The Bible Stories: In the Beginning

Between 1994 and 2000, the TNT Network broadcast a total of 17 biblical films, which have been released to the home market in various formats and bundles over the years. This four-disc package dating from 1994-95 includes films based on the Books of Genesis and Exodus: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and Moses, all of them international co-productions (funded by German, Italian, and American sources) that hold up surprisingly well. All are reverential toward the biblical text and boast intelligent and literate scripts, as well as excellent casts. Ben Kingsley plays the pharaoh's chief steward in Joseph and then moves up to the title role in Moses (in which Frank Langella costars as Mermefta), while Richard Harris stars as Abraham and Barbara Hershey is his wife Sarah. Matthew Modine assumes the title role in Jacob, in which Sean Bean plays his brother Esau (Martin Landau succeeds Modine as the older Jacob in Joseph), and smaller roles are taken by David Suchet, Christopher Lee, and Maximilian Schell. The locations, cinematography, and music are all top-notch as well, with only the special effects mildly disappointing. Such miraculous occurrences as the burning bush and Jacob's ladder are presented in fairly rudimentary fashion, while the depictions of the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea in Moses hardly rival those in Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments or even Ridley Scott's dreary Exodus: Gods and Kings. On the other hand, viewers might find the visual modesty of these films to be wholly appropriate to the stories being related. Recommended. [Note: also available separately are David and Samson and Delilah.] (F. Swietek)