The Story of David

one of the first of the tv "bible" movies, the story of david is one of the finest of its genre.

the cast, along with the direction and story line, make it a must see.

subsequent movies like "king david" pale in comparison.

if movies of this kind suit your taste, then make this on part of your collection.

This depiction of the life of King David is really live and down in heart.I liked the way God's hebrew name,Yahweh, was used through out the picture even though it would of been better if it would of been pronounced in English "Jehovah" like in "Solomon and Sheba(1959)", "The Story of Ruth", & "Sodom and Gomorrah". Anthony Quayle's performance of a jealous Saul was superb and Jane Seymour was totally sexy and breathtaking as King David's neighbor and future wife Bathsheba.Michaelangelo's representation of David was an original idea. My hat goes off to the producers and to Keith Michell.Anybody who wants to see this movie should also see "King David(1985)"

This is a very accurate portrayal of David from teen years to his death. I could follow along in the Bible with the movie. I like how they use God's name in Hebrew Yahweh throughout. It was filmed in Israel so the setting was real.

So said Anthony Quayle as King Saul as he tells the young shepherd boy David on whom the blessing of the Lord would be granted soon enough and in succession to Saul. The Story Of David is a two part mini-series in which we see first the young David played by Timothy Bottoms and then Keith Michell as the older David.

The Bible really doesn't make it clear just why God got dissatisfied with his first choice of Saul to be King Of Israel. Considering what He later put up with when David took over I'd say Saul got a bad rap. Certainly with what is shown here and in scriptures about his son Jonathan he might have been just the king Israel needed. I liked very much the scene where Anthony Quayle says there are many times he wished God left him a farmer.

David is certainly not reflective or misses being a shepherd. He enjoys being a king and all the perks it provides. Back in the day Keith Michell certainly gathered around him enough women whose palace intrigues gave him a lot of grief. But in that age of polygamy Michell is still looking around and finds what he really likes in his neighbor Uriah the Hittite's bathroom where the lovely Bathsheba gets spotted bathing. Bathsheba is played by Jane Seymour.

The series covers the whole expanse of King David's life from his early days as a singing shepherd boy who took down the trash talking Goliath right up to David on his deathbed. A lot of Israeli players got parts here and it was shot in Israel in the locations where the events occurred.

This is not a Cecil B. DeMille spectacle where everyone is sounding high falutin'. DeMille was fortunate indeed to find Victor Mature and Charlton Heston a pair of actors who made his dialog sound plausible coming from them. No this TV mini-series is a sobering look at the real problem of governance in ancient time. Some of those same problems are with us today. And Anthony Quayle as Saul and Timothy Bottoms/Keith Michell as the younger and older David are shown as all too human.

It is wrong.

Exodus 25:10-21 (NKJV)

The Ark of the Testimony (Ex. 37:1-9) 10 "And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side. 13 And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them. 15 The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you.

17 "You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. 20 And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. 21 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.