the leading man is my tpye

Sadly Over-hyped

From my favorite movies..

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

John Huston directed it and played Noah, yep. John Huston you know, the director of The Treasure Of Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon and his atheism shouldn't be an excuse for the embarrassment of The Bible...In the Beginning. Pier Paolo Pasolini was a Marxist, atheist, homosexual who made one of the greatest religious films of all time with The Gospel According To St Matthew. No, here, I suspect, the mastermind behind this super production is Dino De Laurentiis, the producer, the first name in the opening titles. Huge. Famous for very expensive movies with dubious results and intentions. Fortunately this - Highlights from Genesis and beyond - have a narration trying to explain the inexplicable. De Laurentiis believed in a cast of big names - like Harvey Weinstein - yes that's the laziest way to put together a production. Michael Parks is a beautiful 1960's Adam and so is Ulla Bergryd, his Eve. Richard Harris is Cain and Franco Nero Abel, George C Scott is Abraham, Ava Gardner, Sarah. and the film is now nearly forgotten. Pasolini used an unknown in the lead of his Gospel According to St Matthew, Enrique Irazoqui as Jesus and it became a classic. Commercial operations are one thing, great movies quite another.

The 'Sodomites' are deliciously pervy as only a benighted 1960s subjective straight perspective could get it gloriously wrong -- and, of course, the filmmakers, surrounded as they were by mundane film industry gays, knew better -- they were pandering to an audience they felt superior to. This scene (and the entire film) prove the absurd fallacy of taking 'Genesis' literally . . . imho. :D (That said, the 'Sodomites' scene is hilariously campy -- they don't appear to want to rape Peter O'Toole as much as they want to do his hair and make-up . . .)Also extra points for the first time America saw an adult naked butt in a post-production code movie: Michael Parks as 'Adam' shot as posh art nude, in the hold-still, *tableau vivant* style, acceptable since the 19th century.Many great talents involved, but the result is ponderous overall. Huston can be faulted for leading actors into dated, etched-in-stone characterizations a la DeMille, but is not totally to blame: word has it the project was originally intended as an episodic series for Italian television; left unfinished, producer De Laurentiis chopped what they had into this badly-cut, slug-paced behemoth, then promoted it as an event equal to the second coming. (I still recall the TV commercial barrage, with their teasing emphasis on 'Adam' and 'Eve' *naked* and *hot*).Reminds one of Joe Mankiewicz's 'Cleopatra' -- meant as two films, but sheared into one by Zanuck to cash in on the Liz-Dick-Eddie-Debbie tabloid frenzy. In both cases one is presented with a numbing marathon of expensive production values, comprising endless heavily-music-cued climaxes without benefit of sufficient context or run-up, like a cartoon without a sense of humor.(This is the first time I've given a rating less than 10, because apart from isolated goofy bits, like the 'Sodomites', this is not a bad movie one can watch for camp laughs.)

"The Bible" was pretty much the swan song of the big Hollywood religious epic (with a few exceptions over the years), and you can sort of see why. The story is a complete fairy tale, of course, but the director, John Huston, brings off some spectacular effects, and they, along with his tongue-in-cheek approach in the Noah's Ark segment in which he also stars, help dilute the proselytizing. The film has some extraordinary moments (like King Nimrod shooting an arrow into heaven from the top of the Tower of Babel, or Peter O'Toole's (dis)appearance(s)), but it's too episodic and frequently tedious. Also, Huston should have chosen someone with a more imposing voice than his own to provide the voice of God - George C. Scott maybe? **1/2 out of 4.

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.