König David

It's biblically accurate. It has a gritty and realistic feel. Unlike the great De Mille films, the location and sets give it that stone age look that the Judea of that era would look and feel like.

Edward Woodward's performance as Saul is strong. His ability to contort and rant makes a very believable fit of dementia. The only person I think that could have played that better would be Dennis Hopper. Who knows, maybe someone will create another biblical film with him as King Saul.

This is a very unsung, and underrated film. Richard Gere's performance was nothing short of stunning.

The giant Goliath was real, menacing and evil. Bathsehba was a real-world, believable stunning beauty-natural. I wish there were more films of this quality when it comes to biblical stories.

Even Woodard's fascinating characterization of Saul cannot save this drab biblical epic about the King of Israel who took on Goliath. Gere is way out here as David, but he makes an effort. Beresford tries too hard to copy Lean or Kubrick in the battle scenes. It's almost too obvious.

This is one unjustly maligned film. For the most part, the acting is well above average. Edward Woodward's love/hate relationship (enfasis on the hate) with David comes across excelently. Richard Gere does an adequate job. I can't stand his style on most films that I have seen him but here he is just fine. The Jonathan character is heroic and handsome, while the actor who portrays the prophet Nathan does as best a job as anyone could do. Some minor problems/irritations, the location of Jerusalem should have been a more scenic and lush one, not desert-like. Jerusalem might be semi-desert today but 3,000 years ago it was a beautiful land flowing with milk and honey. Highlights include David's dance before the Ark of the Covenant, the battle scene versus the Phillistines where King Saul is killed with his sons (Mel Gibson must have seen it) is Braveheart light, but realistic nonetheless. There are many more, I just wish it could have been longer due to them skipping a whole part of his later life all the way up to his deathbed. One of the better Biblical adaptations nonetheless.

Beautifully if somewhat glacially shot in Italy but sorely missing Miklos Rosza's music. Bruce Beresford rolled up his sleeves and got stuck into this throwback to the sort of thing that DeMille had made so profitably for Paramount during the twenties & thirties; but who this time took a bath to the tune of $2,500,000 on their original $22 million investment in this implausible project that was probably slightly ahead of it's time, five years before the huge success of 'Gladiator' made ancient history sexy again.

Described by David Thomson as "a genuine eccentricity", it's very much of it's time, including a spot of slow motion swordplay, gorier violence than in the fifties and the scruffy eighties beards and shaggy mullets worn by the men as they address each other in hushed tones.

I was really impressed by how well this story followed the bible exactly. How Solomon annointed David to be King while Saul was still on the throne, and how David played the Lyre for Saul, including the 23rd Psalm. The story was slow, but impressive. I thought the movie was well acted, for the type of story it was. I could actually imagine that the actors protraying the persons of the bible were the actual people. That is something!