Genesis: The Creation and the Flood Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Genesis: The Creation and the Flood 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.

Though production data on at least some of the made for television films included in this set is a bit hard to come by (or at least questionable in terms of its authoritative value), it appears that this particular Genesis was a little ironically not in fact the first production in this series. In some ways this treatment of the first several chapters of The Bible is the most interesting to contrast with John Huston’s epic The Bible: In the Beginning..., not just due to the fact that both efforts attempt to visualize epochal events, but also because both films feature long sections devoted to Noah. Huston’s turn as the ark builder was arguably the high point of that film, and here it’s noted Italian actor Omero Antonutti ( Padre Padrone, The Night of the Shooting Stars) playing the part under the direction of Ermanno Olmi, whose wonderful The Tree of Wooden Clogs is due soon on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

How would you attempt to translate those iconic opening chapters of Genesis into a cinematic version? It’s notable that Huston’s effort offers the director’s stentorian voice itself as a narrator, with a number of almost biological images unfolding as the unforgettable words of a Divine creative force forging everything from the heavens to the waters are recounted. In Genesis: The Creation and the Flood, the oral tradition underlying the Bible is presented overtly, with an old man (Antonutti again) regaling what appears to be his son or grandson with ancient tales of creation, sin and, ultimately, salvation. It’s a fascinating and historically accurate approach that gives this version a rather distinctive flavor.

Nevertheless, there’s a certain unavoidable “distance” from the events depicted due to this conceit, as if the little boy is being told a bedtime story (which indeed he seems to be). That gives the opening sequences a kind of stodginess that never really resonates on an emotional level. That said, Olmi offers some ravaging imagery, with lots of scenes of natural environments that certainly help to augment the tales of the creation of Paradise.

While hampered by what was probably a minimal budget which prevented any real depiction of the onslaught of The Flood, Genesis: The Creation and the Flood picks up quite a bit of momentum once the Noah story starts unfolding. There’s nothing even remotely as impressive as some of the scenes in Huston’s film or (to state the obvious) the CGI wonderment of Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, but the very simplicity of the presentation in this version actually helps to make the folkloristic elements of the saga quite involving and at least relatively realistic feeling.

There are some interesting stylistic quirks that are also part of this version, including some “flash forwards” demonstrating that Mankind’s inability to love his brother seems to be an eternal affliction, not simply relegated to the Cain and Abel tragedy. Genesis: The Creation and The Flood doesn’t have epic production values, but in its Noah sequence especially it manages to be quite touching and even reverential.

Genesis: The Creation and the Flood 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.

Genesis has generally very good detail levels, though it appears there has been some high frequency filtering applied, as grain really only spikes in brief moments that look like they were probably sourced from stock footage (for things like scenes of vistas and wildlife). Despite the relative lack of grain, detail levels are generally quite good, especially in close-ups, where things like crags and pores in faces are easily discernable (see screenshot 1 for a good example). Crush does intrude in a number of dark scenes (something that recurs throughout several of the offerings in the Bible Stories collection), and a lot of the Noah footage is either lit or graded to a rather interesting orange-brown color, something that can further detract from shadow detail levels. Occasional midrange shots look just a little fuzzy, but generally this is a pleasing if occasionally less than optimal presentation.

Genesis: The Creation and the Flood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Genesis is the only film in this set which was completely scored by Ennio Morricone (the rest bear his theme, which evidently granted him a credit as a "supervisor"), and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track nicely presents his evocative score. This film also has some good rumbly LFE in some of the brief "creation" vignettes, as well as some good placement of ambient environmental sounds, especially in the Noah sequence, but the track, as many in this set, is fairly front heavy. The post looping this particular film underwent adds an unavoidable looseness to dialogue matching lip movements, but the dialogue itself is typically rendered very cleanly and clearly. As with all the films in this set, a much less boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track is also included.

Genesis: The Creation and the Flood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

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

Genesis: The Creation and the Flood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As one of the shorter films in the Bible Stories collection, Genesis comes off as more of a series of vignettes than an organic story with a beginning, middle and end. That said, it's often quite well done, with a folkloristic aspect that may offend some Bible purists but which offers an interesting way to enter the story. Recommended.