Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Michael Parks | ... | ||
Ulla Bergryd | ... | ||
Richard Harris | ... | ||
John Huston | ... | ||
Stephen Boyd | ... | ||
George C. Scott | ... | ||
Ava Gardner | ... | ||
Peter O'Toole | ... | ||
Zoe Sallis | ... | ||
Gabriele Ferzetti | ... | ||
Eleonora Rossi Drago | ... |
Lot's Wife
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Franco Nero | ... | ||
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Pupella Maggio | ... | |
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Robert Rietty | ... |
Abraham's Steward
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Peter Heinze | ... |
Shem
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An elaborate Hollywood retelling of the Bible stories narrated by the film's director John Huston. We open with the Creation of the World and arrive at the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and continue on to Cain and the murder of Abel. Next, we visit Noah and his ark with its spectacular flood sequence. Then we come to the story of Nimrod, King of Babel, the emergence of man's vanity and the heights to which it could aspire if unchecked. Finally we cover Abraham, a mystic who spoke personally with God, a leader of men, a builder of nations, a pioneer and a warrior and Sarah. At the time she conceived her first child, the event being forecast by an Angel of the Lord. Three such Heavenly Messengers appeared in the course of events which befell Abraham and Sarah. Written by alfiehitchie
a beautiful music score, and some interesting segments but this film suffers from sluggishness and some serious miscasting. Even with it's all-star cast it tends to drag, from a script that hasn't achieved the best pacing. The Noah segment is by far the best, with Huston himself playing both Noah and the voice of God. Peter O' Toole is very otherworldly as the angels, but George C. Scott (an actor I admire very much) is really out of his element as Abraham. And the script has been cursed with one of the great failings of the Bible itself. Translated into English of early seventeenth century England, the language used by the people in the bible has remained in that stilted form. As our language has evolved and changed over the centuries the Bible hasn't and it becomes truly tedious in a motion picture of this length. Even Hollywood realized this with most of the great religious epics they dropped the "thees" and "thous" and "thys" and "thines" which are no longer in general practice since the days of the puritans. Still it is a fair and reverent look at the book of Genesis.