Rating: 
Summary: ahhhh, yes.
Review: 'The Chosen' the film is a good adaptation of the book. It brings the mood and athmosphere of that era. The best scene is when the father lets go of his son in the ending. Very touching just like the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Adaptation.
Review: 'The Chosen' the film is a good adaptation of the book. It brings the mood and athmosphere of that era. The best scene is when the father lets go of his son in the ending. Very touching just like the book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best films of all time... :)
Review: Granted, as previously stated, the book is always better, but I still think that this film does the book justice. :)
In 1940's Brooklyn, Reuven Malter, the son of a modern, Zionistic Jew, and Danny Saunders, the son of the very orthodox, Hasidic Rabbi Saunders meet in hostility on a baseball field. Even though they are both Jewish in such a turbulent and anti-Semitic time, they both hate each other and yet, they don't really know why. Then they begin to see, that maybe they had a lot more in common than they previously thought. As the film progresses, and the war rages on, Danny and Reuven are forced to fight their own battles and mature to adulthood.
The Chosen is a true eye-opener that teaches a lot about humility, and I remember watching this film when I was very small, only five or six years old, and then realizing that there were people in this world who had to endure pain and silence, then my troubles began to seem so tiny and microscopic. Through this film I learned that as Allan-Gabriel Boyd pointed out that , "The world needs holy men [and women too for that matter.]" this film has taught me so many lessons, and I am so glad that I learned them.
Robbie Benson, Rod Steiger, and the other actors did a fabulous job on this film and brought it to life magnificently. :)
Rating:
Summary: The Chosen is chosen for the best movie i've ever seen
Review: I discovered this movie on tv and as time progressed, i couldn't change the channel, it captivated my mind and senses. This movie was sent the mid-40's during the second world war in brookyln, new york. It starts out with baseball scence where danny, a hasdic jew and a modern jew called reuven are segerated into their little team. what started this story off is when danny hits a ball into reuven eye and therefore blinds him temporarily. Their friendship blossoms in which they share their thoughts with one another. Danny is conflicted with his predestined mission of being a rabbi, and studying psychology. This movie makes you think, can you be something other than what you are destined to be? This also made me think : why is it called the choosen? There are many answers to this questions, some of my answers are they are chosen to choose their own paths in life.Their fathers choose their destiny, but they choose what they wanted to do. There is also irony in the end of the story how danny was meant to be a rabbi but reuven is the one that pursues this field, and how reuven's father is a professor but danny is the one who wants to pursue psychology. Although i haven't read the book and compared it yet, i will! This is to say by far one of the best movies i've ever seen!!! Must watch
The only weakness in this movie is how i think reuven acting is too good to be too, there was a scene where danny's father forbid him to talk to reuven and this occurred for several months. Later danny said to danny "my dad lifted the ban, i can talk to you now" Reuven's reply was oh ok. My reply is that, if a person doesn't talk to you for several month one would be a mad or a bit angry, wouldn't you? This a minor, not minor,smaller than minor setback from the story. The acting is superb in danny and Reb Saunders and reuven's father. Reuven's acting is pretty good other than my comment, only if he is really suposed to be portrayed to have this kind of characteristic. I wil have more to compare to, after i read the book..
Rating:
Summary: Very moving
Review: I just saw The Chosen on TV. I had seen it once before but watched it again. It is a fascinating and well-acted story of the friendship between two teen-aged boys, a Chasidic Jew, and an observant, but secular Jew. One reviewer complained that Maximilian Schell was too German to play a Jew. I found him very believable as the Zionist father of one of the boys. Rod Steiger as the Orthodox Rabbi was amazing. I didn't see the opening credits and couldn't guess that he was playing the part. Steiger usually chews the scenery, but here he is very restrained and moving as the father who sacrifices closeness with his son for the boy's own good. This is a film with many levels that bears watching over again. I have not read the book, and others here have said it is better. Movies are a different experience, and this one is very good.
Rating:
Summary: "The book was better."
Review: I know, the book is always better. But the movie was enjoyable. There were several things changed from the book that it did not seem necessary to change. The baseball game in the beginning of the book sets up the rest of the story. It is a long scene in Potok's book but quite brief in the film. We do not see the full extent of the hostility between Reuven and Danny, and therefore do not feel the full significance of their friendship. Reuven's stay in the hospital is abbreviated to almost nothing, and none of the characters that Potok uses to frame Reuven's feeling of gratitude for keeping his sight appear in the film. Two important moments from later in the book are missing also. During the time when Danny is forbidden to speak to Reuven, Danny manages to "communicate" with Reuven by tapping him on the hand as they pass each other in the hallway. It is treated quickly even in the book but it allows us to see that both Danny and Reuven are suffering due to Reuven's "excommunication." It's much more effective than the way they handle it in the movie. Lastly, in the book there is a long treatment of Reuven finding his own "voice" in Talmud class, giving a lengthy explication of an incredibly obscure passage which even the professor cannot understand. In the book the scene shows us Reuven coming of age as a scholar, but the film omits it entirely. I enjoyed this movie very much but feel that more detail from the book should have been included. This would have made the movie longer but it would have been worth it. Overall, a good film that does not achieve the same emotional impact as the original book.
