The Chosen (1981) [PG]

Featuring:
Maximilian Schell, Rod Steiger, Robby Benson

Written by:
Chaim Potok
Edwin Gordon
Jeremy Kagan

Directed by:
Jeremy Kagan


Release Date:
August 20, 1981

Original Title:
The Chosen

Genres:
Drama

Production Companies:
Chosen Film Company

Production Countries:
United States of America

Ratings / Certifications:
US: PG 

Runtime: 105

One boy. Two worlds. A time to choose.

In a 1940s New York, two Jewish teenage boys are determined to remain friends despite the deep differences between their two families.

Brooklyn 1944. Despite being the same age, having grown up within blocks of each other, and both being Jewish, late teens Danny Saunders and Reuven Malter don't really know each other - knowing each other only by name and by sight - as Orthodox Danny stays largely within his own Hasidic community, which is just fine in Reuven's mind. An incident between the two which on the surface threatens to tear them even further apart instead blossoms into a friendship between the two. They begin to learn more and more about the other and their lives, which for Danny includes becoming a rabbi, solely as it is a several generations old family calling. In Reb Saunders' mind, he who rules his family by strict Hasidic traditions, Danny becoming the next rabbi in the family is not even a question, despite Danny, deep in his heart, wanting other secular pursuits which he has not told his father. Conversely, Reuven has modern sensibilities, being raised in a two-person household by his widowed academic father, Professor David Malter. Ultimately, the views of each father may tear Danny and Reuven's friendship apart, regardless of whether each son believes wholeheartedly in what his father espouses. Professor Malter is a confirmed Zionist who believes in a secular Jewish state in Palestine, while Reb Saunders believes such thinking against Judaism, with only the Messiah being able to lead his people into such. As they grow into adulthood, Danny and Reuven becoming his own man may further alter their relationship.

Additional information:

The Search Form


Video

Click each video panel to show or hide.

Although TheMovieDB might provide a key to a YouTube video, there is no guarantee that the video might be present at YouTube.

Rankings and Honors

The Chosen (1981) on IMDb
Internet Movie Database 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes 75%
Metacritic 66/100
Awards Won: 5 wins

Additional Writing:
Jeremy Kagan

Associate Producer:
Mel Howard
Roger Harrison
Joseph Harris
Steven Douglas Brown

Casting:
Joy Todd

Costume Design:
Ruth Morley

Director:
Jeremy Kagan

Director of Photography:
Arthur J. Ornitz

Editor:
David Garfield
Howard E. Smith

Executive Producer:
Jonathan Bernstein

Makeup & Hair:
Joseph Coscia
Allen Weisinger

Novel:
Chaim Potok

Original Music Composer:
Elmer Bernstein

Producer:
Ely A. Landau
Edie Landau

Production Design:
Stuart Wurtzel

Screenplay:
Edwin Gordon

Set Decoration:
Philip A.T. Smith

Unit Manager:
Barbara De Fina

Unit Production Manager:
Mel Howard

About the Movie Section

Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).

Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).

At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.

Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)

While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:

  • I added "runners up" to Top 10 lists, treating them as ties where applicable and numbering them accordingly at the bottom of each list.
  • Regarding those polls wherein "franchise" movies were submitted as one project until BFI's policy changed to regard them separately, I treated them as ties and renumbered the affected lists accordingly (e.g. the Godfather films).

Regarding profile removals and data corrections:

  • If you would like your profile removed from this site, please contact the source of this data directly, TheMovieDB. My assumption is: once it's gone from their site, it should soon be gone from this site.
  • If you would like to correct movie data on this site, please contact the source of this data directly, TheMovieDB. My assumption is: once it's corrected on their site, it should soon be corrected on this site.
  • For additional corrections and profile removals, please e-mail The Open Movie Database (OMDb).

Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).

Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.

Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.