Rating: 
Summary: A Touching Film About The Hassidic Lifestyle
Review: This 1982 film, based on the novel by Chaim Potok, himself a Jew,
is a moving and detailed adaptation. Stars Robbie Benson and Rod Steiger. I saw this film on PBS channel 28. The Jewish soul of
this film shines through beautifully and sadly, effectively using Hassidic clothing and glimpses of the lifestyle, which is
oddly at variance with the rapidly modernizing New York City of the World War II Era. Robby Benson delivers a fine performance
as the American young man who befriends a Hassidic Jew and assimilates the Jewish lifestyle. Their friendship is rocky at best. His Jewish friend has been raised by a strict father who
upholds the traditonal and orthodox way of life (he's even got him engaged to another Jewish girl)ad shuns modern thinking. He is against the Zionist movement which sought to make Israel its own free state, but the Father in this film believes only God and his Messiah can deliver them. Never has a movie been more embracing of the Jewish faith and old traditions than this movie.
Hebrew music is authentically used. The overwhelming sadness and horror hits you when they feature clips from the slaughter of thousands of Jews in the Holocaust during Hitler's Nazi regime in Europe. With a sad, reflective mood and a long run of time, this film does seem to be straight from the equally long novel. But it's a great film and I recommend anyone who is a fan of Potok or Robby Benson the actor. The relationship between the boys and the difference between their fathers- one father is old-fashioned and fiery while the other is peaceful, but modern. It's a look at the difference between the two distinct worlds. In the end, the Jewish boy who always wanted to practice psychiatry, is allowed by a father who finally consents. It's a moving and poignant film. The acting and the script, lifted from the book, is quite good. Why did'nt this get any recognition in the Oscars of 1982 ? Or did it ? This film is before my time but it's superb and I feel it's Oscar worthy material. You will see what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie, but the DVD cover is offensive
Review: This is a great movie, but the photo on DVD cover is misleading. Yes, there's a baseball game in the beginning, but the movie is NOT about some Hasidic thug toughing it out with a baseball bat. Plus, the blurb on the back is wrong. It says that Reuven Malter is "the son of a secular father" who is "raised to question everything around him, including his own religion." Who wrote this? Some fundamentalist goy who doesn't know that questioning is A BASIC PART of Judaism? Didn't this idiot PR person know that ALL Jews, religious or not, are raised to question their religion? The Talmud itself is based on questioning and debate! Also, Reuven is not "secular," he's the son of a Modern Orthodox Jew (that's a denomination) who writes serious articles on textual criticism of the Talmud. In the book, the conflict is between two religious sects with different views on how literal to take the Bible, the politics of Zionism, etc. In the book this is clear -- and so, I recommend you read the book along with the movie to get the full story.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: This is an amazing movie, it is one that touches on interpersonal relationships, the most unlikely of friendships, some culture of the ultra-orthodox jews, zionism in the late 50's, the american opinion of the formation of Israel and many other things. Over all I think it is a great movie for anyone, jew or gentile who wants to learn about that era in our nation's history and certainly anyone interested in a view of jewish history with an enthralling plot.
Rating:
Summary: The Chosen
Review: This is my favorite movie of all time!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Selfless Empathy Training
Review: This is one of my very favorite movies of all time. It is a coming of age story about two Jewish teenage boys, Danny and Reuven, set in 1940s New York. Danny's father, Reb Saunders, is the leader of an Russian-immigrant Hasidic community. Reuven, who is from a reformed background, thinks his friend Danny is quite odd. Through the pain of his father's silence, Danny learns one of the rarest of virtues, a deep empathy for his fellow humankind. Reuvin even picks up a little of it along the way too. Reb Saunders is right on with his exhortation to the two boys, "The world needs *righteous* men" [and women too for that matter]. Here we have the privilege of seeing two of them, Danny and Reuvin, in the making. A great movie for youth group discussions.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful adaptation of the Chaim Potok novel.
Review: This movie version of the famous novel about the friendship that develops between an Hasidic boy and an Orthodox Jewish boy remains faithful to the book in all important respects. The cast, headed by Rod Steiger and Maxmillian Schell, is excellent. Robby Benson and Barry Miller play the two boys, and are so wonderful in their roles that it's difficult to imagine anyone else doing them. Rod Steiger as Reb Saunders is perfect in every respect- right down to the Yiddish accent. His dance at the wedding of a couple in his congregation is one of the most expressive moments I've ever seen in motion pictures. The dignity, the extreme sorrow, and the great joy of being alive and human are all there. The only weakness in the film, if you can call it that, is the choice of Maximillian Schell to play Reuven's father, Professor Malter. He gives a fine performance, but there is no way anyone would believe he was a Jew. It's distracting, given that Professor Malter becomes a dedicated Zionist in the face of the decimation of the Jews in Europe. I am far from saying that Max is a Nazi, looks like one or talks like one- only that we can tell that he is German but it's hard to see any Jewishness in his performance at all. However, the movie is over-all excellent, if a bit talky, and belongs in the collection of any Jew or literary cognoscenti.
Rating:
Summary: ahhhh, yes.
Review: This movie was written with all of the feel-good kind of action that this man can muster. Robby Benson, go, go for me and eveyrone who must be subject to this kind of primordial browbashing. It throws me for a loop when I see it in action and by all means, it just makes sense.
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