The Chosen is an excellent film. It opens up in an inner-city playground softball field, where Reuvan (Barry Miller) gets hit in the eye by a baseball hit by Danny (Robby Benson),an Hasidic Jew. The two soon become friends and teach each other about their different worlds. It's a very realistic film, not at all overdone as some films of this genre are. There are no fancy camera techniques, and the movie centers on character development rather than spiffy editing or cinematic style. The screenplay is superb and the acting is very believable. Rod Steiger as Danny's ultra-Orthedox rabbi father and Maximilian Schell as Reuven's liberal father along with Miller and Benson are excellent. Elmer Bernstein's quiet, Jewish sounding score is also a plus. This is an enjoyable film that has a lot to say about friendship, growing up, and religous faith.

(There are Spoilers) The movie based on Chaim Potok's book about life in Brooklyn New York in the last years on the turbulent 1940's that involved two Jewish youths who are as far apart in their ideas and perception of the world around them as a man from Mars would be if he landed here in a spaceship.

The only thing that both Danny and Reuven, Bobby Benson & Barry Miller, had in common when we first met them was the All-American game of Baseball. It was Reuven the non-ultra religious of the two who come out on the losing end with a line drive, off the bat of Danny, smashing into his head almost blinding him. Danny, an Hassidic Jew, going to the hospital to offer condolences is at first rejected by Reuven but later the two boys hit it off so well that they were almost inseparable during the entire movie.

With the War in Europe ended and the horror of Nazi Germany being exposed to the entire world the Zionist movement that was not that overly supported by Jews in the USA before WWII started to gain steam in it's efforts in making Palestine a Jewish homeland. Danny's father the well regarded and respected Reb Saunders, Rod Steiger, was anything but a Zionist and so was the majority of Hassidic Jews in Brooklyn. Reb Saunders feels that those in the Zionist movement were blaspheming the Holy Thorah in their attempt to create a Jewish state without waiting for the Messiah. Thus in Reb Saunders, and Hassidic community, minds the Zionists were as bad or even worse then the Nazi's! As Reb Saunders told Reuven "Hitler took away Jewish bodies but the Zionists are taking away Jewish souls".

Danny for his part is very uncertain about his future in following in his fathers footsteps as a Grand Rabbi and is reading books, mostly about psychology, against the teaching of his father and the elders of his community. That together with being a good friend of Reuven, whom for some strange reason Reb Saunders accepts into his home like he's his own son, Danny's father feels is corrupting him.

The movie "The Chosen" really explodes with the countdown at the UN for a vote in favor of a Jewsh state in Palestine as well as Reb Saunders finding out that his sons, Danny, best friends Reuven's father is collage professor David Malter, Maximilian Schell. Prof. Malter is influenced Danny by giving him all those books to read about psychology and even worse he's a hated Zionist and even worse then that Prof. Malter is very involved in the creation of the Jewish sate of Israel! So much to the point that the professor suffer a near-fatal stroke in barnstorming all over the country giving speeches and writing articles about Israels or Palestines, as it was called back then in 1947, right to become a state for the Jewish people.

Fine period piece that has the look of a Rembrant painting with an outstanding performance by a very restrained, for him at least, Rod Steiger as Reb Saunders. All-Amercan looking Bobby Benson is really a standout as a Hassidic Brookyn Jewish youth and being very believable in the part. Touching ending sequence with Danny and his father having a parting of the ways, With Danny leaving the Hassidic neighborhood that he grew up in, the only neighborhood and people that he ever knew, and going out in the world to study to be a psychiatrist; not a rabbi like his father wanted him to be.

As for Reuven he now not only has a life-long friend in Danny but also an education in life where he learned that all people, even ultra-orthodox and more or less secular Jews, are all the same both at heart as well as soul. A lesson that he'll carry and will be with and help him, in his relationships with other people, for the rest of his life.

This film is beautiful and thought-provoking in a number of ways. The story is a "normal" account of two Jewish boys growing up during World War II and the creation of the Jewish State. The situations in the film are not overly dramatized or sensationalized. Regular moments with family and friends are rightly judged to be sufficiently interesting to form the basis of a compelling drama.

Historical context serves as a vibrant backdrop for the lives of traditional Jews, who form an ever-diminishing minority, and progressive Jews, who still seek to hold to their heritage while embracing aspects of modern life. The conflict between the two worldviews is marvelously expressed through the friendship of the two boys and through the differences in their fathers, each of whom completely embodies a certain way of life. The film also makes a strong point about children following and not following in their parents' footsteps, and how someone's essence is more important than his career.

There is a Jewish-inspired pathos to this movie that is difficult to describe, but very moving to watch. The acting is great, and the writing is unparalleled. For a long time, I considered this my very favorite film. I have since realized that no one film can possibly occupy that spot, but this one is forever at the top of my list.