And also The Gifted: two brilliant, charming, multi-talented sons of eminent Jewish leaders on opposite sides of orthodoxy, and especially on opposite sides of the Zionist issue at the end of World War II, one of them a Hasidic rabbi and the other a liberal scholar and journalist. The father and son on the liberal side, Maximilian Schell and Barry Miller, clearly out-act their opposite numbers, Rod Steiger and Robby Benson. Benson overcomes any initial resistance to his Old World appearance (curled earlocks, etc.) with his formidable, Joe DiMaggio batting style in a playground softball game, but thereafter his honeyed voice and brown-sugared complexion make it difficult to forget his Teen Idol past. And Steiger never lets his department-store Santa beard get in the way of his crotchety diversionary tactics. The director, Jeremy Paul Kagan, at any rate solidifies his position as the Sidney Lumet of the New Hollywood, a designation he earns through his belief that no artistic height cannot be reached by mere earnestness, close-up servitude to one's actors, and total faith in one's literary source (in this case, the Chaim Potok novel). (1982) — Duncan Shepherd