Product Description

The story of Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, and Noah as told by an old nomad shepherd.
Genre: Religion
Rating: NR
Release Date: 21-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56622 in DVD
• Brand: OLMI,ERNANO
• Released on: 2000-09-26
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 91 minutes

Amazon.com
This film based on the Bible's book of Genesis is something akin to a dramatic reading with visuals. The text of Genesis is read by a narrator, who at times appears as an elderly desert nomad telling the story to a small boy and other members of their extended Bedouin family. These presentations make historical sense, of course, as the biblical tales were passed along as oral history for generations. During the story of the creation of the heaven and the earth, the visuals tend toward nature photography alternated with scenes of the venerable storyteller, but during later episodes, actors play some of the characters from the Bible. A story of Adam and Eve is dramatized in a film montage, as are the stories of Cain and Abel. More inventive cinematography, utilizing modern clips of warfare and destruction, are used to illustrate some Old Testament pronouncements about the evils practiced by mankind. Noah's instruction to build the ark is portrayed, and in an elaborate segment, the building of the ark and its use during the great flood is shown. This film may not provide any new insights into the stories of Genesis, but the dramatizations coupled with the readings from the text are often beautifully filmed, and those interested in experiencing the visual atmosphere of the biblical stories will enjoy the presentation. --Robert J. McNamara

Customer Reviews

I'm disappointed too!
Yes, I was disappointed in this video, and I regret purchasing it. I also expected more of it, having enjoyed very much previous releases like Esther, Jeremiah, and Solomon. Much of my disappointment was in discovering that most of it was not a dramatization; the scenes being viewed often did not relate to the story being told, and this reduces the video's usefulness as a teaching tool for Bible study. I differ with some previous reviewers in that I felt there was not enough concern for Biblical accuracy in some spots, notably in the story of the flood. Noah's ark as pictured did not appear to be of the dimensions or shape clearly described in Genesis 6:14-16. Genesis 7:13 lists 8 persons who entered the ark; the grandchildren of Noah were not born until after they left the ark when the flood had abated. In the movie, there appears to be a small crowd getting on board the ark, including a lot of children. And all those leaks in the roof of the ark that could be seen constantly dripping do not make sense at all: if Noah was a good enough builder to build a vessel that was seaworthy and did not leak below the water line, why is there any reason to think he was incapable of building its roof to not leak? After all, he followed God's instructions ("according to all that God commanded him, so did he" Gen. 6:22), applying tar both inside and outside the ark (Gen. 6:14). These scenes do not respect the details of the story as given in the book of Genesis. What is the point of claiming to make a movie based on the Bible, and then not basing it on the Bible?

Outstanding meditation on the first 9 chapters of the Bible
Very personal presentation of the biblical account of the creation and the flood by Ermanno Olmi, the acclaimed director of "The Tree of Wooden Clogs." Boring only for those who have no poetic sense whatever! The above average artistic refinement (from the visuals -stunning not to say more- to the very choice of the music) and spiritual depths of the movie will disconcert some. But the movie is a masterpiece. Slow? Yes. Meditative? Yes. Is it a sin? No. It's a hommage. And what a hommage! The spectator is called to make the biblical account his own. Comparing that movie with other biblical stories on characters such as Solomon, Esther or Jeremiah misses the point. Any movie director that would treat the first chapters of Genesis like just another story (although extraordinary) would fail to do justive to its true nature.

The Book of Genesis is a spiritual monument -not a historical book, like the Book of Samuel or the Book of Kings. It doesn't mean nothing of it happened. It did happen. Creation is part of history. But the biblical author here does not provide us so much with a word for word description of how things happened than help us understand God's loving providence at work in His creation. Not only does John Huston's litteral treatment of Eve handing the apple over to Adam (in "The Bible," his 1996 version of the Book of Genesis) add nothing to the text. It is purely anecdotic. It has nothing to do with us. The existential (and spiritual) tragedy of sin is totally eclipsed. No action movie will ever capture what goes on deep within man's heart (and soul) each time man turns his back on the one who made him.

In other words, the purpose of the biblical creation account is not scientific (HOW the world was made) but theological (WHY the world was made.) God made the world out of love. The world is beautiful because, as St John himself wrote, "God is love." Ermanno Olmi's movie does justice to the biblical account precisely because it reveals to us something of the primeval beauty of the world as it came out from the hands of its creator. Anyone dismayed by the hyperkinetic emptiness of summertime film spectacles will find the spiritual antidote in this quiet but colorful, richly textured movie.

The Creation and Noah`s Ark
Hi I`ve just saw this production of Genesis . I am sorry but I
think that Lux Vide could have done a better production of the
creation and the flood . I could not understand who the Narator
was . What had the Beginning and that man`s life had to do with
each other . The other productions like Solomon,Abraham,Esther
Jesus were much better