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The legend of Bathsheba

posted 15 years ago by jeffyoung1
6 replies | jump to latest

There is a very earthy and lusty legend about King David and Bathsheba that is most often edited.

Bathsheba, according to legend is a beautiful woman in the prime of her beauty. She is married to a high-ranking Israelite military officer of Hittite ancestry, Uriah. Uriah is so dedicated that he neglects the needs of his wife Bathsheba. Bathsheba knows that King David is watching her bathe, whether every night, is not certain. The movie, King David, faithfully depicts this, although it's doubtful the historical Bathsheba was blonde like the beautiful actress, Alice Krige. But in the movie, Alice Krige coyly reveals with a quick, almost unnoticeable glance that she knows David is observing her. And she pretends not to know. Alice Krige does a terrific job portraying the legend. Even when I watched Krige bathing on the movie screen in the theater, I then understood the lust the historical King David must have inadvertently felt, despite himself. The presence of a handsome, warrior king such as David must have been an irresistible aphrodisiac to a woman in need of physical passion. The movie, King David,sympathetically explains David's vulnerability to Bathsheba's sexual blandishments due to his strained relationship with his own wife. Of all the women in the Kingdom of Israel to be married to, King David is unlucky to be married to an unsympathetic wife who doesn't seem to love him. In the arms of Bathsheba King David finds the love and companionship that is missing between him and his legal wife.

[–] angmc43 12 years ago

Does anyone think David came off a little nastier about the Uriah situation in this film than in the actual account?

In the actual situation, David got Bathsheba pregnant, and after failed efforts to get Uriah to sleep with his wife and thereby hide her shame, he sends Uriah off to the heated part of a battlefield where he gets killed.

In this film, David falls for Bathsheba, and sends the husband off to the heated part of a battlefield where he gets killed.

Though David can't be let off the hook in either version, KING DAVID seems more villainous. Here, David has no reason to get rid of Uriah except that he wants his wife.

[–] Mithrandir-Olorin888 12 years ago

Well this film also accuses Uriah of beating Bathsheba.

But there are many reasons I feel this film was designed to make God look like the villain.

[–] Mithrandir-Olorin888 12 years ago

I don't recall anything in the Biblical account implying she knew David was watching.

[–] angmc43 12 years ago

Well this film also accuses Uriah of beating Bathsheba.

I did not miss that line either, but the point is not this film's David punishing a wife-beater, but David coveting his neighbor's wife for no reason other that he wanted her (no knock-up in this one).

DAVID AND BATHSHEBA (1950) also gave Uriah a negative light, but I think it still kept the 'David knocked up Bathsheba' plot. The TV films THE STORY OF DAVID (1976) and DAVID (1997) kept the original plot, with Uriah an innocent lamb to the slaughter.

But there are many reasons I feel this film was designed to make God look like the villain.

I suppose, what with Saul's rant about God abandonment, and one could perhaps view David's smashing the temple model as a final outburst against Jehovah (although the shot of the unmarked model Ark perhaps takes a different view, that David is taking a violent dose of humble pie with Goliath's sword- the beginning of his ego- and getting back to basics).

[–] Mithrandir-Olorin888 12 years ago

I suspect like most in Hollywood where by this time this film was made an Atheist, I think what would be more accurate is to suggest that they wanted us to view the Prophets as the villains. But definitely not the product of one who actually revers The Bible.

[–] angmc43 12 years ago

Yeah, Nathan comes off as such a wet blanket in this film. David would have been better off with the Nob priest (played by Hurd Hatfield, Pilate from KING OF KINGS) whom Saul kills (with the help of Christopher Malcolm, Rogue 2 from EMPIRE STRIKES BACK).
Oh, and another of Saul's minions is John Castle, I, CLAUDIUS' Postumus and LION IN WINTER'S Geoffrey (as well as Octavian in Charlton Heston's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA).

Back to your atheist suspicion, the gate can swing the other way. Pasolini was a Marxist, and yet he made the reverent GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW (1966).