Gripping and impressively produced the story of The Bible recently released on the History Channel now comes to home video. The remarkable event that presented the Holy Scriptures aired in 5 two hour episodes to record audiences. Bringing each of the segments to the screen movie style, the episodes held back nothing in the savagery, conflicts, sorrow and historical significance of the events leading to the crucifixion of Christ.
The movie made for cable follows the bible beginning with segment one showing Noah saving his family and live stock in the great flood, Abraham fighting his way to the Promised Land, Moses’ determination to take the Jews out of Egypt, the parting of the red sea and receiving Ten Commandments. The two hour episode surrounds the determination and sacrifice of the Israelites in their passion to be freed from slavery.
In the second segment we find Joshua after 40 years in the wilderness conquering the city of Jericho the only city in his way to the Promised Land, the Israelites fight off the Philistines with the help of Sampson who succumbs to the will of Delilah, David faces Goliath and he builds the Israelite nation erecting God’s temple in Jerusalem. This segment features a lot of realistic hand to hand combat between nations, seduction and power grabbing.
The third event gets into the conquering of Judah where the Jews become enslaved by the Babylonians, the Israelites are freed and they find their way back to Jerusalem where they rebuild the temple, introduction of Mary as the future mother of Jesus, Mary and Joseph’s flight to avoid death, the death decree by Herod following the birth of Jesus, and the baptism of Jesus by John. In this two hour episode a lot is covered during this historical time period.
The fourth segment deals with Jesus as he teaches his disciples, heals the sick, faces off against the Jews in Jerusalem, the disclosure that he is the son of God, the last supper, his betrayal by Judas and his arrest.
The final two hours are the most cringing as they go through all the events leading up to the crucifixion, cruel beatings, denigration and the nailing to the cross. The final hour is devoted to the faith that comes from Jesus’ death, his appearances to his disciples, and the spreading of the holy word.
The presentation of the plight of the Jewish people is brought to the screen by producer Roma Downey with realism. The cringing battles are action packed and bloody, the language gets strong, biblical story close to historical account, costumes and sets realistic and the acting extremely good. It is hard to single out members of the huge cast for their performances, but the bold voice and fine narration by Keith David keeps the presentation interesting and not ever boring. Performances by Francis Magee showing a delusional Saul the first King of the Jews, Diogo Morgado breathing life into a concerned Jesus, Greg Hicks presenting a doubtful Pontius Pilot, Amber Rose Revah playing a remarkable Mary Magdalene, and Joe Wredden showing the tenuous collaboration of Judas all are deserving of tribute.
Direction by three fine movie makers, Crispin Reece (World War II: The Last Heroes), Tony Mitchell (Ancient Egyptians), and Christopher Spencer (Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire) combine their talents to bring the compelling film to the History Channel. Keeping the story as true to The Bible as possible, creating all the action of the battles and the conflicts, the three are to be commended for their depiction of the history behind the Jewish plight and the formation of a new religion in the all encompassing and engrossing saga.
The 4 Disc Blu-ray set has some very good bonus features.
BONUS FEATURES
“The Bible: Genesis” In this short 10 minute introduction on how the project came about you’ll hear from producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett who will take you through the process of bringing the production to the screen.
“The Cast of The Bible” Being chosen as a member of the cast was a major undertaking, and several actors get to talk about their experiences. It also goes into the process of how they found the actor to play Jesus, Diogo Morgado.
“The Bible: Creation” This nearly three quarters of an hour special feature is a very good ‘making of’ that covers a lot of ground. We get insight from the crew including costumes, sets and the directors who made it all possible. This is one feature you will not want to miss.
“Scoring The Bible” This short segment is one of my favorites as you get to hear from Oscar winner Hans Zimmer noted for his scores for The Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Pirates of the Caribbean and vocalist Lisa Gerrard Golden Globe winner for her work on Gladiator. The two have worked together on several projects scoring the music and vocals.
“Believing in Miracles” Taking you to the Moroccan Dessert where the film was shot, we hear from the crew that made it all happen. Even some of the cast gets their comments heard.
“The Bible: Visual Effects” Like most all features in Theaters and on Television, there’s a certain amount of computer graphics and special effects that go into making a film. Here we see how an ancient era was created.
“Mary, Did You Know” Music Video – This is a short video retrospective using footage from the film with the song from the production.
The visual quality played on my HD Television in widescreen 1.78:1 is extremely good and fills the whole screen with no bars top and bottom. Bright and clear there is little distortion. I did find the water sequence in the parting of the Red Sea slightly distorted, but even in the film The Ten Commandments, they had trouble bringing that scene to life. The shooting of the flaming arrows comes across nicely and the battle scenes are exciting to watch.
The sound quality played with DTS-Master Audio 5.1 on the Blu-ray gives all the necessary resonance and clarity possible depending on your home entertainment system. I could hear the dialogue extremely well, background music comes in nicely and the special effects sound gives the feeling of realism. There are a few scenes where crowd noise does overshadow a scene or two, but with your rewind button, it only takes a second to replay.
The 4 Disc set includes all 10 episodes and I enjoyed watching the presentation without interruption from a lot of advertising and being able to control the Blu-ray with my remote. The presentation does have some disturbing sequences so be sure to view the film before showing it to the timid.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good presentation and interpretation by the History Channel.[rating=6]
Specifications and additional film information:
- Cast: Francis Magee, Diogo Morgado, Greg Hicks, Amber Rose Revah and Joe Wredden
- Directed by: Crispin Reece, Tony Mitchell, and Christopher Spencer
- Produced by: Roma Downey, Mark Burnett
- TV Rating: Not Rated
- Genre: History, Religion, Action
- Running Time: 440 Minutes
- Street Date: April 2, 2013
- Original History Channel Release: March 3 through March 31, 2013
- Language: English
- Format: Blu-ray
- Audio: DTS-Master Audio 5.1
- Video: 1080p 1.78:1 Widescreen
- Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
- Number of Discs: 4 Disc Set
- Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
