fixinchitlins Reviews

David (1997)

Good at times, completely blows it in others

[3/10 · 15 June 2009]

The stories of David, Samuel, and Saul are recorded in great detail in the books of Samuel, as well as additional information in the books of Chronicles. Considering the wealth of information and detail we have from the Biblical sources, there's not much need to go outside of the text to create a great movie. The most obvious climax of David's life comes early on in his life (his confrontation with Goliath), and the Biblical text in 1st Samuel reads just like an action movie. Had the filmmakers just stuck with the text, they would have hit a homerun. Instead, they bunted into foul territory... or struck out while messing themselves. Just a complete waste of what should have been a great scene. Very inaccurate to the Biblical story and very disappointing. I stopped watching after David took the throne as I couldn't deal with it any more.

This is coming from the perspective of a Christian that believes the Bible is the the inspired and infallible Word of God. If you do not hold to these beliefs, this may be a good movie for you (I can't say as I didn't finish it and my perspective is completely skewed). If you do, you will likely be disappointed like I was.

I find movies based on Scripture to be very touchy in general, and extremely difficult to translate to the screen without something coming across as inaccurate (or what we perceive as inaccurate). Even movies that supposedly stick word for word to the text still take artistic license (as you have to since you're translating the written word to a visual medium).

This one was overall NOT a good translation from the first half that I saw. I'm not going to point out the accurate parts as they were negated by the inaccuracies. Even from the beginning of the movie Saul was not taller than the other Israelites, which is clearly described in Scripture. I'll quit there, as there are a lot of other things I could point out.

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)

Disgusting

[1/10 · 10 December 2006]

I truly appreciate indie films... but this movie was nothing but pure trash. I cannot fathom how somebody could find this tasteful, entertaining, or anything other than awful. There is no need to portray horrible themes like this on film (without being convicted of a crime), and I can't IMAGINE what kind of parents would allow their children to act in such a monstrosity. I grew up exposed to things similar to the film (in particular drug use and abandonment), and I say with conviction that there was nothing entertaining about this movie. We all know stuff like this happens, so there is no need to be made aware of it by a movie. Why would somebody want to watch a scene (or TWO as we get here) of a male child being raped by an adult male??? It's absolutely disgusting... everything about this film was the epitome of what is wrong with Hollywood.