As I wrote in regard to a considerably smaller John Huston movie, he generally did better with adaptations of good books than with canonical masterpieces. The obvious response to his illustration of the first 22 chapters of Genesis, released with the over-reaching title "The Bible" (1966), was made by Naphtalia: "the book's better than the movie." Especially in that the part of the canonical "Good Book" that is adopted to the screen has many of the most dramatic stories in the whole of the much longer book: the creation, the Garden of Eden, the forbidden fruit, the original fratricide, the Tower of Babel, Noah's ark, the destruction of Sodom, the salinification of Lot's wife, and the relationships of Abraham.

That's a lot of stories for one movie, even one that runs 174 minutes. Most of the stories are told perfunctorily... and with little connecting tissue (though Isaac does reel off a list of begats late in the movie), so that the movie seems more episodic than the book. The Dies Irae of the original text, who may be viewed as moving mysteriously, but sure seems to be petty, is not shown, but is recurrently heard (the voice being John Huston's, including when John Huston is playing Noah and Noah is commanded by John Huston's Jehovah voice to build an ark), and his auditors are struck by brighter light. And there is also Peter O'Toole playing three angels (or whatever you want to call the emissaries visiting Abraham and Lot) with steely blue eyes.

Adam is also Aryan blond (Michael Parks), although Eve (Ulla Bergryd), Cain (Richard Harris), Nimrod (Stephen Boyd) and Ishmael (Luciano Conversi) are darker-haired and darker-skinned (more Semitic, I'd venture to decode). (OK, so is the raven-tressed Ava Gardner as Sarah, but I'm still suspicious of the light/dark role assignments in the movie.)

The creation has John Huston reciting with shots from Iceland and the Galapagos. Scenes were shot in many places in addition to the
Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Studios outside Rome, including Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Sardinia, and Sicily (many islands but no shots of the sea after the separation of land from the waters). There are some impressive panoramic shots. And a fairly elaborate Tower of Babel and ark. The photography of Adam and Eve before they discover nakedness and shame is very shamefaced, though I think that back in 1966 this is the first movie in which I saw naked people on screen.

The visuals are often quite unabysmal. The dialogue and acting, however, are frequently abysmal and make one long for the vulgarity of Cecil B. deMille Biblical epics. Especially the Cain and Abel vignettes and the Tower of Babel sequence seem more like dioramas than dramas. And the pillar of salt is singularly unimpressive in a movie that must have had a fairly substantial budget (unlike, say, Pasolini's "Medea," where one does not expect much in the way of special effects).

The most extended but not very compelling section involves Abraham (played by George C. Scott) --Abraham and his beloved but barren wife Sarah (Ava Gardner turning in the one impressive performance in the whole long movie), Abraham and Sarah's Egyptian servant Hagar (Zoe Sallis), Abraham and the messengers from Jehovah (Peter O'Toole in triplicate), Abraham and his brother Lot (Gabriele Ferzetti), Abraham and his illegitimate and legitimate sons (Luciano Conversi and Alberto Lucantoni), Abraham and Jehovah (the voice of John Huston and heightened lightning). This unusual way of listing the characters reflects the disconnected way the stories involving Abraham that recapitulates the disconnected stories throughout the movie. There is a scene in which Sarah, Isaac, Hagar, and Ishmael are all present--though Hagar and Ishmael are never shown in the same frame as Sarah and Isaac. And there are several short scenes of Hagar baiting Sarah. Although the rivalry of the mothers on behalf of their sons is clear, the various other aspects of Abraham's life are not integrated. The movie ends with the interrupted sacrifice of Isaac, but even this intensely dramatic material is anticlimactic in the movie. (If there is a climax, it is the muted one in which Huston's voiceover reports that the Lord commanded Abraham to cast out Hagar and Ishmael as Sarah begged him (to no avail) to do.) George C. Scott was certainly a compelling screen presence in many roles (including "Patton"), but seemed to be going through the motions as the patriarch Abraham, the most crucial and longest in-view role in the movie. He has some physical gravitas, but although he looks the part, Scott exudes no passion in any direction. Perhaps he inhibited himself out of reverence, but I wish he'd have cut loose (and like, you know, acted?).

I guess I have registered my view that the very literalist illustration of the greatest hits from Genesis is not very dramatically compelling. It is frequently sloppy in construction (especially the Cain and Abel vignette): sometimes it looks good, sometimes its special effects look very cheesy. The only (intentional) comic relief is afforded by the cutesy Noah and the pairs of animals streaming onto his ark. (Huston is supposed to have said that he cast himself as Noah because the animals responded well to his direction; I don't know if he was making a sarcastic contrast to the human players, or how this relates to making his voice the voice of Jehovah! and, confusingly, also the serpent in the Garden of Evil (counterfeiting Jehovah's voice?))

Although Huston began as a script writer and is all over the movie, he is not one of the four scriptwriters credited (to be blamed?), the most prominent of whom was Christopher Fry (who had already flailed around the Crucifixion with the screenplay for "Barabbas"). The frequently impressive cinematography was credited to Giuseppe Rotunno who shot "Rocco and his Brothers", "The Leopard" and other movies for Luchino Visconti, "Amarcord" and "Satyricon" and other movies for Federico Fellini (plus "All That Jazz" for Bob Fosse, "Popeye" for Robert Altman, "Regarding Henry" for Woody Allen, etc.--no slouch behind the camera!)  

The blame for the music can be shared between Toshiro Mayuzumi (Tokyo Olympiad, The Pornograhers) who wrote it and John Huston who used it and probably indicated what he wanted (including the whimsical music for his own cutesy appearances on screen as Noah). Huston musta been pleased with it, since he had Mayuzumi score his very underappreciated masterpiece "Reflections in a Golden Eye," and contibute (uncredited work) to the somewhat underappreciated, brutal "Kremlin Letter."


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This is a contribution to Inthelilypond's book or movie writeoff.




Recommended:
No

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8