David and Goliath (1960)

What a waste of my time!!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

King Saul has lost favor with God, war is imminent. The only man Saul is afraid of is the prophet Samuel. Samuel arrives to prophesies about a man that God will anoint a man king out of the land of Benjamin to rule over Israel - that man is David. David must fulfill the prophesy but King Saul is willing put up a battle or die before he will bow down to David and give up his throne. Before David can take the throne, he must fight Goliath. In the end, King David restores Saul back to the throne. This is a pretty decent version of the biblical story. It's not a big long Epic tale but of a good length to give us a movie version (around an hour and a half long).I do not rate films of this nature by how much it matches the bible tale nor do I rate these types of films by how much I believe the story is true. I rate them by how well entertained I was by them, how well it was filmed and acted out. My rating is not for my personal beliefs, but for how well I enjoyed it.4/10

When Orson Welles did not have anything to eat he had to become an actor in films that are hardly worth, at times, mentioning, and yet he tries to do what he can as an actor to save the film. That's typical in this one. The Bible is badly revisited in an episode that is not that particularly thrilling because too much known. The film more or less understands some political questions and sees in the attack of the Philistines against Israel an allusion to the menace against Israel from its Arab neighbors. But all that is naive. The stone civilization against the metal civilization from the north as Solomon will put it later is hardly seen. A sling and a stone against spears and a sword. This symbolism is present but unexploited. That also means The Semites (and that is a lot more than just the Jews) against those from the North, those who speak the Indo-Iranian languages of Mesopotamia, of Babylon, of Persia. All that is missed, and a lot more. The harp is also present but not used to its tremendous meaning. The oldest harp we know in this region is Sumerian and not Israeli or whatever. Israeli music is derived from that Sumerian music of some fifteen centuries before, and it is David who is going to establish the music school of the Temple, of the Levites, and also ,the singing school that will produce the prosody and the psalmody of the Ancient Testament, two musical forms that are both the results of older traditions and the root of twenty centuries to come. Apart from that the film is naive and primitive. I prefer the version given by Handel in his Saul.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

It was one of those nights when there was absolutely nothing good on TV. I went through many channels on my TV and landed on Trinity Broadcasting Network. I do on occasion watch TBN but usually for Robert Schuller or maybe when I feel I need extra inspiration.This movie began and "David and Goliath" was all I needed to see to stay tuned,along with reading the story as a boy and the fact Orson Welles plays Saul. (I wonder if that was "his" voice in the English dubbing?) Cetainly if any film needs a good restoration this one really needs it. I think it would be a lot more enjoyable if it were.Welles does a great service to this film and I don't think there ever was a film that didn't benefit from his presence (even The Muppett Movie featured Welles!) Aside from the grandeur that is Orson,is some good storytelling but some of the unfortunate liberties movie makers seem to take with biblical stories.First there's David himself,with the curly locks and and looking like a muscle bound cross between Michael Landon or Kurt Russell. (Acoording to IMDb the actor who plays him passed away August 17th,2006 oddly enough). David also has a first love who apparently,according to a wise old man,was taken from him by a flash of lightning in a rainstorm for God's higher purpose. Of course she had dreamed the other night that she was taken far from their land,quite a coincidence.As we know,David has been chosen by God to one day replace Saul as the King Of Isreal and tired and worn out looking Saul's not about to take it. David arrives in Isreal sees sin after sin taking place in the streets (one female dancer looks like she stepped off a burlesque stage) and (amazingly) gets the entire mass in the streets to quiet down.Just long enough for him to give a speech about their sins and basically that it's an abomination before God and how it's Saul's lack of leadership that's led to it. You'd think a young man who'd just arrived in a city and starts shooting his mouth off would get stones thrown at him but,no they all cheer for him. One of Saul's guards approaches David and David gives him one heck a blow to the head with his fist! leading to David being given Sanctuary by the church.Meanwhile,another king is threatening to overtake Saul and have both his country and Isreal. (The English voice for this king sounds like a guy from the tough side of Chicago!)His lackey offers to draft the giant monster of a man Goliath (I'm guessing 10ft. tall or more)to help defeat Saul and his armies. (The lackey sounds like Ernest T. Bass from The Andy Griffith Show.) In one funny scene Goliath picks him up off the ground (in an obvious clay figure moment).Anyhow David is finally brought before Saul and as would happen,he takes a liking to Saul daughter and becomes Saul's ally (although Saul doesn't know it yet.) Then we get to the battles between the two kingdoms and what we tuned in for to begin with. To see David take out Goliath with his "sling-shot". (A stretchy piece of material with a cradle for the rock). A good deal of this movie mirrors The Ten Commandmants but certainly isn't on that grand level. Mostly just in plot point and look:Leader trying to stop God's chosen one - sins of the people of Isreal - big sets and of course the perfect looking heroes. ..and it's only 90 minutes.Overall though,despite it's weaker points (english dubbing is always unintentionally funny)it's a pretty good movie. I'd recommend it for younger viewers and maybe people who like biblical epics or Orson Welles devotees. 6 stars for convincing enough sets,a great battle sequence and the casting of Welles and whoever chose Goliath (where'd they find that guy?). Along with a well told story,then again the Bible has plenty of them to tell. (END)

Released as David And Goliath, this is a very enjoyable classic Bible story. On the cover it is billed as an Orson Wells picture, however, Wells does not take the prominent focus. This movie explores the opposite side of the Philistenes gearing up for war against Israel, an aspect not usually covered in Bible stories. If you like classic film, this is definitely one that should be seen.