David and Bathsheba | |
---|---|
Directed by | Henry King |
Written by | Philip Dunne |
Based on | Second Book of Samuel |
Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
Starring | Gregory Peck Susan Hayward Raymond Massey Kieron Moore James Robertson Justice |
Cinematography | Leon Shamroy |
Edited by | Barbara McLean |
Music by | Alfred Newman Edward Powell |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates |
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Running time | 116 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2.17 million [2] |
Box office | $4.72 million (U.S. and Canada rentals) [3] |
David and Bathsheba is a 1951 historical Technicolor epic film produced by 20th Century-Fox and starring Gregory Peck as King David. It was directed by Henry King and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, with a screenplay by Philip Dunne and cinematography by Leon Shamroy.
The film follows King David's life and his relationship with Uriah's wife Bathsheba, played by Susan Hayward. Goliath is portrayed by 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) Lithuanian wrestler Walter Talun.
David ben Jesse, the second king of Israel, returns to Jerusalem after a military victory over the Philistines. En route, a cart bearing the Ark of the Covenant hits a rut and threatens to capsize. Uzzah, a captain in David's own army, reaches out to prevent the Ark from falling to the ground. He abruptly dies. While the prophet Nathan declares this the will of God, a skeptical David pronounces it the result of heat-stroke combined with too much wine. David becomes attracted to Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, another captain in David's army.
The attraction is mutual, although both know an affair would break the law of Moses. When Bathsheba discovers she is pregnant from the affair, David sends for Uriah, hoping the Hittite captain will spend time with his wife and thus cover her pregnancy. David's wife Michal, who knows of the affair, tells David that Uriah did not go home; he slept at the castle, as a sign of loyalty to his king. The frustrated David orders Uriah to be placed on the front line, and for his own troops to withdraw, thus leaving Uriah to die, which he does. David sends a dispatch to tell Bathsheba of her husband's death, and the two plan their marriage.
Nathan informs David that the Israelites are dissatisfied with his leadership; they want David's sons to rule. Nathan goes on to mention that David has forgotten his role as a servant of the Lord. Shortly after David marries Bathsheba, a drought hits Israel and the couple's newborn child dies. Nathan returns to tell David that God is displeased with him. However, he will not die as the law demands, but will be punished through misfortune in his family. David takes full responsibility, insisting Bathsheba is blameless, but the people still want her killed. David plans to save Bathsheba, but she tells David they are both equally at fault.
David is reminded of the Lord and quotes Psalm 23 as he plays his harp. David tells Bathsheba she will not die; he accepts God's justice for himself. A repentant David, seeking relief from the drought as well as forgiveness, enters the Holy of Holies. He begs God not to punish Israel for sins which their king alone committed. David touches the Ark as a suicide attempt. There is a clap of thunder, followed by flashbacks to David's youth, depicting his anointing by Samuel, his battle with Goliath, and the like.
King David removes his hands from the Ark. Outside, rain falls on the dry land.
While Twentieth Century-Fox owned the rights to the 1943 book David written by Duff Cooper, the film was not based on that book. Darryl F. Zanuck had owned the rights to a 1947 Broadway play called Bathsheba. After the success of Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949) for Paramount Pictures, Zanuck commissioned Philip Dunne to write a script based on King David.
