Author:
Suky
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Date Posted: 23:33:58 05/10/05 Tue
>Well, I guess it wasn't a very memorable role then...
>Thanks for the input, Suky-I love reading your
>postings!
Thanks, Eva! Careful, though, you'll just encourage me! ;-) It's great to read your postings too. It's nice to have some discussion again. Unfortunately, in trying to be helpful I spoke too soon--I dug out my copy of In the Beginning (complete with commercial breaks featuring coverage of the 2000 U.S. elections as the recounts dragged into their agonizing umpteenth week!), and I don't know what I was thinking about him being a storyteller. I must have been remembering Martin Landau, who, as Abraham, spends about twenty minutes telling the Creation story. Those bushy beards, long robes, and turbans kind of make all the guys look alike! You really have to look closely to see who's who. (At least you see slightly more of DW than you did in Planet of the Apes! Why am I hearing the line "I've gone all furry" in my head?) But there's no confusing their voices, so apparently I didn't pay very close attention to the movie at all the first time. Even now, I'm finding it hard to focus on except for the DW scenes. I mean, if you know the story of Genesis, it's a little, er, predictable--only really stretched out, especially if you're not a big fan of Martin Landau. (But if you are, it's well worth the investment cuz he's in almost every scene of the first segment!) Then again in Part 2 you've got Christopher Lee in eyeliner as the Egyptian Pharoah (hmm, why does *that* look familiar?), so at least the coolness is spread out.
DW pops up throughout the story, but overall, he's not in it very much (surprise) ... but then, for us, he's not in *anything* enough unless he's the lead, is he? ;-) He plays Abraham's "eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had" (according to the King James version), who's not actually named in the Bible but is called Eleazar in the movie. (He's the one who goes to get a bride for Isaac, among other miscellaneous duties.) He makes it through about the first hour (including the commercials).
All in all, I'd say the movie is a pedestrian TV interpretation of the first two books of the Bible masquerading as a blockbuster and a perfect example of waiting for that elusive glimpse of DW! But if you get the DVD, it's easy to skip to the good parts. (Personally, I wouldn't recommend paying very much for it! If you do get it please let us know what you think.)
>DW seemed to look quite like he
>did in Rasputin, if you can recollect his Russian
>looks.
While I was at it, my copy of Rasputin happened to be on the same shelf as In the Beginning, so I took a quick peek to refresh my memory before saying anything out of turn again. Unfortunately, I like the goatee even less than the grizzly beard from In the Beginning! Does he have a goatee again in Ladies in Lavender? (He's so much handsomer clean-shaven, don't you think?)
Oops ... hope that's not too much rambling! (Speaking of stretched out!)
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