The Story of Ruth
The Story of Ruth
| 17 June 1960 (USA)
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Ruth is an unusual character in the Bible. First she's a female protagonist, one of a select few there. Secondly her story gets its own book in the Old Testament, a short item of only four chapters. Lastly she's the first non-Hebrew protagonist in the Bible since Abraham sired the Hebrew people. It's a simple story in the Old Testament. Ruth is one of two Moabite women who marry the sons of Elimelech and Naomi. When Elimelech and sons Mahlon and Chillion die, leaving Naomi a widow with two widowed daughters-in-law, Naomi decides to return to Israel. One daughter-in-law, Orpah, bids her goodbye. Daughter-in-law Ruth however says she will not desert her. She's going to give up the life and culture of Moab and her people will be Naomi's people in the most famous line from the Book of Ruth.

Reviews
Clevercell

Very disappointing...

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SpuffyWeb

Sadly Over-hyped

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SpecialsTarget

Disturbing yet enthralling

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Hattie

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

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edwagreen

Somewhat disappointing film with acting below par, especially by Peggy Wood as Naomi, who comes across sincere, but is lacking in emotional depth. Five years later, as the Mother Superior in "The Sound of Music," she garnered a supporting actress Oscar nomination for showing her mettle and determination in the role.Elan Eden, as Ruth, reminded me of Israeli actress Haya Harareet of "Ben-Hur" fame. Those women dancing up of a storm reminded me from the tribe of Jethro in "The Ten Commandments," and ironically, Eduard Franz appeared in both films.The movie should have ended with Ruth's innocence in the court. Instead, it gets bogged down with two men fighting for the right to marry her, one using the Levite law that as the nearest kin to her dead husband, he is entitled to take her as his bride. This theme was overly played out.Stuart Whitman, as Boaz, looked like he was annoyed with the role, but not as much as my being annoyed with the film.

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mspolk2006

I have loved this movie for a long time, it was something that I saw when I was young and just loved. The story of Ruth and Naomi is one that my mother always said was a great example of what love really is. Ruth leaves behind all her life in Moab to follow Naomi to a country and a people that she knows perhaps little or nothing about.I have seen that some people review or make comments about it not being 'biblical' and I think that it doesn't detract from the point that the movie brings across. Sometimes people want to make the heroes and heroines of the Bible too holy, they were people, struggling with life as we do now. The faith of Ruth and the love that she and Naomi share is so apparent in this movie.This movie takes license with where Ruth comes from, having her sold in childhood to the local religion that sacrifices children every year to their god. There is nothing to state where Ruth came from in the Bible only that she was married to Mahlon and that he and his father and brother died.This movie is so beautiful and well filmed, Elena Eden, is so beautiful as Ruth and Peggy Wood as Naomi. The movie, I have always found after it's first 45 minutes, seems to revolve around these two women. Naomi's protective love of Ruth and vice versa, their loyalty to each other and how the bitterness of Naomi's loss is healed by the things that happen to the both of them.The story is slightly changed, but the story has the point of who Ruth is, a woman who was born worshiping a foreign god and who came to understand and love Jehovah.It is a great movie and I have always thought that if nothing else is accurate about it, the fact that placing your faith in God will always be rewarded.Also, when Naomi prays for Ruth, it is probably one of the most beautiful and selfless prayers ever. It is the kind of prayer that a Mother prays for her daughter, it always give me chills to hear it. My dearly departed mother, prayed for me like that once and I am still reaping the blessings to this day.

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Neil Doyle

There's no question that THE STORY OF RUTH would have been a lot more different if it emerged as a Cecil B. DeMille production at the hight of DeMiller's spectacular career at Paramount. I'm sure he would have made certain that the writers expanded on the story to bring as much spectacle and battle scenes as possible in order to bring it up to his usual "sand and sandals" requirements.But Henry Koster has taken a simple story, retained the simplistic values of the plot and made it a moving story of a young woman from a pagan culture who gradually amends her sinful ways and comes to worship only one invisible God. Koster has had wonderful success with his two very rugged looking male stars--TOM TRYON (whose role occupies the first half of the lengthy film, as a Hebrew) and STUART WHITMAN as the man Ruth comes to love. JEFF MORROW is also stalwart and appealing as the man who tries to win her love but fails miserably.Alas, we now come to the real drawback of the film--ELANA EDEN, the unknown actress who plays the all important title role--Ruth, and her acting is, to put it kindly, "limited". In fact, it is only one notch above the kind of grade school emoting we had from Maria Montez during the height of her adventures with Jon Hall and Sabu. Furthermore, while undeniably beautiful in an exotic way, her accent makes much of her dialog in need of the caption feature. Her wooden performance is perhaps the reason for her very brief screen career in what should have been a star-making role.Surprisingly, despite this main drawback, THE STORY OF RUTH has an intelligent script, sensible direction and a warm performance by PEGGY WOOD as Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi. Miss Wood makes up for the lack of animation in Elana Eden's role.Summing up: Handsomely produced, it's an interesting tale told smoothly without a lot of pomp and circumstance that usually accompanies these sort of Biblical tales. And Franz Waxman's music is stirring.

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MARIO GAUCI

After having missed out on it several times on Italian TV, I've managed to catch up with this - as it turned out - underrated Biblical epic via Fox's pleasing DVD edition. It's a typically lavish production with a nice Franz Waxman score and a decent cast: unknown Elana Eden makes for a convincing heroine; Tom Tryon is the leading man during the first half (until he is killed off), with Stuart Whitman taking over in the second part of the narrative; Peggy Wood is a dignified Noemi; and Jeff Morrow delivers an amusing performance as a perennially drunk Jewish merchant and Eden's suitor.Not knowing much about the Biblical story, the lengthy expository events - akin to the similarly irrelevant ones (of the young Moses in Egypt) depicted in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956) - were a welcome addition; as a matter of fact, Viveca Lindfors - a strong presence during these early stages - disappears altogether once the scene shifts to Judea! Typical of most epics of the time, the film feels overlong and could do with some trimming - especially in its more reverent second half - but it's one I wouldn't mind owning on DVD, especially if Fox would consider releasing a collection of their Biblical epics (comprising as well David AND BATSHEBA [1951], THE ROBE [1953], DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS [1954] and THE BIBLE...IN THE BEGINNING [1966]).

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