Product Description

It was the cruelest of times. Under Herod's torturous reign families struggled to survive and yet in the midst of utter turmoil a young woman's faith is put to the test. Join Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) and Joseph (Oscar Isaac) on an incredible journey of hope and discovery. Epic in its scope yet intimate in it's portrayal of this historical family this "wonderful film" (Bill Zwecker Chicago Sun Times) is "a family feature that will be cherished for years to come!" (Greg Russell WMYD-TV Detroit).Running Time: 161 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 101 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794043106682 Manufacturer No: N10668

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5884 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2007-03-20
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.com
The Nativity Story is a remarkable, if frustratingly restrained, act of imagining the tale of Christ's birth as a flesh-and-blood drama actually set in Israel two millenia ago. Written by Mike Rich (Finding Forrester) and directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen), the film makes very strong impressions in a scene-by-scene way. Beginning with the slaughter (bloodlessly portrayed; this is a PG movie) of Bethlehem’s innocents under orders from a paranoid King Herod (a dark and knowing Ciarán Hinds), the film then jumps back a year to the prophecy that informs Zechariah (Stanley Townsend) that his wife, Elizabeth (Shohreh Aghdashloo), will bear a child. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's cousin, the adolescent Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes), struggles with her family to make ends meet and is promised to the carpenter Joseph (Oscar Isaac). Soon comes word to Mary, via an angel, that she will carry, while still a virgin, the long-awaited Messiah who will liberate the Jews from Herod and his Roman benefactors. Thus begins a detailed account of Joseph and Mary's hard travel to Bethlehem, while three Magi spend months crossing the desert trying to rendezvous with some point below the convergence of three heavenly bodies in the night sky. Hardwicke and Rich anchor all this in period detail, though what proves most moving are relationship nuances, especially the friendship and trust that emerge between Mary and Joseph after he is told in a dream that she speaks truthfully about her miraculous pregnancy. While The Nativity Story should appeal to almost anyone as a straightforward narrative, it is far from a secular version of the familiar Biblical tale, and thus feels a bit stifled. It might have been nice if the film could have breathed a little more with imagination, but The Nativity Story makes up for it by ingeniously weaving hints of things to come, later in Christ's life, into the action. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Interesting take on the Christmas Story
The Nativity Story came out last Christmas, but since I try to limit my theater experience to about 1 movie a year, I passed on this movie then. It flew through the theater and I forgot about it until a friend loaned it to Sheralie. We decided to watch for Christmas Eve.

I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. The story is obviously the nativity story, but the characters speak English, though with an accent. I'm not sure why they bother with the accent, since we know they weren't speaking English back then, but maybe it is to remind us that they were in the Middle East. Phony accents aside, it was a pretty good movie. If you are like me, you have heard the nativity story over 100X, so it is nice to get a fresh perspective on it that makes you think about things a little differently.

Overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend for all viewers over 8, though you may want to wait until Christmas for more effect.

great movie
beautyfull movie!!The nativity story have important information about the Jesus nativity. It is very closer to what really hapenned whit some diferent point of view.

Greatest Christian Movie
The Nativity Story

I really loved this movie. Great acting from the whole cast