Abraham

Back in the 1990s, TNT did a series of adaptations of Old Testament stories. This was the first one, and despite some slight flaws, it was a decent start.

Abraham adapts the Genesis story of an elderly man who is promised at the age of 75 that he will one day have a son. We further see the faithfulness that he endures for over 25 years, in which he waits for that child, even though he also gains a child from one of his servants.

Abraham is played by Richard Harris, who was Dumbledore in the first Harry Potter movie. He displays great talent as the Father of Many Nations. (This isn't his first Genesis film either, he played Cain in The Bible: In The Beginning- one of my Top 10 favoerite Biblical movies.)

His co-star, Barbara Hershey, does a great job as Sarah- 5 years after playing Mary Magdelene in the controversial Scorsese movie, The Last Temptation of Christ.

The other actors aren't as famous as them, but did fine in their roles too. The cinematography is also well done for a TV movie.

My biggest concern with Biblical films is if they are accurate to the story. With the exception of Last Temptation, I don't really care for Biblical films that change the story- as it is a sin to add or take away from the text. (Deuteronomy 4:2.)

Abraham takes many events from Genesis and follows them well, and many scenes were done accurately- such as the near sacrifice of Issac and Abraham pleading to spare Sodom and Gommarah should any righteous people be in the cities.

This applies to most of the movie. However, some scenes were added and expanded on for context and runtime. Some of it made sense- in one scene, Abraham fears that a king will kill him to take Sarah as his own wife, so he lies and says that she is his sister.

The movie expands on Sarah living in the king's palace for a while, and I understand that for a movie, but it went on a little longer than it really needed to.

The movie also opens with some hardship that Abraham went through with a ruler, and that's not very Biblical, or at least not enough to spend 10 or so minutes on.

These additions are also a little annoying because the movie goes on for a few minutes past 3 hours, and without them the movie could have been closer to 2 hours. Still, for what is accurate, it's worth sitting through to get to the actual Scriptural parts.

If you enjoy Biblical movies like I do, I would suggest seeing this one. Its screenplay is not perfect, but it has enough accuracy for me to recommend it. On the whole, Abraham is a faithful adaptation of a man who was faithful to 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.

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.

This is an engaging movie, however, it is not among the best Biblical adaptations. It does well in holding true to scripture with some'creative license' for areas that are vague.

The film really brings us to a greater place of understanding the reality of what took place back then. As I stated in another review of a Biblical film - One of the mysteries of the Bible is in the manner which people spoke and communicated in various scenarios. Did the person express agitation or anger when he/she said this/that? Or were they always full of patience and grace? Were they serious in appearance, or did they smile often? Each movie and play we view that is an adaptation is a creation of another persons thought of how things were possibly said and done. The creator of this film made most things believable.

I really appreciated how this film made Hagar's story prominent. Rather than thinking of her as merely a disobedient servant, or a jealous, conniving woman, we come to understand the depths of the role and status that she had to endure in this life. Slaves at that time were rarely allowed to marry or have children at all. Their owners were their lives. She got just a taste of what it would be like to have a husband and a family - a life. A film that can bring the life out of an ancient book is worth paying attention to. I would recommend this.