Dunne's original concept was for a film that would encompass David's life in three main chapters: David as a boy fighting Goliath; a more mature David and his friendship with Jonathan ending with his affair with Bathsheba; and an older David and his relationship with his son Absalom. Dunne estimated that his treatment would make a four-hour film, but Zanuck was not enthusiastic. Dunne then pitched the idea of a film solely based on David and Bathsheba, which Zanuck loved. [4] Dunne conceived the story as a modern play exploring the corruption of absolute power. The film is noticeably devoid of the epic battles and panoramas frequently seen in biblical movies. Zanuck opted to use stars already under contract with Twentieth Century-Fox. Filming took place entirely in Nogales, Arizona from November 24, 1950 until January 1951 (with some additional material shot in February). [1]
The musical score was written by Alfred Newman. For the bucolic scene with the shepherd boy, Newman used a solo oboe in the Lydian mode, drawing on long-established conventions linking the solo oboe with pastoral scenes and the shepherd's pipe. To underscore David's guilt-ridden turmoil in the Mount Gilboa scene, Newman employed a vibraphone, which Miklós Rózsa had used in scoring Peck's popular Spellbound (1945). [5]
David and Bathsheba premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City on August 14, 1951. [6] The film subsequently opened in Los Angeles on August 30 before opening widely in September. [1] During the film's worldwide release, the film was banned in Singapore as the country's censorship board were troubled by the unflattering portrait of David, an important prophet in Islam, as a hedonist susceptible to sexual overtures. [7]
David and Bathsheba earned $4.72 million in theater rentals from the United States and Canada. [3]
A. H. Weiler of The New York Times described the film as "a reverential and sometimes majestic treatment of chronicles that have lived three millennia." He praised Dunne's screenplay and Peck's "authoritative performance" but found that Hayward "seems closer to Hollywood than to the arid Jerusalem of the Bible." [8] Abel Green of Variety wrote: "This is a big picture in every respect. It has scope, pageantry, sex (for all its Biblical background), cast names, color—everything. It's a surefire boxoffice entry, one of the really 'big' pictures of the new selling season." [9] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "leaves little to be desired" from the standpoint of production values with Peck "ingratiating" as David and Hayward "a seductress with flaming tresses, in or out of the bath, and only her final contrition is a little difficult to believe." [10]
Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote: "On the whole, the picture suggests a Reader's Digest story expanded into a master's thesis for the Ecole Copacabana." [11] Harrison's Reports wrote, "The outstanding thing about the production is the magnificent performance of Gregory Peck as David; he makes the characterization real and human, endowing it with all the shortcomings of a man who lusts for another's wife, but who is seriously penitent and prepared to shoulder his guilt. Susan Hayward, as Bathsheba, is beautiful and sexy, but her performance is of no dramatic consequence." [12] The Monthly Film Bulletin commented that the film had been made "with restraint and relative simplicity" compared to other historical epics, "and the playing of Gregory Peck in particular is competent. The whole film, however, is emotionally and stylistically quite unworthy of its subject." [13] Philip Hamburger of The New Yorker wrote that "the accessories notwithstanding, something is ponderously wrong with 'David and Bathsheba.' The fault lies, I suppose, in the attempt to make excessive enlargements of an essentially-simple story." [14]
Jon Solomon, author of The Ancient World in the Cinema, found the film rather slow-paced in the first half before gaining momentum, and Peck "convincing as a once-heroic monarch who must face an angry constituency and atone for his sins." He noted that this was different from other biblical epics in that the protagonist faced a religious and philosophical issue rather than the overdone military or physical crisis. [15]
Theologian David Garland and his wife Diana argued: "Taking remarkable license with the story, the screenwriters changed Bathsheba from the one who is ogled by David into David's stalker. ... [T]he movie David and Bathsheba, written, directed and produced by males, makes the cinematic Bathsheba conform to male fantasies about women." [16] However, religious historian Adele Reinhartz found that by giving Bathsheba a more active role, "it reflects tensions and questions about gender identity in America in the aftermath of World War II, when women had entered the work force in large numbers and experienced a greater degree of independence and economic self-sufficiency. ...[Bathsheba] is not satisfied in the role of neglected wife and decides for herself what to do about it." [17] Susan Hayward was later quoted as having asked why the film was not called Bathsheba and David. [18]
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
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Academy Awards | Best Art Direction – Color | Lyle R. Wheeler, George Davis, Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox | Nominated |
Best Cinematography – Color | Leon Shamroy | Nominated | |
Best Costume Design – Color | Charles LeMaire and Edward Stevenson | Nominated | |
Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture | Alfred Newman | Nominated | |
Best Story and Screenplay | Philip Dunne | Nominated | |
Bambi Awards | Best Actor – International | Gregory Peck | Won |
Directors Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures | Henry King | Nominated |
Picturegoer Awards | Best Actor | Gregory Peck | Nominated |
Best Actress | Susan Hayward | Nominated |
The Book of Samuel is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books that constitute a theological history of the Israelites and that aim to explain God's law for Israel under the guidance of the prophets.
David was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel. Historians of the Ancient Near East agree that David probably lived around 1000 BCE, but little more is known about him as a historical figure.
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. He played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors. He produced three films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture during his tenure.
Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, according to the Hebrew Bible. She was the mother of Solomon, who succeeded David as king, making her the Gebirah. She is best known for the Biblical narrative in which she was summoned by King David, who had seen her bathing and lusted after her.
Uriah the Hittite is a minor figure in the Hebrew Bible, mentioned in the Books of Samuel, an elite soldier in the army of David, king of Israel and Judah, and the husband of Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam. While Uriah was serving in David's army abroad, David himself, from the roof of his palace, looked down on his city and spied upon Bathsheba bathing in the privacy of her courtyard. Moved by lust at the sight of her, David called for Bathsheba to be brought to him and slept with her, impregnating her. In an effort to hide his misdeeds, David called Uriah home from war, hoping that he and Bathsheba would have relations and that he would be able to pass the child off as belonging to Uriah. But Uriah, being a disciplined soldier, refused to visit his wife. So David murdered him by proxy by ordering all of Uriah's comrades to abandon him in the midst of battle, so that he ended up getting killed by an opposing army. Following Uriah's death, David took Bathsheba as his eighth wife.
