Il vecchio testamento

Italian Bible film with Brad Harris

This Italian-French co-production by Gianfranco Parolini, created in 1962, is called "Il vecchio Testamento", i.e. "The Old Testament" in the Italian original. And this title is appropriate, as it is about the events reported in the First and Second Books of Maccabees. The whole thing has nothing to do with Goliath. The German title was probably intended, for marketing reasons, to create a connection to all the other films with ancient muscle men that were so successful at the box office at the time. As is often the case with films of this kind, the filming took place in Yugoslavia.

About 150 B. C. In the 4th century BC, Seleucid rule (one of the Diadochian kingdoms after the death of Alexander the Great) still continues. The Syrians have occupied Jerusalem. The Hebrews defend themselves against this, especially the priest Mattathias and his defensive sons. The energetic Judas Maccabeus (very impressive: Djordje Nenadovic, who was later seen in "Unter Geiern" (1964) and in the first part of "Die Nibelungen" (1966)) particularly stands out. The resistance still fails. The Hebrews have to flee into the desert. Only Simon Maccabee (Brad Harris), the last son, will succeed in recapturing Jerusalem and the Temple. Simon was offended in his family from the start because he advocated peaceful coexistence between Hebrews and Syrians and with the beautiful Diotima (Mara Lane, the enchanting British-Austrian actress was also in Helmut Käutner's beautiful romantic film in 1957 alongside Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz: "Monpti") also has a Syrian bride. Other actors include Franca Parisi (as Miza), Vladimir Leib (once again providing a bit of comic relief as the "funny fat guy") and Jacques Berthier (as the nasty antagonist Apollonius).

In this film, the focus is more on the story to be told. As the main actor, Brad Harris is not the focus as usual, but is just part of a relatively large ensemble. More is also required of him in terms of acting, as he also has to portray self-doubt and hurt caused by rejection by his family. In terms of content, the biblical events are greatly condensed and exaggerated, so that biblical scholars will of course not be satisfied. Nevertheless, this unusual sandal film is worth seeing because it tells an interesting story that is not very well known, but very entertaining.

Totally recommended!

Lousy script, lousily portrayed. Stilted dialog. Not entertaining then, painful to watch now. Certainly not historically accurate, not even of the Maccabees

Here's a treatment of the story of the Maccabees, which Protestants and Jews don't even consider to be part of the Old Testament. But the movie is called the Old Testament, probably for the same reason that one of the Italian actors has been dubbed John Heston and one of the actresses Susan Paget, borrowing the surnames of actors familiar from the 1956 Ten Commandments movie. Nobody seems to have thought-- nor indeed does anyone to this day, it seems-- that the Maccabees have wide commercial appeal. I don't think it's the Maccabees' story that dooms this movie, though. It's the failure to imagine that story in terms of anything but played-out stereotypes, from the supercilious villain and his fat, greedy, obsequious henchman to the Jew and pagan who (like Ben Hur and Messala) must discard their youthful friendship. Stereotyped female parts are also added to the story, out of nowhere, but the distortions don't add up to any serious misrepresentation of history. They just add up to a waste of time.

First off let me begin by saying I really love biblical epics from the US or abroad. But "The Old Testament is a dreadful movie. The movie is not what it appears to be. This film is hardly the Old Testament (one assumes in its entirety), but just a tiny segment. I could talk about the lousy cinematography, the editing, where the shots shift from day to night as each character is speaking, or the odd strained dialog and dubbing, but why bother? I'd never heard of this stinker before, and now I know why. Although it might have some biblical significance, I would have to say avoid this one at all costs. Stick to the "Ten Commandments". Trust me.

Acceptable and middle-budgeted Peplum with the corpulent Brad Harris as Simone Maccabee. The setting of the book is about a century and a half after the conquest of Judea by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, after Alexander's empire has been divided so that Judea was part of the Greek Seleucid Empire . It tells how the Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to suppress the practice of basic Jewish law , resulting in the Maccabean Revolt , a Jewish revolt against Seleucid rule led by Maccabeos Brothers . The Jews of Jerusalem are driven out by their Syrian rulers. They gather their forces, and return to drive out their oppressors. The name Maccabee in Hebrew, means "Hammer" This is properly applied to the first leader of the revolt, Judas, third son of Mattathias, whose attacks were "hammer-like". The name came to be used for his brothers as well, which accounts for the title of the book. The starring of this ¨Biblical¨ and ¨Sword and Sandals movie¨ are Juda (Nenadovic) and Simon (Brad Harris) . Our heroes are pursued by the evil ruler named Apollonio (Jacques Berthier) who govern tyrannically the city . At the beginning Simon is a good friend of the Syrians and is then accused as traitor , later on he takes the just cause and fight for his country , while he falls in love for a Syria girl (Mara Lane) . As Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods. Mattathias killed a Hellenized Jew who had stepped forward to take Mattathias' place in sacrificing to an idol as well as the Greek officer who was sent to enforce the sacrifice . Afterwards, he and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judah.With Faith and Fire, The Armies of God Challenged the World!

