The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966)

Just finished watching the first installment of the History Channel's "The Bible". Having seen Huston's "The Bible: In The Beginning" as a kid, I was sorely disappointed with History Channels effort and amazed that nearly fifty years later, Huston's effort still outshines modern attempts. Huston's film is not only better story-telling, more biblically accurate and richer, it's special effects are even better. Huston took great pains not to imply too much onto the Scriptural narrative and added only what they knew at the time to be biblically, historically and archaeologically accurate. The result is both believable and inspiring. Sadly, I doubt anyone at History Channel reviews Huston's film before they started filming. Too bad, they might have been inspired to do one better. For my money, Huston's version remains the superior telling of the Genesis account.

I was impressed by the various settings of the book, and the depicting of various accounts in the Bible, all the way from beginning to end. And as a minister I'm sensitive to this. Seldom if ever have I seen, in particular, the accounts of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, and then the slaying of Abel by Cain. (As Cain, Richard Harris was his hostile, feisty self, perfect for the role of the vindictive brother.) Also, I have never seen any depicting of the flood of Noah, nor of the fall of the tower of Babel. I have seen the depicting of Sodom and Gommorah, but this was unusually well-done here. All the scenes appeared to be authentic. And I liked the cast. Michael Parks was adept at playing Adam, and his female counterpart was excellent as Eve. I was impressed with, again, the flood of Noah, though in places it maybe was a bit more comical than it was intended to be. John Huston performed well his part of Noah, and he had a good voice, that of God and his narration voice was excellent. Stephen Boyd was as mean as ever as Nimrod. George C. Scott conveyed well an aging Abraham, Peter O'Toole acted well his triple role (that of the three angels who visited Sarah,) and Ava Gardner was her beautiful self as she betrayed to the screen that Sarah was still a beautiful lady even in her older years. But I do have one objection to the production. While I liked the scenes and, again, the manifestation of the various Biblical stories, I frankly thought the acting left something to be desired. I'm not trying to rescind, but while I still think the actors came across well in their individual roles, they seemed to just say their lines and, thus, in places did not put much feeling into what they said. But overall, it was an outstanding work for Dino DeLaurentiis and John Huston, and is highly recommendable.

The Bible: In the Beginning is a religious epic film recounting the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis from Creation through Noah's Ark through Abraham's near-sacrifice of son Isaac.The ensemble cast includes Stephen Boyd,Ava Gardner,Richard Harris,John Huston,Peter O'Toole,Michael Parks and George C. Scott.The 174-minute movie has consists of four main sections: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, and the story of Abraham. There are also a pair of shorter sections, one recounting the building of the Tower of Babel, and the other the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The sections vary greatly in tone.The story of Abraham is somber and reverential, while that of Noah repeatedly focuses on his love of all animals. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Tower of Babel could be called precursors to special effects spectaculars, although there are no real effects in the Tower of Babel sequence, and the special effects in the Sodom and Gomorrah sequence do not appear until the cities are actually destroyed.The major triumph of this film is that despite the insanity of the attempt and the grandiosity of the project, the technology doesn't dominate the material.Also,the greatest stories of the Old Testament are brought to the screen with astounding scope and power that will provide the viewer with genuine awe.

It is true that this is a long and often boring film, something inevitable, considering De Laurentiis' initial project… But the diverse elements that integrate it are good: Mario Chiari's production design, Toshirô Mayuzumi's score, Maria De Mattei's costumes, Ernst Haas' direction and cinematography for the prologue ("The Creation") and Giuseppe Rotunno's images for the rest; plus so many splendid faces of the Italian cinema including Eleonora Rossi Drago as Lot's wife; Giovanna Galletti, from "Rome: Open City", as a citizen of Sodom, and Puppella Maggio as Noah's wife; the big first opportunities for Michael Parks and Franco Nero (as Adam and Abel), and Huston's own fine performance as Noah. According to some sources, Orson Welles contributed to the script.