La terre promise

I see a lot of biblical type movies and I must say this is one of the better ones. It takes a humanist view of the stories. The fact that an apple is not used in the Adam and Eve scene should not detract from understanding the story itself. If anyone wants to understand the Old testament stories such as Jacob and Esau and know nothing about it then I would strongly suggest that this version is the better of what is currently available as far as commercial movies are concerned.

The acting is first rate. I do agree that the effects are cheesy but the story, plots an acting convey the messages within the bible well.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to know about the popular stories of the Old Testament and have no prior knowledge of them.

"In the Beginning" is a movie(mini) that takes us through the five first books in the Bible. You can expect some visual effects, and average acting.

I did not enjoy the movie, but I didn't either hate it, so watch it once, and let go with that. I rate it 5/10.

Enjoyable Biblical stories from the books of Genesis and Exodus , from creation to commandments , man's greatest journey starts here . It includes the exciting tales of Abraham , Issac , Jacob , Joseph , Moiseh , among others . Epic TV miniseries formed by two parts , packing known actors , great production design and spectacular scenes . It begins with with Abraham's devotion , well played by Martin Landau , and his long journey to the promised land . Abraham (Martin Landau) tells his tribe the history of the Genesis : covering the world creation , Garden of Eden , Adam (Ramamurthy) , Eve (Terri Seymour) , Caín, Abel , Noah , the grand universal flood and anything else . Abraham married Sarah (Jacqueline Bisset) , they will have not children , then Abraham's slave , Agar (Sara Carver) , had a son from Abraham called Ismael . Later on , a son was born from an elderly Sarah : Isaac . After that, Abraham is ordered by God to sacrifice his son Isaac . It goes with Issac (Sean Pertwee) who married Rebeccah (Rachael Stirling as Young Rebeccah and Diana Rigg as Mature Rebeccah) , they had two sons Jacob (Frederick Weller) , and Esau (Grainger) . Shortly after , Jacob posing as Esau is blessed by Isaac as his successor .

Subsequently , in the second part is treated the Bíblical story of Joseph's betrayal , who is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers . Joseph (Eddie Cibrian) is sold to Pothiphar, (Steven Berkoff) , one day is seduced by his tempting wife , (Amanda Donohue) , and Joseph is locked . In prison he prophetizes the future by interpreting dark dreams . He is called by Pharaoh Ramses I , (Christopher Lee) , and he describes the famous dreams about seven fat cows , and seven thin cows , that is why after 7 years of plenty of harvest , Egypt will suffer 7 years of starvation . Convinced Pharaoh appointed Joseph as the main chancellor . Later on , the series concerns Moses , (Bill Campbell) , leading Jews out of Egypt . He was son of a Jewish slave and abandoned on a based over river Nile , being picked up by an Egyptian princess . He becomes an Egyptian prince ; when his Hebrew origin is revealed , he flees but he returns Egypt along with his brother Aaron , (David Threlfall) , getting freedom for the Jews . Moíses faces off Pharaon Ramses II , (Art Malik) , and Happatezoah, Pharaoh's Magician (Victor Spinetti) , with the known consequences , plagues, river of blood , mosquitos , death of Egyptian children , among others . Then Pharaoh seeks vengeance ....Moiseh as liberador Jews leads his people through the sunny desert and finally climbs the Mount Sinai , bringing the Holy Tablets . Meanwhile , Jewish people worshipping the golden calf.

Professionally made Bíblical production dealing with relevant epic deeds in the Old testament . It is a luxuriously mounted and well intentioned production that gives an feeling of religious spectacle . The series was well directed by Kevin Connor . Kevin is an expert filmmaker usually for TV and ocasionally for cinema . He has shot various biography movies as Marco Polo, BlackBeard , Mary mother of Jesus, Mother Teresa and Elizabeth Taylor story . Kevin Connor made in similar style various adventure movies , such as : ¨The land that time forgot (1975)¨, ¨Warlord of Atlantis¨ (76) , and ¨The people that time forgot (77)¨.

This is another of those well-intentioned Biblical TV-movies that comes across as a mixture of a Sunday School lesson and Cliff Notes for the Bible. A decent cast is wasted in superficial summaries, and the FX are simply cheesy. Instead of trying to tell everything from Creation to the Chosen People arriving in the Promised Land in two two-hour segments (with a total story time of less than three hours), it might have been better to focus more on one or two stories at most.

As typical, the Christianised version tried to 'rationalise' the Biblical story. For example, the parting of the Red Sea is described in the Bible that the Children of Israel travelled on 'dry land' not mud. Aaron's staff swallowed the other staffs - the fact that the snake swallowed other snakes would not have been frightening. Moses and Aaron were 80 and 83 respectively, not 30 & 40. Moses did not age - the final section of Deuteronomy testifies to this. However, these are details. But skipping the revelation at Mount Sinai - that was sacreligious. This is the central event that has shaped the Children of Israel (read Jews) for more than three millenia. This is what separates montheistic Judaism from all other religions - the direct communication between God and two million people. All other religions started with a single charismatic person infusing belief in others. Judaism is based upon the witnessing of the diving revelation by the entire nation. Without this event, what was so bad about the Golden Calf? (Incidentally, the reason why Aaron acquiesed is that his nephew was killed when he protested and that Aaron procrastinated rather than see more bloodshed.) Also, no mention is made of the Biblical reason why the Children of Israel stayed in the desert for 40 years - the spies who betrayed them. Moses was not allowed into the land of Israel because of his miscontruing the command to grant water from the rock (in the final year of wandering after the death of Miriam). I agree with another reader that it's better to focus on a specific event, or dedicate the appropriate amount of time - 10+ hours - to really telling the story, even using the plain text of the Bible. Here we have a disjointed story, poor visual FX, bad makeup (Moses' beard was laughable) and villains who the audience were begged to sympathise with (Rameses II was a typical despot who only let the Israelites go because he was a firstborn and he thought he would die.) My rating - 1 out 5 - at least they got most of the names right.