Daniel (1983) poster
1983 · drama · political · history

Daniel

Directed by Sidney Lumet2h 10m1983
ElsewhereIMDb6.62kRT43%TMDB6.736
  • heavy
  • intense
  • bleak
Movie DNA

Heavy, steady, measured drama / political, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

The fictionalized story of Daniel, the son of Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, who were executed as Soviet spies in the 1950s. As a graduate student in New York in the 1960s, Daniel is involved in the antiwar protest movement and contrasts his experiences to the memory of his parents and his belief that they were wrongfully convicted.

Our read · Daniel (1983) reads as a heavy, steady, grounded drama · political · history entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of Daniel

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a serious political drama about legacy of parents executed as spies.

it stays with yousteady all the waygrips by minute 18attention 4/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upsuicide theme

Skip it tonightYou want light viewing or avoid McCarthy era injustice stories.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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