Acceptable Biblic Peplum partially based on historical events with ordinary players , functional production design , atmospheric cinematography by Izzareli and evocative musical score by prolific Angelo Francesco Lavagnino. Stars the American Brad Harris , he was a hunk man who made lots of roman epic films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨. Luck's Harris changed when an Italian producer persuaded him to go overseas to star lots of swords and sandals film . Brad was an American bouncing who emigrated Italy and created a true star-system based on pumped-up heroes. He along with Steve Reeves paved the way for others actors to seek their fame and fortune in Italy playing bouncing adventurers . Other stars by the time on this type of movies are Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, Dan Vadis ,Rock Stevens and 'Gordon Scott' who made him more important competence. Nobody, nevertheless, topped Steve Reeves in popularity. Here Brad Harris as Simon, a Macabee rebel who after death his father and brother woo avenge , he is nice though uninspired . Brad Harris began to do stunt work, in the late 50s he traveled to Europe and he soon found himself working in Musclemen epics (Sansone,Goliath against the giants,Fury of Hercules) and he eventually moved into Spaghetti Western and spies . The film is a French/Italian co-production in the Sword and Sandals sub-genre that were largely shot during the 60s in Italy. Mediocre performances though the acting honors go to Jacques Berthier as nasty ruler .

The film is middling directed by Gianfranco Parolini or Frank Kramer. He began directing Musclemen epics as ¨Rocha¨, ¨The Macabeos¨ with Brad Harris and ¨The ten gladiators¨ with Dan Davis and Gianni Rizzo , Parolini's usual actor. After that he continued with ¨commissioner X¨ series with Tony Kendall , fantastic with ¨three supermen¨ and warlike movie as ¨5 per l'Inferno¨ with Gianni Garco (Sartana) and Nick Jordan. His first Western was ¨Johnny West¨ and later on , he directed the ¨Sabata trilogy¨ . It's followed by ¨ Return of Sabata¨ with similar artistic and technician team and ¨Indio Black ¨ .

Partially based on Bible , as The Maccabees book covers the whole of the revolt, from 175 to 134 BC, highlighting how the salvation of the Jewish people in this crisis came through Mattathias' (Carlo Tamberlani) family, particularly his sons, Judas Maccabeus (Nenadovic) , Jonathan Apphus, and Simon Thassi (Brad Harris) , and Simon's son, John Hyrcanus. In the first chapter, Alexander the Great conquers the territory of Judea, only to be eventually succeeded by the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes. After successfully invading the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Antiochus IV captures Jerusalem and removes the sacred objects from the Temple in Jerusalem, slaughtering many Jews. He then imposes a tax and establishes a fortress in Jerusalem.Antiochus then tries to suppress public observance of Jewish laws, in an attempt to secure control over the Jews. In 168 BC, he desecrates the Temple by setting up an "abomination of desolation" (that is, establishing rites of pagan observance in the Temple, or sacrificing an unclean animal on the altar in the Holy of Holies). Antiochus forbids both circumcision and possession of Jewish scriptures on pain of death. He forbids observance of the sabbath and the offering of sacrifices at the Temple. He also requires Jewish leaders to sacrifice to idols. While enforcement may be targeting only Jewish leaders, ordinary Jews were also killed as a warning to others. Hellenization included the construction of gymnasiums in Jerusalem. Among other effects, this discouraged the Jewish rite of circumcision even further, which had already been officially forbidden; a man's state could not be concealed in the gymnasium, where men trained and socialized in the nude. However, 1 Maccabees also insists that there were many Jews who sought out or welcomed the introduction of Greek culture. According to the text, some Jewish men even engaged in foreskin restoration in order to pass as fully Greek.Mattathias calls upon people loyal to the traditions of Israel to oppose the invaders and the Jewish Hellenizers, and his five sons begin a military campaign against them (the Maccabean Revolt). After Mattathias' death about one year later in 166 BCE his son Judah Maccabee led an army of Jewish dissidents to victory over the Seleucid dynasty in guerrilla warfare, which at first was directed against Hellenized Jews, of whom there were many. The Maccabees destroyed Greek altars in the villages, circumcised boys and forced Hellenized Jews into outlawry . There is one complete loss of a thousand Jews (men, women and children) to Antiochus when the Jewish defenders refuse to fight on the Sabbath. The other Jews then reason that, when attacked, they must fight even on the holy day. In 165 BC the Temple is freed and reconsecrated, so that ritual sacrifices may begin again. The festival of Hanukkah is instituted by Judas Maccabeus and his brothers to celebrate this event . Judas seeks an alliance with the Roman Republic to remove the Greeks. He is succeeded by his brother Jonathan, who becomes high priest and also seeks alliance with Rome and confirms alliance with Areus of Sparta . Simon follows them, receiving the double office of high priest and prince of Israel. (Simon and his successors form the Hasmonean dynasty, which is not always considered a valid kingship by the Jews, since they were not of the lineage of David.) Simon leads the people in peace and prosperity, until he is murdered by agents of Ptolemy, son of Abubus, who had been named governor of the region by the Macedonian Greeks. He is succeeded by his son, John Hyrcanus.