A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
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
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.
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.
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
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:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
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.