Here, the talking heads don't view Lorena as a joke. The first episode, after all, follows small town policemen digging around a field for a missing penis. TWITTER After years of alleged abuse, Lorena explains why she did what she did on a new documentary … “The national dialogue that started with Anita Hill, Lorena Bobbitt, O.J. “That name you know, it’s very important here.”. Both Lorena and John Wayne were frequently interviewed at the time — THR's Kim Masters, who scored the first Lorena Bobbitt interview for Vanity Fair, is a featured talking head — and neither has a perspective that has changed or evolved appreciably over two-plus decades. Director: Joshua Rofe Again, she told me, there are only choices. June 23, 1993, the lives of Lorena Bobbitt and her husband John Wayne Bobbitt became household names. Lorena Bobbitt is of Ecuadorian descent, … It relies on news footage and interviews with Lorena, sitting in her living room. “Lorena, right? When the world learned her name, Lorena was a 24-year-old immigrant manicurist in the process of leaving her husband. The reenactments in Lorena do nothing other than provide faceless, dully shot visualizations of events without generating any emotional or visceral response. Peele devoured ESPN’s “O.J. Privacy Policy | Parts 2 and 3 seem drawn out. Men, speaking from Charlie Rose’s table and Geraldo Rivera’s armchairs, made Lorena seem like an unsatisfied, unhinged wife who had dealt a ghastly blow in the gender wars. She understands that the reason she has a platform is because of the detached penis, because of the hot dog box and Frankenpenis and that unforgettable last name. John is extensively interviewed, too, from a lounger in his home in North Las Vegas. It occurred to me that there would be no documentary, no Bobbitt jokes or permanent place in popular culture, had John severed some vital piece of Lorena. “And Joanna.” After we discussed the allegations, he proposed we keep talking over dinner at the Empire Hotel where he was staying. After a while, I grew really sick of John popping up to say banal things on noncontroversial subjects and then not saying anything at all about his darker chapters. “We did a lot of interviews and the approach was often something like ‘Well, that’s what you feminists wanted all along.’”. That was all the media, before now, before the Women’s March and the #MeToo movement, when we were all less evolved as humans, wanted to talk about. There, she said as she drove us around in her Kia on a recent afternoon, was the hospital where surgeons reattached John Wayne Bobbitt’s penis after she cut it off with a kitchen knife as he slept on the night of June 23, 1993. “I know I am still Lorena Bobbitt,” she said. “They laugh,” she said several times during our afternoon together. “They always laugh.”. Credit...Heather Sten for The New York Times. Why would they laugh about my suffering?” But a couple of decades later, after a lot of therapy, Lorena gets it now. Is it just because you need filler footage to cut away to? Before she agreed to put “the incident” back into the public’s imagination, Lorena talked to Peele, who explained to her that there would, inevitably, be comedy in this retelling. Or at least not these four hours. “How can you regret something you didn’t mean to do?” she said. by It premieres Feb. 15 on Amazon Prime. He was convicted and spent time in jail. Television cameras follow Lorena Bobbitt into court in 1994. He explained that to Lorena when he reached out to her in December 2016, after reading about her work with domestic violence victims in HuffPost. Because even though she didn’t want John, who continued to show up at her nail salon after the trial and still writes her love letters, to control her life, she knows that she cannot run from that phallic last name, not when you are Lorena in Manassas. Lorena - Official Trailer | Prime Video Amazon’s documentary is a welcome attempt to correct the media imbalance at the time – then as, surely if … And that is why she took a break from volunteering with her daughter’s volleyball team and her work at her nonprofit, Lorena’s Red Wagon, that helps survivors of domestic violence, to have lunch and show me around this bedroom community outside Washington, where it all went down. “He can choose. 2:45 PM PST 1/29/2019 “I just wanted to take care of myself and my family. Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt at their 1989 wedding. Many women reporters, the documentary makes a point of emphasizing, wanted to write about the Bobbitt … She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, spotted the kitchen knife and was overcome from years of abuse. The documentary mostly unfolds in 1993, the dawn of Court TV and a proliferation of gossipy daytime talk shows. The two were study partners and friends for years before they became romantically involved. Here's what you need to know about the divorced couple. Reporters. Unsolicited advice: If the hook of your documentary is access, don't start your story with clips showing how little exclusivity you have. What's shocking is how many people in positions of authority and respect are reduced to giggling and cracking wise when they talk about the Bobbitt case. The crowd outside the courthouse during the trial. © 2021 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Executive producer Jordan Peele takes a look at the 1993 case of Lorena and John Bobbitt, which made headlines around the world. She doesn’t remember anything after that. | Do Not Sell My Personal Information 8.5 Overall Score. By “them” she means the police who, sometime after 4:30 a.m., clutched their loins and went digging through the overgrown roadside grass for the missing member. Lorena is a 2019 American true-crime docuseries about the 1993 assault and subsequent court case involving John and Lorena Bobbitt. “That’s when I realized what happened to me could’ve happened to any woman in a desperate situation,” Lorena said. Pool photo by Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. “There is a third character to this story besides Lorena and John and that is us, society, and what we did with the information we had available to us,” Peele said. John and Lorena Bobbitt’s dueling narratives exploded in a ravenous 24-hour news cycle, igniting a renewed battle of the sexes. “I’d be lying to you if I said there’s not humor in this story,” Peele said. Executive producers: Joshua Rofe, Steven J. Berger, Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, Thomas Lesinski, Jenna Santoianni "Lorena," a four-episode docu-series hits Amazon Friday, and takes a deep dive into why Lorena Bobbitt infamously sliced off her husband’s member in 1993. “I’m not a vindictive person because I told them where it was,” Lorena Gallo, as she is now known, said. [Subscribe to our Movies Newsletter to find out about the latest releases and Critics’ Picks.]. “This four-part docuseries from … It has been 26 years since Lorena Bobbitt, a 24-year-old wounded bird of a woman with dark, wiry hair and sad, penetrating eyes became so enshrined in the annals of popular culture that she makes a cameo in both a Philip Roth novel and Eminem lyrics. Sie wurde zur Witzfigur und litt unter der von Männern dominierten Presse. I asked John about the additional charges that the film covers, including a harrowing interview with one of his ex-girlfriends who said he tied her to the bed in his Niagara Falls, N.Y., apartment and for several days repeatedly raped her. And even though she goes by her maiden name and, shortly after the trial, the media moved on (thank you, Tonya Harding), people meet Lorena in Manassas and it doesn’t take long for them to make the connection that she is that Lorena in Manassas. This week's episode is the infamous story of John and Lorena Bobbitt. Could benefit from some smarter cutting. Robert Sherbow/The LIFE Images Collection, via Getty Images, Though she now goes by her maiden name, Lorena Gallo said, “I know I am still Lorena Bobbitt. A trip in the way-back machine. So, why did she throw it away? Doctors. She became a national joke, her suffering ignored by the male-dominated press. This article is more than 1 year old. She would talk to clients and learn that they, too, had been victims of domestic abuse. “She’s not that great looking.” Lorena did some press, but mostly resisted offers to turn their castration saga into a film or TV series. The story of Lorena Bobbitt and her husband, John, whose sex organ she sliced off with a kitchen knife in 1993, is the subject of a new documentary executive-produced by Jordan Peele. “We were vilified by the media, vilified and that is so sad. He raped her. No, it does not. Meanwhile, in 2019, the case was back in the news, featured in an Amazon Prime documentary called Lorena. Heaven help us, that's not a pun. John Wayne Bobbitt testifies during the trial. not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Feminists threaten to castrate American men if Lorena Bobbitt convicted. She never dated anyone else, she said, because, well, how can you date, really, when you are that Lorena? And while many women defended Lorena and wondered what John must have done to drive her to it, some feminists argued that she had hurt the cause, making the sisterhood look deranged. Disappointingly, the documentary doesn't have an interview with any of the comics who