David (TV 1997)

The tribes of Israel need to defeat the superior might of the Philistines: "Now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." (I Samuel, 8:5). And so the prophet Samuel ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Markowitz

Writer:

Larry Gross (teleplay)

Stars:

Nathaniel Parker, Jonathan Pryce, Leonard Nimoy

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nathaniel Parker	...	David
Jonathan Pryce	...	Saul
Leonard Nimoy	...	Samuel
Sheryl Lee	...	Bathsheba
Ben Daniels	...	Jonathan
Richard Ashcroft	...	Abner
Gideon Turner	...	Young David
Maurice Roëves	...	Joab
Dominic Rowan	...	Absalom
Edward Hall	...	Amnon
Clara Bellar	...	Tamar
Gina Bellman	...	Michal
Franco Nero	...	Nathan
John Francis	...	Phineas
Mohamad Belfikh	...	Zadok

Storyline

The tribes of Israel need to defeat the superior might of the Philistines: "Now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." (I Samuel, 8:5). And so the prophet Samuel gives the Hebrews their first king, Saul, a simple farmer, who with God's help becomes a brave and mighty warlord who leads the united tribes of Israel against their enemies. Saul, however, has incessant doubts about his mission. Not trustful enough of divine wisdom, he acts of his own accord and thus sins against the Lord. The influential prophet Samuel turns away from Saul in order to select a new king according to God's will: David. He is still a young boy, tending sheep in the fields, when, secretly Samuel oints him as the next king of the Israelites. When David - as courageous as he is intelligent - emerges victorious from his encounter with Goliath, the Philistines' most powerful warrior, he becomes a hero. His fame arouses the jealousy of King Saul, who senses that David is going to dispute his...

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Plot Keywords:

king | battle | hero | violence | king david | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | History

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Details

Official Sites:

Five Mile River Films TNT

Country:

USA Italy Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 April 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bibeln - David

Filming Locations:

Ifrane, Morocco

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Beta Film, Lube Productions, Lux Vide

Technical Specs

Runtime:

190 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of David (1924)

User Reviews

Good at times, completely blows it in others

The stories of David, Samuel, and Saul are recorded in great detail in the books of Samuel, as well as additional information in the books of Chronicles. Considering the wealth of information and detail we have from the Biblical sources, there's not much need to go outside of the text to create a great movie. The most obvious climax of David's life comes early on in his life (his confrontation with Goliath), and the Biblical text in 1st Samuel reads just like an action movie. Had the filmmakers just stuck with the text, they would have hit a homerun. Instead, they bunted into foul territory... or struck out while messing themselves. Just a complete waste of what should have been a great scene. Very inaccurate to the Biblical story and very disappointing. I stopped watching after David took the throne as I couldn't deal with it any more.

This is coming from the perspective of a Christian that believes the Bible is the the inspired and infallible Word of God. If you do not hold to these beliefs, this may be a good movie for you (I can't say as I didn't finish it and my perspective is completely skewed). If you do, you will likely be disappointed like I was.

I find movies based on Scripture to be very touchy in general, and extremely difficult to translate to the screen without something coming across as inaccurate (or what we perceive as inaccurate). Even movies that supposedly stick word for word to the text still take artistic license (as you have to since you're translating the written word to a visual medium).

This one was overall NOT a good translation from the first half that I saw. I'm not going to point out the accurate parts as they were negated by the inaccuracies. Even from the beginning of the movie Saul was not taller than the other Israelites, which is clearly described in Scripture. I'll quit there, as there are a lot of other things I could point out.