Last night and this morning, I watched THE BIBLE: IN THE BEGINNING again. All 3 hours. And you know what? It really is better to split it up over 2 days. It's just too damn long-- and "sombre"-- for one sitting. Especially the story of Abraham (George C. Scott). I finally clocked it today-- the Abraham story is 80 minutes, all on its own. The funny thing is, the movie "ABRAHAM" (with Richard Harris), is 3 hours long-- and seems to go by much faster than those 80 minutes with Scott.
People at the IMDB keep referring to it as a "Hollywood" film, or describing what decisions John Huston made as far as making it. They're missing the point. Huston directed, but this is NOT the director's movie-- it's the PRODUCER's movie. That being Dino DeLaurentis. The thing was filmed in ROME (and thereabouts) and has a pile of Italian actors, side-by-side with the ones from England and America.
I first saw this when it came out in 1966, in a theatre. I was halfway thru 4 years of Catholic school at the time. I remember being thrilled to see the stories brought to such vivid life in a movie, but at the same time, surprised at the overall look. This did not look like any depiction I, as a kid, had seen in books, paintings or "Hollywood" films. This film looks like CONAN THE BARBARIAN. It's not "fantasy"-- it looks like someone went back in time and filmed it on location in a world that was absolutely PRIMITIVE. The Tower Of Babel is a good example-- it may have been "built", but it's so "rough" in its design, it's mind-boggling. Actually, I keep wondering it they actually built a tower that tall, or if much of it was done with opticals. It looks to me like it wouldn't have been possible for a mere movie to build something that big as a prop, and if they did, it looks like it would have been immensely dangerous to film on and around.
