David Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

David Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 6, 2017

Note: This film is available as part of the box set The Bible Stories Collection.

That oft quoted adage “the book was better” might never be more appropriate than in adaptations culled from the Bible. How can mere mortals hope to compete with what many believe is a Divinely inspired collection of writings? That of course hasn’t stopped a lot of mere mortals from trying, and Biblical stories have been a staple of first film and, later, television outings virtually from the time these media were invented. While the big screen Biblical epics of the 1950s and 1960s were often kind of silly ( David and Bathsheba), or alternatively overly reverential and therefore kind of stodgy (The Greatest Story Ever Told), they typically (though not always) brought audiences in to delight not just in the pomp and circumstance, but also perhaps to blandish any qualms of conscience that not going to church and/or shul “religiously” (so to speak) may have engendered. One of the more interesting films to come out of this adaptive fervor was the 1966 effort The Bible: In the Beginning..., a John Huston directed effort which presented several iconic tales from Genesis and which was initially planned as just the first installment for a whole series of Biblically oriented tales culled directly from scripture. Its failure at the box office put the kibosh on that plan, but several decades later, a similar plan was put into production, albeit on a much smaller scale, with a series of made for television films (many marketed as miniseries despite not being all that lengthy) that offered various Bible tales, usually with at least one marquee star attached. Many of the made for television entries included in this set were part of a series which ran on various Ted Turner owned networks starting in the 1990s, and some at least have long been favorites of those who like their Biblical adaptations on the more intimate and less epic side of things.

Just as some of the stories in Genesis: The Creation and the Flood were covered in the feature film The Bible: In the Beginning..., Moses’ tale was also depicted in The Ten Commandments , and Samson and Delilah offered a rehash of Cecil B. DeMille’s version, David also has some big screen competition, though in this particular case, there’s more than one. There’s 1951’s David and Bathsheba, which astute readers will have already noticed I singled out for its silliness, and Bruce Beresford’s 1985 “modern epic” King David, which featured Richard Gere in the title role. (Really dedicated film trivia lovers may also know there was a now little remembered 1961 opus starring Jeff Chandler called A Story of David, which, like the current offering under review, was evidently made for television long before such things were the norm.)

There’s a kind of odd tendency on the part of some religious folks to think of the Bible as an aggregation of “feel good” stories, ones which provide endless lessons in uplift and salvation, when any objective look at things might suggest otherwise. David’s saga is certainly among the darker tales in the Old Testament, one rife with madness, melancholy, subterfuge, adultery, betrayal and any number of other troubling elements which almost makes it seem like the Old Testament version of a soap opera at times. In this regard, David spends much of its opening time detailing the traumas of both Samuel (Leonard Nimoy) and (especially) Saul (Jonathan Pryce), before getting into the actual elements featuring David (Gideon Turner as a youth, and then Nathaniel Parker as an adult).

Perhaps because he felt the romantic angle would provide more interest to adults, teleplay writer Larry Gross glosses just a bit over the early elements of David's story, including his showdown with a certain giant, which is here given kind of (not to pun horribly) short shrift. That said, the first part of the teleplay adequately stresses David's piety, something that begins to be tested once certain temptations enter the fray.

The smaller scale ambience that is probably unavoidable in many of the miniseries included in the Bible Stories collection probably works to David’s benefit, especially in some of the more interior, almost psychological, aspects that inform parts of the story, notably Saul’s unrest and David’s ability to calm him, however fitfully. While the storyline involving Bathsheba (Sheryl Lee) is unabashedly soap operatic, the tragedy involving Absalom (Dominic Rowan) is rather well handled and builds up to considerable emotional dividends. Not more than merely an aside, according to the IMDb the stentorian tones of Divinity are provided by Sir John Gielgud in what is kind of humorously listed as an uncredited role.

David Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All of the films in The Bible Stories Collection are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.78:1. While most (perhaps all) of these efforts were broadcast in the United States in 1.33:1, it looks from scouring through the IMDb that many (perhaps all) of them did in fact have theatrical releases in various foreign markets, meaning they were most likely all shot with "safeties" and/or "shoot and protect" regimens in mind. That said, those who have seen the 1.33:1 versions which were released on videotape and DVD will no doubt notice quite a few "tighter" framings, framings which often tend to lop the tops or bottoms off of heads and/or faces, at least intermittently.

David exhibits many of the same qualities addressed in other reviews in this set, including a variably noticeable grain field (contrast the nicely organic grain at around the two hour mark during the outdoor trek of several characters with a virtually nonexistent grain field in some other outdoor scenes). The palette looks nicely suffused and natural looking, but this transfer has some of the same odd quasi-ghosting anomalies that I mention in the Jacob Blu-ray review, the result of either a flawed master or undue sharpening which has created some odd after effects. This also has a peculiar horizontal banding situation at around 45:00 that features two distinct "lines" completely across the bottom of the frame that does look like the remnants of a flawed master. It's of relatively short duration but quite noticeable when it occurs.

David Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

David's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix attains fitful immersion in the quite numerous outdoor scenes, where ambient environmental sounds are spread through the surrounds, and even occasional elements like far off yells reverberate from a side channel. As with many of the other offerings in this set, the score spreads quite well around the channels and offers a nice bed of support for several scenes. Also as with many of the other offerings in this set, dialogue remains fairly strongly anchored in the front channel and is presented cleanly and clearly. A DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix is also available, but is pretty anemic sounding when compared to the 5.1 mix.

David Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There is no supplementary material of any kind on this Blu-ray disc.

David Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This particular entry in the Bible Stories collection doesn't quite have the star power of some others, at least in its titular role, and in fact some of the most commanding acting in this version is Jonathan Pryce's Saul rather than Nathaniel Parker's David. The film has a kind of lurching narrative, and some lovers of David's tale might wish for more emphasis to have been placed on his early years. With caveats noted, Recommended.