The Chosen
by Jeremy Kagan
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DVD details
Actor: Barry Miller, Hildy Brooks, Maximilian Schell, Robby Benson, Rod SteigerDirector: Jeremy Kagan
Producer: Edie Landau
Producer: Ely A. Landau
Producer: Jonathan Bernstein
Producer: Roger Harrison
Producer: Steven Douglas Brown
Writer: Chaim Potok
Writer: Edwin Gordon
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 108 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of The Chosen
DVD Review: Portrayal of mid-1900s Jewish Hasidism Also Embodies Universal Issues of Fathers and Sons
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this film, and just watched it again for the fourth time!
As others have discussed, The Chosen portrays one of the most Orthodox Jewish traditions, while contrasting a deeply committed but somewhat less traditional approach. These contrasting approaches to Judaism become the setting for exploring two powerful and ultimately very loving father-son relationships.
Each of the fathers has his own passionately held Jewish connection, which is core to his own identity, and which he shares with his teenage son. Each son struggles with how closely to adopt his father's cause and calling.
The most compelling focus of the film is on the current descendants in a long line of Hasidic rabbis, Reb Saunders (Rod Steiger) and his son Daniel (Robby Benson). With such a lineage, Daniel is "of course" expected to succeed his father as a rabbi, though his wide ranging intellect has exposed Daniel to more secular ideas, stimulating different ambitions. He has become fascinated with Freud and the unconscious mind, and is flirting with psychology as his calling. Daniel's intelligence includes photographic recall, and we eventually learn that his father worried early on that his son might have more mind than heart.
The other father and son -- Prof. David Malter (Maximillian Schell) and son Reuven (Barry Miller) -- devote themselves, each in his own way, to Zionism as it flourished in the late 1940s, when Israel was founded. Professor Malter's more intellectual approach to his Jewishness contrasts sharply with Reb Saunders', whose approach combines didactic study of Torah with the ecstatic mysticism of the legendary European Rebbe, the Ba'al Shem Tov. (Though his thinking is controversial even within Hasidism, the singing of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach Haneshama Lach is the embodiment of Reb Saunders' musical spirit.)
These seemingly disparate styles of Rebbe Saunder's Hasidism are presented beautifully in a beautiful, other-worldly Sabbath scene where the men's rousing chanting of 'niggunim' (tunes without words) is followed by Reb Saunders teaching details of some sacred wisdom. (One study of these threads of Hasidism can be found in Your Word Is Fire: The Hasidic Masters on Contemplative Prayer (A Jewish Lights Classic Reprint).) Daniel has brought Reuven to celebrate the Sabbath and his father quizzes the newcomer with the intimidating guile of Professor Kingsfield in The Paper Chase!
In Reb Saunders' Hasidism, advocacy for the creation of Israel was contrary to the biblical idea that the Jews' return to Zion could come only after the messiah had arrived. ON the other hand, Professor Malter zealously advocates the socio-political result of a post-Holocaust Jewish homeland. Thus, another tension is set up between the Saunders' and Malters' approaches.
As might be expected, the more difficult father-son struggle is between the old Rebbe and son Daniel, whom the father disciplines by remaining mostly silent toward his son over several years; pronouncements are made, but everyday dialogue is avoided.
In this excruciatingly painful exercise, we see the age-old pattern of a father struggling to train his boy for a fuller life by severity without words. (The silence enveloping many men within their families is explored in a different context in I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression.) This archetype is hardly peculiar to Jewish men and their sons. Does such fathering really manifest love? Does it increase the son's capacity for meaning in the son's life? Is the game worth the candle? The Chosen poses these timeless questions exquisitely, culminating in a powerfully climactic encounter. I have not yet been able to watch this moment of truth unfold without tears. Indeed, as he was dying, my own father urged me to read this book, as if to communicate his meaning by an indirection similar to the Rebbe's.
The conflicting views of Israel in mid-1900s Zionism reflect two somewhat distinct goals in establishing a Jewish homeland: creating a new, utopian society on ancient Jewish terrain; and enabling traditional Jewish religious observance free from oppression by the outside world. These contrasting agendas presage a persistent division in Israeli society -- the split between "secular" and "religious" Israelis. At the risk of oversimplifying a very complex society, the face Israel may present to the world might be that of the religious militant asserting God-given rights to biblical Judea and Samaria (i.e., the West Bank). But this stereotype overlooks the more pragmatic Israeli secularist, focused more intently on simply living a secure Jewish life.
Though Rod Steiger so often seems to over-act his roles, he stays more within himself in The Chosen. Perhaps he benefits from the thick, gray beard which almost completely engulfs his face! Robby Benson excels in his portrayal of Daniel Saunders, a surprise for me based on his other work. He captures the unique style of boy of his rarified background. The Chosen is often visually beautiful, and Jeremy Kagan's direction is excellent, suggesting a talent beyond the many TV dramas that mark his career. Elmer Bernstein's music is, as usual, lovely and apt. A haunting oboe theme lingered in my mind long after the lights went up.
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