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Lorena
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Stream It Or Skip It: 'Lorena' On Amazon Prime, Jordan Peele's Docuseries About The Infamous Case Of John and Lorena Bobbitt
We’re just over a month into 2019 and the year’s already shaping up to be a great one for documentaries. There were the dueling Fyre Festival docs on Hulu and Netflix, Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, and the horrifying WTF shock of Abducted in Plain Sight. Now Amazon’s Prime Video is getting in on the action with Lorena, a new docu-series about the infamous Lorena Bobbitt case that grabbed headlines back in the early ’90s.
But what is Lorena on Amazon Prime Video? Who was she and who’s behind this detailed look at one of the most notorious trials (from a decade packed with notorious trials)? Here’s your guide to Prime Video’s engrossing and eye-opening expose.
Who is Lorena Bobbitt?
Born Lorena Gallo, Lorena married John Wayne Bobbitt on June 18, 1989. Fast-forward four years later and Lorena was on trial for cutting off John’s penis while he slept. Yeah, that’s why this case became a nationwide sensation and fodder for late night jokes for months and months. To this day, the surname “Bobbitt” is synonymous with “cutting off a penis.” But what really happened? Why did she cut off her husband’s penis? For many, the actual truth was obfuscated by punchlines and rampant sexism. Lorena seeks to uncover the truth.
The real story behind the incident, as Lorena told cops and on the stand during her trial, is that she suffered years and years of domestic violence and spousal rape at the hands of John. On the night in question, she says John raped her before immediately going to bed. While he slept, she went to the kitchen for a drink and came back to the bedroom with a knife. And from there, everything changed for both of them. She left the house with the severed member, chucking it out her car window and into a field as she drove. She later called 911, and the search for John’s penis led to it being found and reattached after over 9 hours of surgery. The ensuing trial led to a media firestorm, as topics of domestic abuse, consent, rape, and more were brought into the national conversation.
What’s the deal with Lorena on Prime Video?
Lorena is a four-part docu-series about the relationship between Lorena and John, the trial, and the fallout–and Lorena Bobbitt herself gets to tell the story. The goal of the series is to push past the tabloid fodder and get to the heart of the story, re-analyzing all of the ways domestic violence is perceived, interpreted, and litigated in America in 1993 and also today.
The docu-series comes from executive producer Jordan Peele, an Oscar winner for his socially-relevant horror film Get Out. The series is directed by Joshua Rofe, whose work can be seen in episodes of Active Shooter: America Under Fire and True Life. Lorena premiered during the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and is currently fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Where’s the trailer for Lorena on Prime Video?
Here’s the trailer for Lorena on Prime Video!
What other movies were made about Lorena Bobbitt?
Here’s a shocker: none! In a true Berenstain/Berestein moment of mass misremembering, you–along with myself–probably remember there being a bunch of Lorena Bobbitt TV movies made around the time to capitalize on this wild true story. In fact, there were none; some TV documentaries were made, but years later in 1997 and 2006.
What I/you/we are probably misremembering is the Amy Fisher trial, which happened just a year before the Bobbitt one. Amy Fisher, then 17, was convicted of shooting the wife of the 35-year-old man she was having an affair with (Joey Buttafuoco, whose last name was late night comedy gold a year before the whole Bobbitt thing). Multiple movies were made about Amy Fisher, including two that aired on the exact same night, the CBS one starring Alyssa Milano as Fisher and the ABC one starring Drew Barrymore. So, Amy Fisher shot Mary Jo Buttafuoco in May 1992, two movies were made about it and aired in January 1993, and then Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband’s penis in June 1993. The early ’90s were wild.
