Don't Believe the Hype

Beautiful, moving film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This film is based entirely on a passage from the life of King David, in which he falls in disgrace before God by engaging with a married woman. Anyone who knows the Bible minimally or has attended Sunday School knows or has heard about this story, so the script doesn't bring us any surprises. What is most pleasing here is to see the humanity and fallibility of David, an anointed king, chosen by God, but who didn't cease to be a human and to make mistakes, for which he was punished.Gregory Peck is the main actor and gives us an intense, human performance. Initially vain to the point of being a braggart, Peck's David turns a victim of his own pride. Neither he, a king, was above the law or immune to divine wrath. It was a work that grew as the film progressed to the end and dramatic tension increased. Susan Hayward is Bathsheba, a married woman, clearly more vivid than the young king she deliberately provokes. The actress is very beautiful, has talent and was surely a good choice for the role. Jayne Meadows (in the role of David's first wife), Raymond Massey (who played the prophet Nathan) and Kieron Moore (the young and dedicated Uriah) were also excellent additions to the cast, fulfilling their roles with great merit.Technically, the film has only minor flaws. Costumes are good and magnificent to look at, but I didn't like that Jewish star always on Peck's chest. I knew that this symbol only became attached to the Jews in the Middle Ages, so that detail stank of anachronism. The sets were excellent and grandiose, as Hollywood got us used to when it comes to biblical epics. The beauty of colors and photography that Technicolor provides are something delicious for our eyes, perhaps even better than many of the digital features we are used to now. Soundtrack is good, but it doesn't stand out as in "Ten Commandments" or "Ben Hur".

For me, this film is one of the best illustrations of the struggle between good and evil in the human soul. And the main thing in this - the skills of the actors. And so I can not describe this movie without spoilers. The skills of actors is important when you look at how David recalls his youth; how Bathsheba look at woman, who must be killed for adultery; how people see the ark of the covenant; how David choice between law and love; how David and Bathsheba had met for the first time; how David tries to create intrigues against Uriah; how people react to the words of David and high priest. In this film there is not a single superfluous scene or actor. This film is perfect. I did not see another movie, which would be a such powerful reason to reflect on the causes and motivations of my actions.

...however, if anybody tried to get an understanding of the Bible by watching this and other films of the 50's based on Biblical stories, they would be very misinformed.In this film King David (Gregory Peck) is introduced to us as a man, who in spite of his many wives, is misunderstood and ultimately mate-less, poor guy. The film at first zeroes in on Michal, daughter of Saul, and David's first wife. She is complaining that he is cold to her, he says that he no longer loves her and only keeps her as a wife to keep certain parts of Israel loyal to him. He cites her earlier dis-loyalties to him.Then he steps out on his terrace and sees Bathsheba (Susan Hayward) bathing and finds her beautiful. He orders her to be brought to him. Now the Bible is devoid of details, but it is assumed that David intended to sleep with Bathsheba and then discard her, in spite of his many valid outlets of sexual expression, in spite of the fact that David knew she was married to a soldier in his service, in spite of the fact that Bathsheba's consent might have been a non issue to a king of Israel.But this film paints a much different picture. Here, apparently, David has been set up by Bathsheba! She has plotted and planned to be bathing in plain sight of David, and thus the two enter into some kind of "strange marriage" in which she is his constant companion and soul mate and he ignores the dozens of wives he has in favor of her.Then, as in the Bible, disaster strikes - Bathsheba is pregnant, her husband, Uriah, has been away for a year, and when her condition becomes known she will be stoned as an adulteress according to Jewish law. Just as in the Bible, David tries to trick Uriah into sleeping with Bathsheba so he will consider the child his, and when that doesn't work he gets Uriah killed in battle and marries Bathsheba.However, the child dies shortly after birth. Hollywood has also added some extra punishments. There is a kind of dust bowl that forms causing massive starvation and then rebellion among the people. Nathan the prophet comes and brings - not only the promises of punishment for David's crime mentioned in the Bible, but says that God demands the stoning of Bathsheba for adultery, which actually never happened because the actual Bathsheba was probably being treated as property by everybody - she had no say in what the king did to or with her. She was not this Virginia Slim girl of the B.C. as portrayed by Hayward.So a major portion of the last half of the film is good, it just never happened - as David tries to find a way to save Bathsheba from execution. I'll let you watch and find out how that happens. Let's just say the film is full of spectacle befitting the times.Now some asides - Gregory Peck looked every inch a king here - he did a good job as always. But David was "a man after God's own heart" yet several times Nathan approaches David about this issue or that and David basically tells him "I'll let you handle all of that God stuff". Huh? How can David be after God's own heart if he treats the prophet of God as though David was a CEO and Nathan were the head of HR bothering him with paper-pushing minutia? Hayward is good, but she always said she did not like the fact that, as Bathsheba, her part was just to react to whatever David was doing.If you are looking for a good example of a Biblical epic in the 50's tradition, look no further. Just realize that like every other such film of the times, the facts are being played with fast and loose. Heck, if you watched 1956's "Ten Commandments" you'd believe that Pharoah not letting the Israelites go was the result of a love triangle! Recommended for the acting and the spectacle of it all.

I'm typically a sap for Biblical epics. Just give me some great Techni-Color in CinemaScope and some beautiful Biblical sets and costumes and you've got me watching. I've loved everything from SAMSON & DELILAH to THE ROBE to QUO VADIS to DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS to THE TEN COMMANDMENTS to BEN-HUR to KING OF KINGS, etc. But this one I found a bit of a chore to get through. I didn't really have a problem with Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward as the leads. Just that the story itself seemed to move at a snail's pace. It was pretty much sold as a love story and nothing more. I guess I expected to see more from the life of King David. Not merely a romance. So in that regard I was quite disappointed. A good cure for insomnia I suppose.