Samson and Delilah Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Samson and Delilah 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.

Somewhat similarly to Moses, Samson and Delilah has a direct big screen analog that offers a kind of A to B comparison, in this case another Cecil B. de Mille film (Moses’ analog was of course de Mille’s The Ten Commandments), Samson and Delilah, a fairly hokey effort which is perhaps wishfully described as a “masterpiece” on the Blu-ray release cover. The de Mille version features a somewhat wooden Victor Mature as Samson and a vibrantly beautiful Hedy Lamarr as Delilah, and while the film has attained a certain camp status courtesy of unintentionally humorous scenes like Samson’s skirmish with a lion, it was taken fairly seriously back in 1949 when it was released, becoming one of the hugest box office phenomena of that year.

This version features a somewhat more modern seeming Eric Thal as Samson, and a dazzling Elizabeth Hurley as Delilah, with a badly miscast Dennis Hopper on hand as General Tariq. But perhaps the most unexpected credit belongs to director Nicolas Roeg, certainly one of the last people most film fans would predict would want to helm a Biblical spectacle like this one. It’s perhaps notable to realize that this Samson and Delilah was shot in 1996, some 20 years after Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, in an era when the director wasn’t working as much and when he in fact had already done several made for television entries.

As I mentioned in the Jacob Blu-ray review, one of the things that becomes evident if one watches these films in succession is how often Biblical tales tended to repeat certain tropes. In the case of Samson and Delilah, we get the familiar conceit of a supposedly barren woman who is greeted by a Divine Presence informing her she’ll soon give birth to a savior (if not “the Savior”). Mara (Diana Rigg) tries to tell her husband Manoah (Paul Freeman) that she’s had a vision and will soon give birth, but of course Manoah is having none of it—until, that is, Mara does give birth. Her angelic messenger has told her not to cut her son’s hair, and so the first “longhaired hippie freak” appears in the guise of Samson.

Despite two charismatic folks in the titular roles, and some rather nice work from some of the supporting cast (especially Rigg, who is excellent), this is one of the more padded feeling entries in the Bible Stories collection, and the presence of Hopper just seems completely odd at times. Roeg invests the miniseries with some visual sweep, though the ubiquitous use of zoom lenses tends to anchor this pretty solidly in “television” territory. The destruction of the temple serves as the climax of this version as it does in the de Mille film, but unfortunately this miniseries' special effects can't quite match the big screen chaos that the 1949 film offers.

Samson and Delilah 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.

Samson and Delilah offers one of the more resplendent looking palettes in this set, with some of the outdoor photography featuring some really impressive greens in the verdant valleys and other foliage. There are some interesting lighting regimens going on at times as well, with Hurley lit in blue quite effectively on a number of occasions and some of the "hot and heavy" scenes between Samson and Delilah having a more amber hue, both of which can tend to detract from fine detail levels. As with several other films in this set, there appears to have been some filtering done, something that is especially apparent in the several optical dissolves and quasi-montages this version has, where grain doesn't spike at all. That said, a very fine grain field can be spotted against elements like bright outdoor skies, and in the aforementioned blue bathed scenes with Hurley, it achieves a bit more of an organic appearance.

Samson and Delilah Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Samson and Delilah's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is one of the more satisfying in the Bible Stories collection for a couple of reasons. The score is often laced with batteries of percussion instruments, something that helps to fill out the lower frequencies and which resound through the surround channels quite effectively. But the big climax with the destruction of the temple also provides ample opportunity for some sonic bombast. Otherwise, as with many of the films in this set, dialogue, while always presented very cleanly and without any problems, tends to be anchored pretty firmly front and center.

Samson and Delilah Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

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

Samson and Delilah Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a bit more of a realistic personal story between the titular characters in this version, and Thal and Hurley are certainly easy on the eyes, but much as with Lesley Anne Warren in Joseph, Samson and Delilah can't quite overcome the presence of a miscast Dennis Hopper. While probably a bit too soap operatic for its own good, those who prefer their Biblical stories with a dash of illicit romance may enjoy this somewhat campy entry in the Bible Stories collection. With caveats noted, Recommended.