THE CHOSEN
US, 1981,
Directed by Jeremy Paul Kagan
SHORT REVIEW
Within the context of 1940s American Jewish life, The Chosen examines complex intra-Jewish issues through the friendship of two teen-aged boys, one assimilated and one Hassidic, and their surprising connections to each other’s fathers. The Chosen reveals conflicts familiar to believers of all creeds struggling to achieve a balance between engaging the world and remaining faithful.
The Chosen has been called, “One of the most profoundly Jewish films ever made...” Even so, when I screened it for a class composed primarily of Hispanics, people who had for the most part never met a Jew, they found intense common ground through the film’s broader themes of family and duty.
LONG REVIEW
In her book The Fifty Greatest Jewish Films, Kathryn Bernheimer names The Chosen as number one on her list, calling it “One of the most profoundly Jewish films ever made...” Yet, when I screened The Chosen for an Adult Education class composed primarily of Hispanics, everyone in attendance was deeply moved and several students borrowed the DVD to view at home with their families. Within the specifics of Jewish life, Jewish issues, and Jewish religious practice, a classroom of people who had for the most part never even met a Jewish person found intense common ground through the film’s broader context of family and duty. This is the special magic that motion pictures bring to us as an art.
Taking place in 1940s Brooklyn, The Chosen examines complex intra-Jewish issues through the friendship of two teen-aged boys (Reuven, who is assimilated, and Danny, who is Hassidic), and their surprising connections to each other’s fathers. The Chosen reveals familiar conflicts experienced by believers of all creeds struggling to achieve a balance between engaging the world and remaining faithful.
The heart of The Chosen lies in the intertwined dynamics between Reuven, Danny, Reuven’s politically active, scholarly and comparatively secular father, and Danny’s father who is an Orthodox Rabbi. The boys, though tenderly devoted to their own parent, are strongly drawn to each other’s father, and Reuven plays a significant, poignant role in the healing of Rabbi Saunders’ relationship with Danny. Robbie Benson as Danny Saunders, Barry Miller as Reuven Malter, Rod Steiger as Rabbi Saunders and Maximilian Schell as Professor Malter all deliver authentic, compelling performances.
As an examination of the variety of Jewish life in America, The Chosen opens a large and illuminating window into the schism between religious and secular Jews, the identity issues within assimilation, and the little-discussed yet passionate debate over the formation of Israel (Orthodox communities believed that Israel could not be authentically reestablished before the arrival of the Messiah).
As an exposition of the difficult choices facing all religious, The Chosen confronts significant, still relevant questions about the extent to which we can be in the world and yet not become of the world; about the contradictory principles of tradition and change; about how we best serve our faiths; about who we may associate with and even what we may look upon. The film invites discussion and reflection.
Few pictures display higher values, deeper sensitivities, or richer characterizations than The Chosen.
CRITERIA FOR FILM REVIEWING
I am more of an essayist than a “reviewer.” For me, as a writer and as an educator, film appreciation is as much an anthropological and spiritual pursuit as an artistic one.
Motion pictures are astoundingly revelatory. They speak to us of the times in which they were created, and they reveal truths about us, as an audience, through our modern responses and interpretations. Film reveals culture, high and pop; politics, obvious and codified; zeitgeist, literal and Freudian; Faith, devout and skeptical.
As a community college instructor, I am constrained to discuss film in a strictly secular way. When lecturing to or writing for my students, I emphasize the anthropological concerns cited above and also strive to illuminate the visual narrative tools – color, lighting, camera angle and movement , symbolic entities such as mirrors, knives, water and other natural elements.
When interpreting cinema from a spiritual perspective, I find it particularly freeing to be able to delve even deeper in the subtext to discover the divine. The most humanistic of filmmakers is often the carrier of the most profoundly spiritual underpinnings. Those unanswered questions about belief and justice posed by staunchly atheist Woody Allen in Crimes and Misdemeanors invite us to religious debate, mediation and self-examination as deep and grounded in faith as those ruminations on conscience and redemption presented in The Mission. In viewing The Pawnbroker, one’s interpretation of the ending can rely heavily on the interpretation of the symbolism in the film’s last scenes, and that can vary markedly depending on whether one is interpreting from the perspective of the Old Testament or the New.
Such are the considerations I strive to bring to my essays: not only what the artists intend, but what the audience brings to the film; how a film’s perceived meaning can change as politics and traditions change; how movies provide windows into times, people, and places we never might have known while simultaneously providing mirrors to reveal ourselves to ourselves; and, finally, how to recognize the scriptural and other spiritual parallels that can spur our faith as we appreciate great films.
BIOGRAPHY
Karen Merced WILLNER is a US American educator, lecturer and writer specializing in the area of motion picture analysis and interpretation. She possesses extensive experience presenting to Orange County California religious, private, and educational institutions including the Roman Catholic Diocese, Temple Judea, Laguna Woods Human Relations Commission, and Saddleback Community College, where she has taught “Film as Literature” for 10 years.
Karen is lecturer/discussion leader for the 1000+ member Film Club at Laguna Woods Village, and in 2007 was moderator for the monthly film and discussion series presented at Bowers Cultural History Museum in Santa Ana, California. She is a member of the Catholic Academy (USA SIGNIS Affiliate) and a graduate of the University of San Francisco, a Catholic University in Northern California.
