The Bible (film)

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Movie
German title The Bible
Original title La Bibbia, English OT: The Bible: In the Beginning…, short title The Bible
Country of production USA , Italy
original language English
Publishing year 1966
length 190 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director John Huston
script Christopher Fry
production Dino De Laurentiis
music Toshiro Mayuzumi
camera Giuseppe Rotunno
cut Ralph Kemplen
occupation
synchronization

The Bible (Italian original title La Bibbia , English original title The Bible: In the Beginning… , short title The Bible ) is an American-Italian Bible adaptation from 1966 by the director John Huston , who also plays Noah. The leading roles include Stephen Boyd , Ava Gardner , Richard Harris and Peter O'Toole .

action

Everything begins with the creation of the earth, the creation of Adam and Eve , as well as their fall into sin (eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge ) and their subsequent expulsion from the garden of Eden . After the birth of the sons Cain and Abel and the fratricide of Abel by Cain, God banishes Cain from the garden of Eden to the land of Nod , east of Eden.

Now the story of Noah  - a descendant of Eve's third son Set  - is told and how he was commissioned by God to build Noah's Ark so that he would survive the Flood with his family and a pair of each animal . Then a great-grandson of Noah is introduced: Nimrod , a king who gave the order to build the tower of Babel and thereby conjured up the wrath of God, so that God punished the people, who previously all had a common language, with language confusion and they over the whole Earth distributed.

We get to know Abram, who leaves his hometown Ur after a request from God to move to a country that God wants to show him. Abram takes his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot and all of his possessions along with slaves on the journey and finally they find the Promised Land . To avoid arguments about grazing grounds for their flocks, Abram and Lot now go their separate ways.

Abram complains that his wife is sterile and that he will not have an heir. God asks him to sacrifice a three year old calf, a three year old goat, a three year old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon. After Abram did this, God prophesied that he would have a son and that he should name him Isaac . Abram's wife orders her slave, the Egyptian woman Hagar , to sleep with her husband in order to give him a child. Hagar then becomes pregnant.

In the valley of Siddim there is a battle in which the troops of the four kings of the people of Mesopotamia fight the troops of the five kings of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah , Adma, Zebojim and Zoar . The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah are defeated and driven into the swamps. During the battle, Lot gets caught between the fronts and is captured. Despite the overwhelming strength of the enemy, Abram decides to follow the victorious kings, attack them and free Lot - which he succeeds in doing.

God instructs Abram that from now on his name should be Abraham and that his wife should no longer be called Sarai, but Sarah . In addition, he will bless his wife and give (the apparently sterile woman) a son. However, God also dictates one condition: every son should be circumcised from now on. When the slave Hagar gives birth to her son Ishmael, who was conceived with Abraham , he is circumcised as the first child.

Three angels appear who have been commissioned by God to destroy the city of Sodom, since the inhabitants are too vicious in his eyes. However, if the angels could find ten upright people in Sodom, they would cease destroying the city. The righteous Lot residing in Sodom, his wife and his two daughters were allowed to flee the city, but they were not allowed to look back. When Lot's wife ignores this order, turns around and gazes at the city that is just falling victim to destruction, she freezes into a pillar of salt.

Abraham's wife Sarah gives birth to the promised son Isaac at an old age. Thereupon Abraham, at the request of his wife, casts off his son Ishmael and his birth mother, the slave Hagar. God now asks Abraham to offer his son Isaac on a mountain as a burnt offering. The family travels to the land of Moriah, where the God-chosen mountain is said to be. As Abraham is about to make the sacrifice of Isaac , God declares that he should forsake him, knowing that he himself would sacrifice his only son for him.

Background, production

The producer Dino De Laurentiis originally planned that this first Bible film would be followed by a series of films that would include the entire Old Testament . But that never happened. This film deals with the first 22 chapters of the Old Testament and essentially represents the content of Genesis . The film shows (after about half the playing time) an intermission of around 3 minutes . It is the first feature film to be shot using the dimension 150 technique, using a 70 mm film by Todd-AO with an extremely wide-angled 150-degree lens. The second and last major feature film with this technique was Patton - Rebel in Uniform .

During the shooting, artificial lighting was hardly used, around 80% of the film was shot in a dark environment. Hence, even the Garden of Eden appears as a dark jungle. The filming locations were in Italy , especially in the Dino De Laurentiis studios in Rome .

publication

The film premiered in the United States on September 28, 1966. In October of the same year it was also released in the United Kingdom, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands and on October 28 under the title The Bible in the Federal Republic of Germany. In November 1966 there was a publication in Finland and Turkey. In March 1967 the film was shown in Belgium (Gent), Denmark and Ireland. In June 1967 the premiere took place in Australia (Sydney), in August 1967 in Argentina and in September 1967 in Mexico and Uruguay. The film was also released in Bulgaria, Brazil, Spain, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy (under the title La Bibbia ), Norway, Poland, Portugal and the Soviet Union. The English original title is: The Bible: In the Beginning… , the short title The Bible .

The film was released on December 18, 2002 by 20th Century Fox as part of the "Great Film Classics" series on DVD.

Reviews

“The superficial, episodic portrayal by director Huston tries to be close to the work, but reads the scriptures as a history book and ignores their religious dimension. A cinematic showpiece is an appearance by the director in the role of Noah. "

“Twenty-two chapters of Genesis in an epic style combined into one gossamer-colored picture sheet. Monumental, the film by Huston (...) suffocates in the abundance of material and the pathos of equipment. Only the director himself as Noah can give the game lively and individual traits. The template is more exciting. (Rating: weak) "

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon Films on TV (extended new edition)

“The basic tone of the film is very subdued - noticeably trying to approach the topic with appropriate dignity. (...) Unfortunately, dignity and calm are not necessarily two captivating qualities. The individual chapters are worked through slowly, which is not uninteresting - but also not particularly entertaining. (...) On the other hand, of course, Huston is a master director who breaks down every episode into well thought-out shots and tracking shots, so that the images and the staging are always very aesthetic and have a certain class. He is supported by leading actors who all belong to Hollywood's first guard and understand their craft (...) "

- Peplumania.com

“The first 22 chapters of the Bible […] in a monumental film, which, due to its parallelism to the Bible text, stands out from other films about the Old Testament. It is, however, exhausted in an external reconstruction of the biblical narratives and therefore contributes little to the preaching of the churches. But since it does not bend the essential content of Genesis significantly, one need not worry about the effects of this Bible illustration. "

Moviepilot conceded to the film that producer Dino De Laurentiis had hired “a star cast” for this over three-hour epic, “who are second to none”. It also said: "Big names like George C. Scott, Ava Gardner, Peter O'Toole and John Huston himself, who achieved an absolutely brilliant performance in the role of Noah, make this film a top-class jewel in film history."

Awards

The soundtrack by Toshiro Mayuzumi was at the Oscars 1967 in the category Best Original Score nomination in the same category, the film also received a nomination for the Golden Globes 1967th

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The Bible ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. adS die-besten-horrorfilme.de. Retrieved October 22, 2017. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.die-besten-horrorfilme.de
  2. The Bible (1966) adS dvdoaradues, at
  3. The Bible. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. The Bible , Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 87
  5. Die Bibel , Evangelischer Presseverband München, Critique No. 446/1966, p. 812
  6. The Bible adS moviepilot.de (with original trailer)