Gregory Peck isn't the first actor you'd think to appear in a Bible epic - Tyrone Power, his fellow big name at 20th Century Fox, probably would have suited it more. But he's handsome and has authority and does his best as the King who gets the hots for Bathsheba after seeing her take a bath on her roof (they hint at nudity but I'm pretty sure when she gets in she's got underwear on).
The main attribute of this is it's first rate script from Philip Dunne. It's a real character study - don't laugh: David is a torn man, tired from war, in a bad marriage with a wife he's only with for political reasons. He's drawn to Bathsheba for her sexiness, seduces her out of wedlock, and has hell to pay, constantly agonises over religious stuff. There's some great scenes with the prophet Nathan (Raymond Massey), the local religious lunatic - lots of interesting stuff about God and being a ruler.
Bathsheba isn't much of a character - she's hot but not super hot (Susan Hayward), just seems to drift along. She's no temptress, but is more a victim of fate/circumstance. Maybe this was a censor issue. Keiron Moore play Uriah who displays so little interest in his wife (always running off to battle and not having sex with her) that it makes your eyebrows raise.
Structure wise this is kind of odd - Dunne was faced with the challenge of padding out a very short section of the Bible, and most the drama is done by the time the affair is exposed. So the climax of the film is a flashback to the time David fought Goliath, which doesn't really have anything to do with Bathsheba. Yet it worked.
Henry King directs with sensitivity and the support cast are strong, including James Robertson Justice. It's not a big spectacle - most of the action takes place indoors, there aren't teems of extras. Perhaps the most thoughtful of the epics.
No comments:
Post a Comment