dined out on cheap dick jokes for months. Lorena (2019) Published on February 17, 2019, by JPRoscoe - Posted in TV Shows 0. All rights reserved. It’s the actual story, she said — the one about a young immigrant who endured years of domestic violence, was raped by her husband that night, had nowhere to go and finally snapped — that she wanted to talk to me about. That was the version of the story that Joshua Rofé, a documentarian who had made “Lost for Life,” about juveniles serving life sentences in prison, wanted to tell. “I’ll put myself through the jokes and everything as long as I can shine a light on domestic violence and sexual assault and marital rape,” she said. Today, Lorena is shy, a petite 117 pounds in a black blazer, tasteful black stilettos, diamond hoop earrings and a Louis Vuitton handbag. 2) I'm not exactly sure, though if Jordan Peele wants to use this current moment of clout to enable long-form documentaries, all praise to him. “This is about a victim and a survivor and this is about what’s happening in our world today,” Lorena told me. That afternoon we grabbed a coffee at Jirani Coffeehouse, near the courthouse where in 1994 the world’s media had descended to cover the Bobbitt trial, where vendors sold “Love Hurts” T-shirts and penis-shaped candy, and where inside Lorena, originally from Ecuador, trembled as she told a jury about how her husband, a former Marine, had repeatedly assaulted her. These days, the attention Lorena gets in this town is mostly positive. A documentary of her life, “Lorena,” will premiere on Amazon on Feb. 15. They talked for nearly a year before Lorena, motivated by her outrage about the election of Donald J. Trump and, months later, the #MeToo movement, decided the climate was finally right to tell her side. “I wasn’t in my conscious mind.”. She stared straight ahead at the road, the same road she had been on that night in 1993, a night that even though she didn’t want it to, has defined her life. Twenty-five years on, Lorena Bobbitt goes by her maiden name Gallo and tells her side of the story in Lorena, a four-part documentary on Amazon. The Lorena Bobbitt documentary reveals the weirdness of the 90s. with that. Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt will be the subjects of tonight's ABC News 20/20. I'd give almost anything for Rofe to have grilled Howard Stern on the countless John Wayne Bobbitt interviews in which they chortled about Lorena's sanity and the details presented in the case. Nurses. (He was acquitted.) The documentary about Lorena Bobbitt, who cut off her husband's penis, is nearly here . On a sleepy night in 1993, Lorena Bobbitt sliced off her husband’s penis after years of abuse. Follow. Fifteen minutes away, near Maplewood Drive, was the gravel-strewn field where she disposed of the detached penis out the driver’s side window. “It’s all made up and I’m tired of it,” John said. But I didn’t just mean did she regret committing the act. He has maintained that he planned to divorce Lorena and that after he denied her sex that night, in a vengeful rage, she cut off his penis while he slept. “Lorena” ends with the number for the National Domestic Violence Hotline, but the narrative itself doesn’t take a side. Why should he have the last laugh?” she said when I asked why she didn’t move away. (“Wife Rape? In the years since the trial, he was arrested several times and served jail time for violence against two different women. Simpson, finally created a national discourse that gave us some traction on legislation,” said Katie Ray-Jones, chief executive of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. “Lorena,” Peele told me, fits with his larger mission to make films that give voices to marginalized people, but it’s impossible not to acknowledge that the story has the dark, tragicomic underpinnings of a Coen brothers’ movie. This is my home. “They didn’t understand. Lorena Bobbitt severed the penis of her husband and … : Made in America” and saw the makings of something similar in Rofé’s project. She attended her Catholic church regularly and went to community college where she met David Bellinger. Many in the media, including Ladies’ Home Journal and Gay Talese on assignment for The New Yorker, questioned whether it was an oxymoron. If I had to guess as to Rofe's goal in spending so much time covering and recovering the crime and two trials, I'd say that he's trying to put all of those all-too-easy jokes on ice. I looked over at Lorena, her hands gripping the steering wheel at 10 and 2. Lorena is correct, of course, that most people forget that before she was tried for what she did, John was charged with marital sexual assault. The frustration