Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75425 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-02-20
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 168 minutes

Customer Reviews

Probably the best Bible film available
A great film with a great cast. I couldn't believe they could fit all the events from Creation to the Exodus into just 3 hours, but they did it and did a marvellous job at it. The one thing that really struck me was how all the Bible stories came to life and were linked with each other. A masterpiece!

Good bible epic
Bible films often seem to be at the extreme ends of possible presentations - some are inaccurate or sentimental while others are unrealistic and evangelistic. This film avoided all these traps and was a well presented condensed version of the events, from the life of Abraham (who tells the creation story) to the end of Moses' life. The costumes and sets are wonderful. Having read the bible several times I can recomment it for both the uninformed and for those well versed in the scriptures. Be prepared and forgiving for a bit of licence and American accents.

good cast and above average TV production
Originally a 4-hour miniseries for NBC, with a large international cast of well-known actors, this telling of parts of the first five books of the Bible is interesting, and on the whole flows well, though it crams a lot of story into one film, therefore skipping many major events.
It starts with Abraham, as he travels to the land of Canaan, in about 2000 B.C., and along the way he recites the narrative of the Creation (which has some nice visuals), the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, their temptation (the fruit here looks more like a small fig in a very thorny tree) and their expulsion from Eden.

There are some fine performances, among them Martin Landau as Abraham, Jacqueline Bisset as Sarah, Bill Campbell as Moses, Amanda Donohoe as Potiphar's wife, and Fred Weller as Jacob. Eddie Cibrian as Joseph seems at first out of place, looking more like a modern day hunk, but he grows with the part, and has the most touching scene in the film, when he is reunited with his father Jacob. In the small part of Jethro, the great Alan Bates is marvelous. Other name actors include Diana Rigg (mature Rebeccah), Geraldine Chaplin (Yocheved), David Warner (Eliezer), and Christopher Lee is a theatrical, entertaining Ramses I.

At times there's quite a bit of license taken with scripture (for instance, there is some incredulous dialogue between Moses and Jethro after the parting of the sea, where Moses doesn't seem to have much faith in God), and similar to other TV Bible films, the parts that take place in Egypt are full of gaudy sets and costumes, as well as some characters who have an almost Alice Cooper look in the makeup department, especially Pharaoh's magician (Victor Spinetti).
Filmed in Morocco, with some lovely cinematography and score, this one is certainly worth a rental if you like Bible epics.