ma-cortes Exciting Biblical story with rousing battles , intense drama , love and hatred , being some moments proceeded in slow moving pace . The film focuses the epic David's epic life (1010-970 B.C.) , retelling his complicated family relationship , rebellion his son Absalom , and generally tackling the intricacies of his love story with Bathsheba. The movie takes place in the thirty-nine year period between 961 and 1000 B.C. , David , (Richard Gere portrayed him from ages as young as twenty-three to as old as seventy years), who had five wives , is a very human figure who is recorded in the Bible (Samuel, Books 1 and 2) , conqueror Jerusalen and author of the Psalms . King Saul of Israel is jealous of the fame and adoration of David, who long ago slew Goliath and brought victory to Saul's armies . It tells from the prophet Samuel (Dennis Quilley) appointed him , when after in his kingdom Saul (Edward Woodward , second of three films he made with Bruce Beresford) and his son Jonathan (Laff) were vanquished by Philistines . When Saul was murdered by a blade slashed himself, David claimed his reign by right of his marriage to Saul's daughter , Michal (Cherie Lunghi) . The continued threat and domination of invaders countries forced the Jewish tribes uniting under a strong king : David . He's specially recorded his acquisition of his favorite spouse , Bathsheba (Alice Krige), though he had a harem, too . After King David sees the beautiful Bathsheba bathing from the palace roof, he enters into an adulterous affair which has tragic consequences for his family and Israel . The new wife was accomplished by sending her husband named Uria the Hitita , a warrior serving as mercenary , into way in war . He is attracted to Bathsheba, the wife of one of his soldiers who is more devoted to army duty than to his wife . David & Bathsheba succumb to their feelings . Their affair, her resulting pregnancy, & David's resolve to have her husband killed so Bathsheba will be free to marry, bring the wrath of God upon the kingdom . David must rediscover his faith in God in order to save his kingdom from drought & famine, & himself from his many sins . His throne was marred by the habitual dynastic fights between his sons , Absalom (Jean Marc Bar) killed Ammon and after rebelled and then was murdered . There are developed various events about David-life , such as the arrival in Jerusalen the Ark of the Covenant with holy qualities ; David playing harp , in fact , David had entered Saul's household as a sort of musical therapist , the Hebrew politics intrigues and pitting against the Old Testament wrath of the Prophet Nathan (Nial Buggy) and , of course, David- Goliath (George Eastman or Luigi Montefiori) fighting is also seen , defeating with a throwing wave a ten-foot-tall Philistine giant . Finally , Absalom rebellion and killing Ammon, succeeded Salomon , son of Bathseba, he inherited the reign at David'death and became himself a major king of Israel , building the famous temple of Salomon where held the Ark . David and Salomon were the two great kings of Israel .This Biblical epic contains good set decoration and art direction but some moments being a little boring that it makes stately pace . The movie gets a colorful cinematography by Donald McAlpine and evocative music score by Carl Davis. The motion picture was professionally directed by Australian director Bruce Beresford in his second American Hollywood movie whose first picture stateside had been Tender mercies. He's a good director with success (Breaker Morant) in Outback . Since the 80s , he has worked mainly in Hollywood and far away places (Mister Johnson , Black robe) with hits (Double jeopardy , Crimes of the heart, Tender mercies) and misfires (Silent fall, Her alibi , King David) ; however his own film-making has been overlooked . Although a number of actors have been prized in his movies, he has obtained too many flops . . Other films about this Biblic king are the following : ¨David and Bathsheba¨ (1951) by Henry King with Susan Hayward , Gregory Peck and Kieron Moore ; ¨David and Goliat¨ by Ferdinado Baldi with with Orson Welles as King Saul , Ivo Payer as David and Edward Hilton as Prophet Samuel ; ¨A Story of David¨ (1961) with Jeff Chandler , Basil Sidney and Donald Pleasence . And ¨David¨ (1997) TV by Robert Markowitz with Nathaniel Parker as David , Jonathan Pryce as Saul , Leonard Nimoy as Samuel , Sheryl Lee as Bathsheba and Ben Daniels as Jonathan

notfragileonline Sorry! This movie is NOT biblically accurate! Most bible movies are not, and this is a fine example. I could site dozens of incidents, but let's just suffice it to say in the movie David threw 3 stones at Goliath until he hit him, in the bible it was one... the killing of the priests of Nob's location was all wrong in the movie... and dozens of other inaccuracies lace this otherwise good movie with sheer scriptural error.Nevertheless, it is well produced and the realistic feel is very good. However, changing the story was enough for me to give it a "generous" three stars.If you like this movie, I'd encourage you to read the original book (1& 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles, 1 Kings). It's a much better (and true) story!

chrismcreynolds The only defense anyone can claim for this project is that it was the first contemporary Biblical film using US actors and contriving to appeal to the broadest possible range (to sell tickets to). That is the only reason I can see for the awful hacks made to the authentic story that has since been done at least once with a far superior script and production in the mid 90s. It was produced with lessor known actors and the focus was instead on authenticity and I have no doubt in the end that far more people have paid to see the latter film in the theater or through video sales. I don't recall if it is called "King David" in the main title or simply "David" with a secondary title more specifically indicating the Biblical story.I bought this film some time in the late 80s, when it was the only video I could find related to any Biblical story, other than "The Ten Commandments" and "Jesus of Nazareth" both of which are truly excellent films. Now that I have the newer version of David, I can't see any reason to take up any more shelf space, even though I already wasted my money on it and time watching it. That is how bad it is. I would feel guilty in playing it now that at least one far superior version in available the fate of this video will be that it is the sole video I have ever thrown in the garbage after determining it a liability with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

MartinHafer Who was the audience for this film?! This is one case where I honestly wonder if the people associated with this film were either mentally imbalanced or using drugs! There is no other explanation for why you would make a Bible story come alive and infuse it with nudity! Think about it--die-hard Christians certainly won't come to the movie or would be offended by the nudity and Atheists are hardly the type people who frequent Bible-themed movies. And, Agnostics probably just won't care one way or the other. So, apart from the actors' friends and family, just who is the intended audience? Now I am NOT saying the story of David should have been sanitized--after all, murder and adultery are part of the Biblical account. You really can't talk about David without Bathsheba in this film,...but being that explicit?! The people making this film must have been out of their minds. The public apparently thought so, as this was one of Richard Gere's few box office flops.