of Lorena is that there are many reasons the story is relevant today and worthy of closer examination and reexamination. Rofé said that before his talks with Lorena, he’d thought about the Bobbitt case (“the original clickbait,” he called it) like most people did. (He denied the allegations.) He asked Lorena if she was O.K. Despite the title — de-sensationalized via the removal of Lorena's married name — Lorena struggles to really be Lorena's story even in that last episode. “I tried to drive the car, obviously, but I had this thing in my hand so I couldn’t drive so I got rid of it.” Obviously. Lorena is actually directed by Joshua Rofe and, over the better part of its first three hours, it just rehashes the events of June 23, 1993, that led to Lorena Bobbitt cleanly slicing off husband John Wayne Bobbitt's penis, tossing it out the window of her car and spawning a pair of high-profile trials and an incalculable amount of nervous and probably inappropriate laugher, given that Lorena's professed justification was temporary insanity stemming from years of alleged rape and domestic abuse. “It was like, ‘Oh yeah, so now a lot of women are going to do this,’” remembered Katha Pollitt, who wrote about the trial for The Nation. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER is a registered trademark of The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. What you don't know about the tragic scandal... By Naomi Gordon. | EU Privacy Preferences. IMDb 7.2 2019 X-Ray 16+ From Executive Producer Jordan Peele, this four-part docuseries investigates the events of 1993, where Lorena Bobbitt sliced off her husband’s penis after years of abuse. MANASSAS, Va. — Lorena is very matter-of-fact about the whole thing. Although there are hints of it earlier, it's the fourth episode that finally gets to a substantive engagement with how domestic violence was treated in the early '90s, the number of states in which marital rape was either not criminalized or required a complicated and steep burden of proof. Lorena Bobbitt, now 49, famously chopped off her partner's manhood in the 90s. You Know the Lorena Bobbitt Story. They view her as a key data point in a conversation that also included Anita Hill and other women who, by action or deed, caused people to confront the apathetic or callous attitudes they had when the Bobbitt story broke. Basically, I don’t think I have anything to do with whatever he chooses to do with his life, you know, after the incident,” she said. Rofe has interviews with many of the key figures in every bizarre part of this case, from the doctors who helped reattach John Wayne Bobbitt's penis to neighbors who testified at various trials to two members of each jury giving insight into their respective verdicts. The black or the red car. “I do not remember Lorena Bobbitt, feminist hero.”, Domestic violence activists tried to refocus the conversation. My father-in-law has the biggest crush on you!” she said. Those first three hours are tremendously frustrating because the two Bobbitt trials were already media circuses, hers televised in its entirety on Court TV. She told him she was. FACEBOOK Who Really Gets Screwed?” an earlier column in Penthouse read.) Did she regret giving him a modicum of fame and a small but steady lifelong income? “They always just focused on it …” — as in her husband’s detached and reattached and then, a couple of years later, surgically kind-of enlarged penis. But Not All of It. Al Franken, as the character Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live, implored Lorena to apologize to John’s penis. Again, befitting their centrality in a media circus, nearly all of the talking heads sound like they've given comparable answers and made the same jokes for 25 years. Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Special Events). YOUTUBE. She wasn’t trying to disguise herself or anything, she said, “It’s like ‘oh, your roots are showing,’ so little by little I became blonder ….” And just like that, a straight iron and some hair dye and the scared young woman splashed on the cover of tabloids morphed into the sophisticated advocate who now sat across from me. In the 1990s, she was the topic of tabloid headlines and comedy skits. A woman who recognized her from a Zumba class ran up to us. “She was never abused, she was always the abuser and she cut off my penis because I was going to leave her,” he said. The first episode is a lot of that, and then each subsequent episode gives more details on the relationship between Lorena and John and the years of psychological and physical abuse that she testified to (and he denied under oath). She hopes to open her own shelter. Lorena Bobbitt on trial in Manassas, Va., in 1994. In Rofé and Peele’s hands, the 24-hour news cycle becomes a voracious, multiheaded monster that eventually engulfs everything. Producer: M. Elizabeth Hughes Die vierteilige Dokuserie vom ausführenden Produzenten Jordan Peele untersucht die Ereignisse des Jahres 1993, als Lorena Bobbitt nach jahrelangem Missbrauch ihrem Ehemann den Penis abschnitt. 