Film Notes: The Chosen

The Chosen is a story about two unlikely friends: Reuven Malter (left) and Danny Saunders (right). They meet at an inter-league softball game played with intense rivalry between their two yeshivas (private Jewish schools) in Brooklyn during the 1940s. A freak accident (well, Danny bats the softball hard into Reuven's eyeglasses! and Freud says there are no accidents) brings them together and they become friends. Although both are Jewish, Reuven and Danny live in very different cultural worlds. Reuven is the son of Prof. David Malter, a teacher who does critical study of Talmud. Danny is the son of Reb Isaac Saunders, the rebbe of a small Hasidic community that lives nearby. The Hasidic community insulates itself to retain its Eastern European Yiddishkayt, while the Malters are trying to fit into American society.
Potok says, "What I'm trying to explore in my books is ... confrontation of ideas. Of cultures in tension with one another. A kind of tension that I experienced as I grew up and made my way into this world. All of us have one kind or another of ongoing culture confrontation almost every day of our lives.... The Chosen is essentially about the core of my own tradition."
The Chosen is the story of Reuven and Danny's friendship in spite of their conflicting cultures. As Reb Saunders tells Reuven, "It is not easy to be a friend." In addition to the conflict between two types of Judaism, Danny is also experiencing a deep internal cultural conflict that many traditionally religious people feel when they encounter post-Enlightenment Western culture on a serious intellectual level. Although he is "the chosen" successor to his father as rebbe of the Hasidic community, he is strongly drawn to the intellectual world of Freudian psychology, which seriously challenges the most fundamental concepts of traditional religion. (Reuven will face his challenge with modernity in the sequel, The Promise. There he comes to terms with historical-critical study of sacred texts.)

Early in the film excerpt we are viewing in class, Danny invites Reuven to meet his father at a Shabbos (Sabbath) service in Reb Saunders' community.
Pay attention during the Shabbos scenes to get an inkling of how Shabbas is celebrated in a traditionalist community. If you watch closely during the scene where everyone is preparing for the Shabbos service, you will see a woman peak out from behind the curtain that separates the women's section from the men's section (as in the picture at the left). After Reb Saunders arrives, the services begins and we will see little snippets of it, such as kissing the prayer shawl and the rocking motion as the worshippers pray.
When the Torah scroll is brought from the ark for reading, it is carried through the congregation and the members of the congregation show their reverence for it by kissing it. The reader uses a silver pointer to keep his place as he reads (see picture at right). The Torah text that is being read is the story of the Aqedah. (I think this is a deliberate choice by the scriptwriters. Can you see why I think so?)
The Hasidim are Ashkenazi, and so they pronounce "Shabbat" as "Shabbos" and "amen" as "omen." (Danny's yeshiva uses Sephardic pronunciation). The men wear short hair and the traditional earlocks near their ears. The women cover their hair after they marry. The Hasidim speak a Yiddish influenced by Russian.

Chaim Potok

When Danny and Reuven go to Hirsch College, they take a class in Talmud. Chaim Potok (the author of The Chosen) plays the role of the professor in the class.

Chaim Potok was born in 1929 in New York City. "I grew up ... in a Hassidic world without the beard and the earlocks." (NY Times 1/3/88)
Potok starting writing fiction at the age of 16. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English Literature from Yeshiva University in 1950. He received rabbinic ordination from Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1954. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. He wrote The Chosen at the same time he was writing his doctoral dissertation, The Rationalism and Skepticism of Solomon Maimon. Publication of The Chosen brought him quick recognition in literary circles. He is special projects editor for the Jewish Publication Society, and he occasionally teaches at Penn.
He has written eight novels: The Chosen (1967), The Promise (1969), My Name is Asher Lev (1972), In the Beginning (1975), The Book of Lights (1981), Davita's Harp (1985), The Gift of Asher Lev (1990), and I Am the Clay (1992). He has also written children's books, non-fiction, plays, and short stories. Potok has won several awards, including The Edward Lewis Wallant Award (for The Chosen). Like his character Asher Lev, Potok is also a painter (see his painting, "Brooklyn Crucifixion," right).

The Movie

The Chosen was released as a 108-minute movie in 1982. It won the top award at the World Film Festival in Montreal. It opened simultaneously in one thousand theaters and reportedly raised fifty-million dollars (?!) for charitable institutions.

Producers: Edie and Ely Landau
Released by: Analysis Films and Twentieth Century-Fox
Director: Jeremy Paul Kagan
Screenplay: Edwin Gordon, Chaim Potok

Cast:
Reuven Malter: Barry Miller
Danny Saunders: Robby Benson
Professor David Malter: Maximilian Schell
Reb Isaac Saunders: Rod Steiger

Here is an excerpt from an interview:

Q: Was there a particular reason why you decided to make a film out of The Chosen? Were you pleased with the way it turned out?

Potok: Interestingly enough the film initially was acquired by a Methodist fundamentalist from New Orleans named Roger Harrision. He wanted the world to see that there were American boys who were serious about their studies and about how to relate to their families and the world and that not every American teenager was and drugs and sex and hot rods, as he put it.
He was the one who got the initial seed money together to acquire the property and get a screenplay written. The film was his dream for about seven years. I trusted him. Ultimately when it went into production the people we chose had an absolutely fine track record, they had made some extremely high-quality films in the past. Again it was on the basis of trust and I was very satisfied with the results.

Scenes and Things to Look for

Time	Scene
00	Reuven and Danny talk in the garden. We discover Danny is a secret disciple of Freud. Notice Danny wears his tzitzit visibly. (Reuven wears his inside his trousers.)
03	Danny invites Reuven to Shabbos and to meet his father, Reb Saunders.
05	Shabbos. Look for the women to appear behind the curtain. If you blink, you'll miss it.
07	The Shabbos morning service. We look at the Hasidic service through Reuven's eyes. Notice the procession of the Torah scroll, which is reverently kissed by the worshippers.
08	After the service, Reb Saunders blesses and cuts the challah bread at table and then gives a little talk. (The questions after the talk are much more complex in the book!)
11	"At least you could have warned me!" Danny says Reb Saunders is a tzaddik.
15	Interview with Reb Saunders
17	Reuven talks with his father, Prof. Malter, about Danny.
18	Confrontation on the street. Danny is learning German to study Freud.
20	Back at Danny's house
20	At the library, Reuven introduces Prof. Malter to Danny.
22	Reuven visits and secrets slip out. Notice Reuven touches the mezuzah as he enters.
28	Hirsch College.
30	The Museum
31	Victory in Europe!
32	Vision blurs. Reb Saunders plays with Levi, his younger son.
33	New glasses, old look
34	To the movies
37	"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (quotation of Job 13:15).
38	"It's up to us to keep our people alive. We cannot wait for God." Prof. Malter begins promoting a Jewish homeland.
39	Reuben goes to stay at the Saunders home while Prof. Malter is away.
41	Reb Saunders plays chess with Levi, and makes a prediction.
42	Reuven and Shaindel flirt.
43	A traditional wedding -- and a disappointment.

For More Information

William M. Allen has put together an excellent and informative web site about Chaim Potok and his work.