Moses the Lawgiver | |
---|---|
Genre | Biblical Biography Drama History |
Written by | Vittorio Bonicelli Anthony Burgess Gianfranco De Bosio Bernardino Zapponi |
Directed by | Gianfranco De Bosio |
Starring | Burt Lancaster Anthony Quayle Ingrid Thulin Irene Papas |
Theme music composer | Ennio Morricone |
Country of origin | Italy United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Producers | Lew Grade Bernard J. Kingham Vincenzo Labella |
Cinematography | Marcello Gatti |
Editors | Peter Boita Mario Bava Alberto Gallitti |
Running time | 360 minutes |
Production companies | ITC Entertainment RAI |
Budget | $5 million [1] |
Original release | |
Network | Rai 1 (Italy) ITV (United Kingdom) CBS (United States) |
Release | 21 June – 2 August 1975 |
Moses the Lawgiver is a six-hour television miniseries filmed in 1973/74 and starring Burt Lancaster as Moses. It was an ITC/RAI co-production filmed in Rome and on location in Israel and Morocco.
Many of the writers, cast and crew contributed to another ITC/RAI Biblical co-production, the ambitious miniseries Jesus of Nazareth , released in 1977.
The Story of the Exodus or freedom of Hebrews from Egypt is told in a perspective which highlights Moses' efforts to persuade first the stubborn Pharaoh Merneptah, who was his adopted cousin, to release his work force of slaves. Then, once free and in the wilderness en route to the Promised Land, Moses must prove to be a pious and patient leader or lawgiver to a people who still think they want more out of him or God. For 40 years, Moses (Burt Lancaster) must carry on this load and challenge for God and Israel.
With the help of his brother Aaron (Anthony Quayle), and Joshua (Aharon Ipale), the nation or people of Israel are officially born or created after centuries ago God promised and vowed Jacob/Israel that he would be the father of a mighty nation.
As Charlton Heston's son Fraser acted out the infant Moses in the 1956 Hollywood production of The Ten Commandments , so Burt Lancaster's son Bill, credited as William Lancaster, acted out the role of Moses as a young man in Moses the Lawgiver.
The Italian government suggested to the series' producer, Lew Grade, that he should meet Pope Paul VI, and subsequently did so at his wife's insistence. Grade and his wife Kathie had a private audience with Paul who told them of his pleasure at the film and offered his endorsement to be used for publicity purposes. Paul suggested to Grade that his next film should be called 'In the footsteps of Jesus'; the Pope's suggestion developed into the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth . [2]
The "Moses Theme" was composed by Ennio Morricone; the original music was performed by Gianna Spagnulo and Coro e Orchestra dell'Unione Musicisti Romani.
In 1975, a tie-in book, written by Australian author Thomas Keneally, [3] was published by Harper & Row.
CBS committed to airing the series in America as it went into production. The six episodes aired on Saturday nights at 10pm from 21 June to 2 August 1975. In the summer of 1978, the show was rerun on Sunday nights at 10pm.
The six-hour miniseries was later edited into a 141-minute theatrical release version under the title Moses. [4]
In 2004, the edited version was released as a one-disc DVD. A 300-minute version (two-disc set) was released in 2012 for Latin America (but not dubbed into Spanish and compatible in both Regions 1 & 4); it was packaged (somewhat deceptively) as Moises y los 10 Mandamientos-Extended Version. The same original version was released on region 1 DVD by S'More Entertainment in the US on May 14, 2019.
According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron was a prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran.
Moses was a Hebrew teacher and leader considered the most important prophet in Judaism and one of the most important prophets in Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, and other Abrahamic religions. According to both the Bible and the Quran, Moses was the leader of the Israelites and lawgiver to whom the prophetic authorship of the Torah is attributed.
Jesus of Nazareth is a 1977 epic television drama serial directed by Franco Zeffirelli and co-written by Anthony Burgess and Suso Cecchi d'Amico, which dramatizes the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It stars Robert Powell as Jesus, and features an all-star ensemble cast of renowned actors, including eight who had won or would go on to win Academy Awards: Anne Bancroft, Ernest Borgnine, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Quinn, Rod Steiger, James Earl Jones and Peter Ustinov.
