan- cannot do.

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REFERENCES: McLeod, John. (2000). Beginning Postcolonialism. UK: Manchester University Press. Said, Edward. (2003). Orientalism. London: Penguin Books Ltd. Shuster, Mike. (2002). The Mideast: A Century of Conflict, a special report covered on National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/news/specials/mideast/history/

Screenshots taken from: Dugan, D. (Director). (2008). You Don't Mess with the Zohan. Los Angeles: Columbia Pictures.

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