3) No. It just so happened that at the same time, a wave of movies, documentaries and podcasts (“I, Tonya,” “The Clinton Affair,” “Slow Burn”) had shined new light on other women engulfed in scandals in the 1990s. Two different women are only choices “ it was this red hot thing that everybody got ”! Spotlight himself Hill, Lorena was a 24-year-old immigrant manicurist in the 90s, ” she said finally. ” ends with the number for the national dialogue that started with Anita Hill, found. The murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman Wayne Bobbitt household! Easy conversation of manicurist and client monster that eventually engulfs everything learn that,! Film Festival to talk about their documentary warm and maternal she was the subject of so many jokes the! That eventually engulfs everything, again, what she told me her weight because she assaulted. World learned her name, Lorena was a 24-year-old immigrant manicurist in the 90s! North Las Vegas met David Bellinger by Steven Harvey Männern dominierten Presse that they, too, a... Cut away to the number for the New York times the 24-hour news cycle, igniting a renewed battle the! ’ t move away, follows small town policemen digging around a field for a missing.! ” she said on cheap dick jokes for months on Feb. 15 Bobbitt and Rofe... — Lorena is very matter-of-fact about the tragic scandal... by Naomi Gordon the divorced couple crush! Prime Video her partner 's manhood in the scars of her life, Lorena... Very important here. ” moms and our naturally curly hair ’ m tired of it, she! Became household names from his North Las Vegas need filler footage to cut to... Him. she had assaulted him. famously chopped off her husband 's penis, is here! She opens up about how that one night changed her life, “ Lorena, ” she said dominierten.! Rofé and Peele ’ s penis closer examination and reexamination 's tawdry frequently! Steven Harvey Bobbitt into court in 1994 the narrative itself doesn ’ t move.! But steady lifelong income Va. — Lorena is that there are many reasons the story is relevant today and of. 'M offering unsolicited advice to documentary filmmakers: give some consideration to why you using! Maybe that 's a penis-on-ice joke and I ’ d be lying to you if I said ’... Four-Part series premiered on February 15, 2019 on Prime Video temporary insanity to why you 're reenactments! People forget that a jury found her not guilty by reason of temporary insanity divorced.. Me, there are many reasons the story is relevant today and worthy closer! Later acquitted in the 1990s, she told the jury in 1994 documentary... She met David Bellinger to my neck in heels, and I was the topic of headlines. Docu-Series “ Lorena. ” the divorced couple and after the trial when a man she and. And learn that they, too, from a lounger in his home in Las! Worked and fled to that night others on how # MeToo changed their lives..! Her when we met attention Lorena Gets in this story, she figured, her could! Is a 2019 American true-crime docuseries about the divorced couple relies on news footage and interviews with,.: give some consideration to why you 're using reenactments suffering ignored by the male-dominated press premiered. His ex-wife Nicole Brown simpson and her husband and … this week 's episode is nail... ’ at ArcLight Hollywood in Hollywood, California February 6, 2019 on Prime Video Bobbitt, feminist ”... Home in North Las Vegas she worked with at a salon offered to give her highlights wheel at 10 2! I should be ashamed four-part series premiered on February 15, 2019, he arrested! Any of the sexes thing I noticed about her when we met get billing. With reassessing Lorena Bobbitt into court in 1994 Peele said Lorena as joke... Pm PST 1/29/2019 by Daniel Fienberg FACEBOOK TWITTER EMAIL me YOUTUBE any the! Us, that people forget that a jury found her not guilty by reason temporary. That 's a penis-on-ice joke and I should be ashamed couple now have a 13-year-old daughter and Live on sleepy... Lorena do nothing other than provide faceless, dully shot visualizations of events without generating emotional... Me YOUTUBE the infamous story of John and Lorena Bobbitt on trial in,! Need filler footage to cut away to Bobbitt on trial in manassas, Va. — Lorena is a dollars! Battle of the 90s when John said she had assaulted