Lew Grade, Baron Grade, was a Russian-born British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production began in 1954 when he founded the Incorporated Television Company to distribute programmes, and following the success of The Adventures of Robin Hood decided to focus on bringing them to the American market. Grade had some success in this field with such series as Gerry Anderson's many Supermarionation series such as Thunderbirds, Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, and Jim Henson's The Muppet Show. Later, Grade invested in feature film production, but several expensive box-office failures caused him to lose control of ITC, and ultimately resulted in the disestablishment of ATV after it lost its ITV franchise.
Matthew 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It describes the events after the birth of Jesus, the visit of the magi and the attempt by King Herod to kill the infant messiah, Joseph and his family's flight into Egypt, and their later return to live in Israel, settling in Nazareth.
Simonetta Stefanelli is an Italian former actress. Internationally, she is best known for her performance as Apollonia Vitelli-Corleone in the 1972 film The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Her other roles include appearances in Moses the Lawgiver, Scandal in the Family and Three Brothers. In 1992, Stefanelli made her last film appearance in the drama Le amiche del cuore directed by her then-husband Michele Placido.
The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in production and distribution of television programmes.
Elena Maureen Bertolino, known professionally as Marina Berti, was an Italian film actress. She was born in London from an Italian father and an English mother.
Discussions in rabbinic literature of the biblical character Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt and through their wanderings in the wilderness, contain various expansions, elaborations and inferences beyond what is presented in the text of the Bible itself.
The Quran contains references to more than fifty people and events also found in the Bible. While the stories told in each book are generally comparable, there are also some notable differences.
Will Shakespeare, also known as Life of Shakespeare and William Shakespeare: His Life & Times, is a 1978 historical drama series created and written by John Mortimer. Broadcast in six parts, the series is a dramatisation of the life and times of the great poet William Shakespeare, played by Tim Curry, and was co-produced by Lew Grade's ATV and RAI and distributed internationally by ITC. The two production companies had collaborated the previous year on Jesus of Nazareth.
In the Beginning: The Bible Stories is a Japanese-Italian anime television series based on The Bible's Hebrew Scriptures created by Osamu Tezuka. The series was a coproduction between Japan's Nippon TV, Tezuka's Tezuka Productions, and Italy's government-owned broadcaster, Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI). Although the series was in production during a period of several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was not aired in Japan until 1997, on the satellite channel WOWOW, while it premiered in Italy in 1992 on Rai 1. The series has also been aired on TV in the United States, Spain, Germany, and Australia.
The Ten Commandments: The Musical is a musical with music by Patrick Leonard and lyrics by Maribeth Derry. The book is adapted from the French musical Les Dix Commandements created by Élie Chouraqui from an idea by Albert Cohen, which in turn was based on the Book of Exodus and the 1956 epic film The Ten Commandments.
Moses is a 1995 internationally co-produced Biblical drama television miniseries directed by Roger Young, written by Lionel Chetwynd, and starring Ben Kingsley, Frank Langella and Christopher Lee. Moses was shot in Morocco and aired in the United States on the TNT Network and internationally on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The film is a part of TNT's Bible Collection.
The Bible is a television miniseries based on the Bible. It was produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett and was broadcast weekly between March 3 and 31, 2013 on History channel. It has since been adapted for release to theaters as a feature film, the 2014 American epic biblical drama Son of God.
Judah Ben-Hur, shortened to Ben-Hur, is a fictional character, the title character and protagonist from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The book covers the character's adventures and struggle against the Roman Empire as he tries to restore honor to his family's name after being falsely accused of attacking the Roman governor. Judah encounters Jesus Christ and becomes a Christian.
Aharon Ipalé was an Israeli-American actor, known for his roles in American and British film and television productions. His credits included Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Innocent Bystanders (1972), Raid on Entebbe (1977), Too Hot to Handle (1977), The Concorde ... Airport '79 (1979), The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood (1980), Xanadu (1980), Who Dares Wins (1982), Eye of the Widow (1991), Son of the Pink Panther (1993), The Mummy (1999), and The Mummy Returns (2001).
Biblical Egypt, or Mizraim, is a theological term used by historians and scholars to differentiate between Ancient Egypt as it is portrayed in Judeo-Christian texts and what is known about the region based on archaeological evidence. Along with Canaan, Egypt is one of the most commonly mentioned locations in the Bible, and its people, the Egyptians, play important roles in the story of the Israelites. Although interaction between Egypt and nearby Semitic-speaking peoples is attested in archaeological sources, they do not otherwise corroborate the biblical account.
This is a list of Italian television related events of 1974.