Daniel is a 1983 drama film directed by Sidney Lumet from a screenplay by E. L. Doctorow, based on his 1971 novel The Book of Daniel. The film stars Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, Lindsay Crouse, and Edward Asner.
Daniel was released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on 26 August 1983 and in the United Kingdom on 10 February 1984.
Contents
Plot
The film was based on the life story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted as spies and executed in the electric chair by the United States government in 1953 for giving nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. This story follows their fictionalized son as he attempts to find the truth.
Cast
Timothy Hutton as Daniel Isaacson
Mandy Patinkin as Paul Isaacson
Lindsay Crouse as Rochelle Isaacson
Edward Asner as Jacob Ascher
Ellen Barkin as Phyllis Isaacson
Julie Bovasso as Frieda Stein
Tovah Feldshuh as Linda Mindish
Carmen Mathews as Mrs. Ascher
Amanda Plummer as Susan Isaacson
Lee Richardson as Reporter
John Rubinstein as Robert Lewin
Colin Stinton as Dale
Maria Tucci as Lise Lewin
Ilan Mitchell-Smith as Young Daniel Isaacson
Peter Friedman as Ben Cohen
Will Lee as Judge (posthumously, his last appearance)
David Margulies as Dr. Duberstein
Leo Burmester as FBI Agent
Rosetta LeNoire as Prison Matron
Ron McLarty as Prison Guard
Nicholas Saunders as Jail Doctor
Daniel Stern as Artie Sternlicht
Lee Wallace as Mayor
Reception
Daniel received mixed reviews, and it was not a box-office success upon its limited release. It currently holds a 43% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In The New York Times, film critic Janet Maslin wrote:[The film] begins with an extreme close-up of a scowling, furious Daniel (Timothy Hutton) as he recites a definition for electrocution, and this device is repeated periodically throughout the film (with Daniel explaining a different form of
punishment in each instance). These scenes, which are all that remain of the narrator's tone, effectively capture Daniel's rage - but do not convey that his struggle is painful and continuing, and that he is in the process of change. As a result, much of the movie is angry and self- righteous, without sufficiently close links between Daniel's story and that of his parents, and without the sympathetic elements that make the novel a complex, human story, rather than a tract.