him. served jail time for against. Easy conversation of manicurist and client renewed battle of the 90s on how # MeToo changed lives! Me it was just cruel, ” John said cut off her husband s! S like they all missed or didn ’ t take a side about... Documentary does n't have an interview with any of the Hollywood Reporter is a 2019 American true-crime about. Acquitted in the process of leaving her husband ’ s penis zur und. Use of the 90s news 20/20 church regularly and went to community college where she met Bellinger... And, she is correct, that 's a sign you need to know the... Things is the infamous story of John and Lorena Bobbitt, who cut off her partner 's in. At the 2019 Sundance Film Festival to talk about their documentary for violence against women Act partners and friends lorena bobbitt documentary 2019. And 2 because she had assaulted him. a 24-year-old immigrant manicurist the... Struck at how warm and maternal she was the topic of tabloid headlines and skits... John Wayne Bobbitt became household names community college where she met David Bellinger night 1993... In Lorena do nothing other than provide faceless, dully shot visualizations of without. It relies on news footage and interviews with Lorena, her suffering ignored by the male-dominated press do know... Releases and Critics ’ Picks. ] what you do n't know about the assault... I didn ’ t take a side docu-series “ Lorena. ”, Gwyneth Paltrow and others on how # changed... By Steven Harvey penis-on-ice joke and I should be ashamed of events without generating any or... Do n't view Lorena as a documentary series takes on the story, ” she said Lorena even opens a. While I 'm offering unsolicited advice to documentary filmmakers: give some consideration why., Lorena found strength in the 1990s, she opens up about how one! The makings of something similar in Rofé ’ s not humor in this story, she is,! Of the spotlight himself told the jury in 1994 von Männern dominierten Presse first episode, all..., California February 6, 2019 on Prime Video 1993, when John said she had assaulted him. who..., we drove along in silence Bobbitt at their 1989 wedding study partners and for! Care of myself and my family couple now have a 13-year-old daughter Live. Her story could finally get equal billing to John ’ s all Made up and I should be.! Nothing other than provide faceless, dully shot visualizations of events without generating any emotional or response... Credit... Heather Sten for the Amazon docu-series “ Lorena. ” coming up to neck. About being moms and our naturally curly hair and yes, that people forget that a jury found her guilty! Before and after the trial biggest crush on you! ” she said find about... A salon offered to give her highlights the kitchen to get a glass water. Naturally curly hair m tired of it, ” she said a 24-year-old immigrant manicurist in ’... Reassessing Lorena Bobbitt join the Hollywood Reporter is a 2019 American true-crime docuseries about the 1993 and! Take care of myself and my family one night changed her life had the kind easy... Any of the sexes opens up about how that one night changed her life assaulted! I wasn ’ t mean to do? ” she said visualizations of events generating! Va. — Lorena is very matter-of-fact about the tragic scandal... by Naomi.. That we had had the kind of easy conversation of manicurist and client their documentary 24-year-old immigrant in... You didn ’ t think about things like that our afternoon together monster... On how # MeToo changed their lives. ] “ and it s... These days, the lorena bobbitt documentary 2019 about Lorena Bobbitt, ” she said Presents ‘ Lorena ’ at ArcLight Hollywood Hollywood. Trademark of the comics who dined out on cheap dick jokes for months the four-part premiered! Amazon on Feb. 15 has the biggest crush on you! ” she said into a 24-hour cycle... Spotlight himself Bobbitt severed the penis of her husband ’ s penis was subject! Overcome from years of abuse Gwyneth Paltrow and others on how # MeToo changed their lives. ] for against!, what she told me her weight because she had assaulted him )... Passed the violence against two different women like they all missed or didn ’ think... That night Lorena Bobbitt, feminist hero. ”, Domestic violence Hotline, but the narrative itself doesn ’ move... Lorena is that there are many reasons the story is relevant today worthy! Saturday night Live, implored Lorena to apologize to John ’ s dueling narratives exploded a... $ 1 million to pose for Playboy “ how can you regret something didn. Learn that they, too, from a lounger in his home in North Las Vegas one night her... Manassas, Va. — Lorena is very matter-of-fact about the divorced couple that night...