Moses The Lawgiver (1974) {DVD Review}

Reviewed by Jason Lockard

In 1977 TV audiences were treated to Jesus if Nazareth a miniseries event following the life of the Savior of the world. But many forget that just three years earlier the same production company produced a retelling of another biblical hero.  This one of the Savior of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery.

Now the good people at S'more Entertainment have released this mini-series on DVD so that all biblical film fans can relive this mini-series whenever we want to.

The mini-series follows Moses who was born and survived an extermination for one purpose, to lead the Hebrew people in an Exodus out of Egypt. Only to find more trouble along the way.

The story is nothing that we haven't seen before. The cinematography of the beautiful landscapes of Israel and Morrocco are worth watchling for alone. But the preformances of Burt Lancaster as Moses, Anthony Quayle as Aaron, and Ingrid Thullin as Miriam do a tremendous job carrying this cast.

As for the musical score, it was masterfully produced by Italian composer Ennio Morricone. He is known for scoring films such as A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Untouchables and many more.

It's hard to compare any film to the biblical masterpiece that is Cecil B. Demille's The Ten Commandments. In my opinion no film will ever come close to that one. But Moses the Lawgiver is a great mini-series. While Demille's film runs under 4 hours many think that is way too long. Well, Moses the Lawgiver runs almost 6 hours, but it is broken up into 6 part, which makes it much more digestible.

As for the DVD release this mini-series is collected on two DVDs. Each episode is presented in it's original full screen format. While these episodes many not be HD quality. I found them very good quality  when you think this mini-series is almost 40 years old. 6 hours of Entertainment on DVD. Can't go wrong there.

So if your a fan of Burt Lancaster or Biblical films I highly recommend this release for your collection. Head over to MVDShop.com and pick up your copy today.

Audiences: Teens and Adults (May not be suitable for small children)
Objectionable Material: Mild violence
Length: 6 hours
Genre: Biblical, drama
DVD Rating: A