Rating:
Summary: When are we going to see this on DVD?
Review: Judging from the many questions I get through my website's Hasidism FAQ, the book "The Chosen" is now a literary classic. It is being read in high school literature classes all over the world. Excerpts are a staple in multi-cultural textbooks. So nu -- why is this great movie STILL out of print? Is the movie industry really so unaware that there's a market out there? I certainly hope it's going be re-released on DVD sometime soon. Now granted, the book is always better than the movie, and this case is no exception. The opening scene at the baseball game, which is many pages long in the book (and is often the scene excerpted in textbooks) is not well-developed in the movie at all. That's too bad, because the ball game sets up the whole story by showing the deep animosity between the boys at the two schools. Also, the way that Mr. Malter (Reuven's father) is played in the movie gives the impression that he is a Reform Jew. In fact, that's what most viewers I've talked to assume him to be. He's not Reform in the book, however. Both he and his son Reuven are observant Jews, what would probably be called "Modern Orthodox" today. The Modern Orthodox do not wear traditional garb like Hasidim, but in terms of religious practices (dietary laws, the Sabbath, ethical behavior, etc.) the Orthodox and the Hasidim are not really all that far apart. This point is made in the book as the story progresses, but is not so clear in the movie, because people tend to focus on the clothes. In the book, the friction between Mr. Malter and Reb Saunders centers on issues of Talmud scholarship (textual critical vs. literalist readings of the text). The movie tends to focus more on the question of Zionism. I suppose the producers felt they had to "dumb down" the story to appeal to the general public, but a lot of the plot was lost in the process. Still, in spite of its faults, "The Chosen" is one of the better films about Hasidic Jews. It would be very helpful to be able to show the movie along with reading the book in class, especially in areas where there are no Jews and the teachers are trying to teach about this novel without ever having seen a Hasidic Jew. So come on, production folks -- let's wake up and re-issue this film! (P.S. A bit of trivia: Chaim Potok, author of "The Chosen," makes a cameo appearance as the Talmud teacher in this film.)
Rating:
Summary: The Inner Life of Judaism
Review: Most films made about traditional (Orthodox) Jews
and Judaism rapdily degenerate into stereotypes,
a common example being that religious Jews are
weaklings out of touch with the society around them.
This film is an notable exception. This is the only
film that really delves into the inner life of traditional
Judaism. We are shown the differences between the
Hasidic and non-Hasidic forms of Judaism, the love
of knowledge and learning, the tension between those
religious Jews who zealously guard all old customs
and attitudes and other religious Jews who are more
open to modern science and scholarship. Regarding
the stereotypes mentioned above we see how the
Hasidic groups made a point of showing other people
that they could be physically fit.
Other important things brought out in the film
are examples of the strict moral disciplines some
people subject themselves to in order to reach
a higher spriritual plane and even more important,
the different responses traditional Jews had to the
Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel.
One thing that is really interesting in the film
is the performance of Rod Steiger as Reb Saunders,
the Hasidic Rebbe who is presented as gentle, but
firm. It is hard to believe that Steiger was
offered the role of the arrogant, blustering General
George Patton before George C Scott accepted it.
Steiger must be quite a flexible actor! I also
agree that having seen Maximilian Schell in
"Judgment at Nuremberg" and "A Bridge too Far"
where he plays Germans defending Nazis or Nazism,
it is a little hard to accept him as a traditional
Jewish scholar in this film.
Still, I highly recommend this film for someone who
wants to get a fuller view of what traditional
Judaism, as practiced in the United States in the
20th century, is like.
Rating: 
Summary: Hurts less then the book
Review: One of the few cases that the movie is superior to the text.
Rating:
Summary: A Surprise Classic!
Review: The Chosen is one of those rare movies that will deeply touch your heart. Robbie Benson and Rod Steiger give wonderful performances that you will want to see again and again. If you love stories that show strong and wise fathers that care for their children, this movie is for you. The climax will bring you to tears. One of the most memorable movies you will ever see!
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