La Bible : Au commencement des temps...

source: The Bible

The Bible: In the Beginning...

'The Bible' is a wonderful film based on the stories of the book of Genesis. This film sticks the true outline of the Bible without adding to it to try to attract people to watch it. It is the basic honest truth which I enjoyed thoroughly about this movie. For those who desire to watch a movie on the stories of the bible without the truth being stretch or converted in some way, this is definitely the movie to watch. It may be almost three hours long, but it kept me intrigued the whole time. It is a rare wholesome movie.

I won't waste anyone's time with a lot of dribble. I first saw the film for the first time on television(CBS) to be exact. I enjoyed the movie very much - I just recently bought a copy on DVD; obviously, it's not something I'll play over and over again. But whenever I am the mood I would definitely watch this film, I enjoyed John Huston's work on the film. This is merely an introduction of the bible to people who never read it. Bible(movie) covers from Creation to Sacrifice of Isaac. To me I never found any of the scenes in the movie boring.

Maybe it's because I consider myself one of the devout, but I think this last of the great Biblical epics that began in 1949 with "Samson And Delilah" works very well. Christopher Fry, who was responsible for making "Ben Hur's" script literate and compelling manages to do the same here, and Huston does a fine job of directing as well as providing a noble touch as narrator/voice of God and Noah. About the only ineffective touch comes at the end, where it is all too clear that the fire is causing George C. Scott's age makeup to run.

Just a year after his triumph in "Becket", Peter O'Toole is almost unrecognizable but does high class work as the Angel of the Lord--he's **trium in uno**--opposite Abraham and Sarah as portrayed by Ava Gardner and George C. Scott. These two great but very different actors play wonderfully off one another--Scott's earthy energy against the elegant tones and sorrowful eyes of O'Toole--who is on his way to destroy the sin cities of Sodom and Gommorah with all their inhabitants. The other fine portrayal is of Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord", by the late actor Steven Boyd. In a single, four minutes scene he captures all the kingly hubris of this biblical figure-- the first in the book of Genesis who does not represent a nation. He who built the Tower of Babel, and saw it destroyed. Children would be entertained by the carnival of the animals sequence depicting Noah and the Ark.