Esther
+ Jesus (Bible Stories
Series/Sony/Affirm DVDs)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: D Telefilms: C-
Since the
1980s, biblical stories have been one of two tired things: Christo-Fascist
propaganda or very boring, lame, flat productions that show the genre died long
ago. Two examples of the latter are now
on DVD. Esther stars Louise Lombard as the young Jewish woman who wins the
heart of a king who does not know her secret.
That is until she wants to save others like her from being killed. Thomas Kretschmann plays King Ahasuerus and
the cast also features F. Murray Abraham and Jurgen Prochnow. An interesting tale, this is a flat telling
and just does not work too well despite some ambition.
Jesus has Jeremy Sisto not quite
convincing as the title character in this safe telling of the story of his
life. Of course, it is not going to be
as violent (or anti-Semitic) as Mel Gibson’s Passion Of The Christ, but I never bought it and for the many
versions made to date, just lacks energy.
Debra Messing, Jacqueline Bisset, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Jeroen Crabbe as
Satan and Gary Oldman as Pontius Pilate does not help, with the latter casting
too obvious and all causing this to implode form the first scene. Both are Italian co-productions and will remind
many of the older Italian feature films that were overproduced and a mess at
about three hours!
The 1.33
X 1 image in both cases were filmed, but the transfers here are softer than
they should be, in part because editing seems to have been finished on NTSC
analog video. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
on each is a little better, but seems more aged than expected. There are no extras on either disc.
- Nicholas Sheffo