King David is a 1985 American Biblical epic film about the life of David, the second King of the Kingdom of Israel, as recounted in the Hebrew Bible. The film is directed by Bruce Beresford, written by Andrew Birkin and James Costigan, and stars Richard Gere in the title role. The ensemble cast includes Edward Woodward, Alice Krige, Denis Quilley, Cherie Lunghi, Hurd Hatfield, John Castle, Jean-Marc Barr, Christopher Malcolm, and Gina Bellman.
Philip Ives Dunne was an American screenwriter, film director and producer, who worked prolifically from 1932 until 1965. He spent the majority of his career at 20th Century Fox. He crafted well regarded romantic and historical dramas, usually adapted from another medium. Dunne was a leading Screen Writers Guild organizer and was politically active during the "Hollywood Blacklist" episode of the 1940s–1950s. He is best known for the films How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), The Robe (1953) and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965).
Nathan is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible. His actions are described in the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.
The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible is an animated direct-to-video film series produced by Hanna-Barbera that tells of three young adventurers who travel back in time to watch biblical events take place. Thirteen videos were released between 1985 and 1992.
Kieron Moore was an Irish film and television actor whose career was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. He may be best remembered for his role as Count Vronsky in the film adaptation of Anna Karenina (1948) with Vivien Leigh.
The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a 1952 American Technicolor romantic adventure film directed by Henry King from a screenplay by Casey Robinson, based on the 1936 short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. It stars Gregory Peck as Harry Street, Susan Hayward as Helen, and Ava Gardner as Cynthia Green. The film's ending does not mirror that of the short story.
So This Is Marriage is a lost 1924 American silent drama film directed by Hobart Henley. The film was originally released with sequences filmed in the Technicolor 2-color process that depicted the story of David and Bathsheba from the Book of Samuel.
Esther and the King is a 1960 American-Italian religious epic film produced and directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Joan Collins as Esther, Richard Egan as Ahasuerus, and Denis O'Dea as Mordecai. Walsh and Michael Elkins wrote the screenplay, which was based on the Book of Esther of the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament. It recounts the origin of the Jewish celebration of Purim.
The Shepherd King is a 1923 American silent biblical epic film directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starring Violet Mersereau, Nerio Bernardi, and Guido Trento. It is a film adaptation of a 1904 Broadway play by Wright Lorimer and Arnold Reeves. The film depicts the biblical story of David (Bernardi), a shepherd prophesied to replace Saul (Trento) as king. David is invited into Saul's court, but eventually betrayed. He assembles an army that defeats the Philistines, becomes king after Saul's death in battle, and marries Saul's daughter Michal (Mersereau).
2 Samuel 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the second part of Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the account of David's reign in Jerusalem. This is within a section comprising 2 Samuel 9–20 and continued to 1 Kings 1–2 which deal with the power struggles among David's sons to succeed David's throne until 'the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon'.
The Story of David (1976) was a two-part, 3.2 hour American television film dramatizing the biblical story of King David. It starred Timothy Bottoms as the young David, Keith Michell as the older David, Anthony Quayle as King Saul, and Jane Seymour as Bathsheba. Produced by Columbia Pictures Television for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC-TV), it premiered on 9 April 1976. It was filmed in Israel and Spain.
Gregory Peck (1916–2003) was an American actor who had an extensive career in film, television, radio, and on stage. Peck's breakthrough role was as a Catholic priest who attempts to start a mission in China in the 1944 film The Keys of the Kingdom, for which he received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In the same year, he played Count Vronsky in a radio adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. He followed this by starring in Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Spellbound (1945) with Ingrid Bergman. In the late 1940s, Peck received three more nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles as a caring father in The Yearling (1946), a journalist who pretends to be Jewish to write an exposé on American antisemitism in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), and a brave airman in Twelve O'Clock High (1949).
2 Samuel 12 is the twelfth chapter of the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the second part of Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, with additions by the prophets Gad and Nathan, but modern scholars view it as a composition of a number of independent texts of various ages from c. 630–540 BCE. This chapter contains the account of David's reign in Jerusalem. This is within a section comprising 2 Samuel 9–20 and continued to 1 Kings 1–2 which deal with the power struggles among David's sons to succeed David's throne until 'the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon'.