Abraham

Agree with everyone that we need more faith-based content in America and the world.

The world is starving for positive messages to give people hope of eternal life. Abraham was the way to the Lord. His faith was unparalleled and miraculous from sacrificing his son to obeying the Lord.

I love how he tried to talk to God before Sodom's destruction.

ABRAHAM, a TV film made in 1993, seeks to condense much of the story of the Book of Genesis, most of it involving the character of Abraham and his efforts to secure passage to the promised land where he will become the founder of a new people.

Unlike many television films, this one has strong production values, not least in the outstanding Moroccan locations (representative of the Middle East). Truly, this is a film in which the landscape is a character in itself, and the sun-scorched locales are really something.

Richard Harris delivers a grand old turn as the put-upon Abraham, tasked with undergoing much hardship and challenge by the Creator. Although the film is episodic in nature, going through much familiar ground (the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the sacrifice of the child, the journey to Egypt) the reason it works so well is because it creates identifiable and realistic characters, not just figures lifted from the page.

Therefore Barbara Hershey's Sarah becomes a petulant and rather selfish character; Maximilian Schell's Pharaoh is a vain and pompous monster; and Carolina Rosi and Gottfried John give the best performances, really stealing their scenes with their emotional turns. Be warned, this is a long - 3 hour - production, and slow-moving in parts, but it does the job well.

At last, someone who knows and loves the Bible stories and tells them with accuracy and feeling. I have seen most of the movies from this series and have found that all of them were moving and at least 80% accurate. It has caused me to look the stories up again to refresh my memory. Richard Harris was a master of his art and brings Abraham to life as no other could have done. I recommend this movie both to those who have read these stories and know them by heart as well as to those who are just finding them for the first time. This movie and in fact all of those in this series bring about a thirst to know more and to find out more about God.

Richard Harris does a fine job of portraying the old testament prophet, Abraham, a man who hears God tell him to take his people and leave the unholy land of Ur of the Chaldees. This takes the group on a journey of many hardships before finally coming to the place God had in mind. The film did not follow the words of the Holy Bible right down the line, but the production was well done just the same; and the locales filmed, if not in the mid-east, certainly looked authentic.

This is the story of the life of Abraham as told in the narrative of the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible revolving around the themes of posterity and land. The Old Testament story of Abraham and the trials he endures and his sufferings throughout a long way. He is said to have been called by God to leave the house of his father Terah and settle in the land of Canaan, which God now promises to Abraham and his progeny. This promise is subsequently inherited by Isaac, Abraham's son, by his wife Sarah, while Isaac's half-brother Ishmael is also promised that he will be the founder of a great nation. Abraham purchases a tomb (the Cave of the Patriarchs) at Hebron to be Sarah's grave, thus establishing his right to the land; and, in the second generation, his heir Isaac is married to a woman from his own kin to earn his parents' approval. Abraham later marries Keturah and has six more sons; but, on his death, when he is buried beside Sarah, it is Isaac who receives "all Abraham's goods" while the other sons receive only "gifts". Most scholars view the patriarchal age, along with the Exodus and the period of the biblical judges, as a late literary construct that does not relate to any particular historical era, and after a century of exhaustive archaeological investigation, no evidence has been found for a historical Abraham. It is largely concluded that the Torah, the series of books that includes Genesis, was composed during the early Persian period, c. 500 BC, as a result of tensions between Jewish landowners who had stayed in Judah during the Babylonian captivity and traced their right to the land through their "father Abraham", and the returning exiles who based their counterclaim on Moses and the Exodus tradition of the Israelites. Furthermore , dealing with Sarah (Barbara Hershey), Lot (Andrea Prodan) , Lot's Wife (Ferraro), Terah (Vittorio Gassman) Abraham's father, Eliezer (Gottfried John), Mekhizedek (Paolo Bonacelli), Sodomah and Gomorra destruction , and three such Heavenly Messengers appeared in the course of events along with Abraham, his father Sarah his slave Hagar (Carolina Rosi) and sons Isaac and Ismael. There was a severe famine in the land of Canaan, so that Abram and Lot and their households traveled to Egypt. On the way Abraham told Sarai to say that she was his sister, so that the Egyptians would not kill him. When they entered Egypt, the Pharaoh's officials praised Sarai's beauty to Pharaoh (Maximilian Schell), and they took her into the palace and gave Abram goods in exchange. God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with plagues, which led Pharaoh to try to find out what was wrong. Upon discovering that Sarai was a married woman, Pharaoh demanded that Abram and Sarai leave Egypt. And including the episode of the three such Heavenly Messengers who appeared in the course of events which befell Abraham and Sarah.

Abraham's epic life through many trials and tribulations he strengthens his faith. It covers various Biblical episodes about Abraham's life, at beginning he's a tribal leader who denies all the local deities and finds the true God. Well played by Richard Harris as the mystic who spoke personally with God, a leader of men, a builder of nations, a pioneer and a warrior and Sarah adequately performed by Barbara Hershey. At the time she conceived her first child, the event being forecast by an Angel of the Lord. This enjoyable Biblical treatment contains emotion , religious feeling , human touch and grandeur events. Moderately attractive but ponderous , to say at least , and overlong, though really instructive.

It contains an evocative and sensitive soundtrack y Marco Frisina, being coordinator and consultant musical the great Ennio Morricone. As well as colorful and brilliante cinematography by Raffaele de Mertes. This is Italian-made, lavishly produced by the RAI, Quinta Communications, Lux Vide and an American company. This luxuriously mounted production was well directed by Joseph Sargent. Craftsman Sargent directed as TV as cinema films with enjoyable results. Joseph made all kinds of genres , such as Comedy : ¨Coast to coast¨, ¨Tribes¨; Court-room drama : ¨Never forget¨ ; Sports : ¨Golden girl¨ ; Sci-Fi: ¨Colossus the forbidden Project¨ ; Biography : ¨MacArthur¨ , ¨Abraham¨, ¨Manions of America¨, ¨Mandela and Klerk¨ , ¨Arturo Sandoval story¨ , ¨WWII when lions roared¨; Terror : ¨Nightmares¨, ¨Jaws, the revenge¨ ; Drama : ¨The incident¨, ¨A lesson before dying¨ , ¨Passion Flower¨ ; Novels adaptation : ¨Dostoevsky's Crime and punishment¨ ; Western : ¨Streets of Laredo¨ , and action ¨while lightning¨. Äbraham¨ Rating : 7/10 . Better than average . Worthwhile watching.