The Bible Collection: Jeremiah

You must approach this film for what it is. This is a dramatic summary of the Book of Jeremiah. This is not a word for word documentary from the Bible. So of course liberties are taken for dramatic effect and time constraints. Watching the film from this perspective allows you to just enjoy the story. The events within the book itself are clearly not presented but an amalgam of said events is. The acting is good (overall) and do is the production value. From my point of view ANYTIME we can get ANYONE to be at least curious enough about the Word to at least watch a TV movie like this: that's a good thing.

God is shown as a cherubim (child) or old man. Not the Angel of G_D. Jeremiah is shown as a man jilted out of marriage. Thus begins his ministry. Instead of being 'Called'!

From the standpoint of film-making, it's not bad. But as a biography of the Jewish biblical prophet Jeremiah ... it's awful. It's really that bad. Here's my breakdown: STORY: I know the Bible well, and that includes the book of Jeremiah. This "story" is so disconnected from that book. Yes, even films like "The Ten Commandments" takes some creative liberty (sometimes too much), but at least events are largely congruent between the Torah and the film (not exact, but close enough for the casual viewer). But the story here is useless. Example, the whole lead up with Jeremiah never having a wife took about 1/3 of the film, and it's not close to accurate. Yes, we could argue that Moses never had a thing going with an Egyptian princess, but 1/3 of the film??? No, maybe take 5 minutes to show he remained unmarried, but this was absurd. ACTING: The acting was actually pretty good, though some character choices seemed weird, e.g. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. All the writers had to do was read the book of Daniel, as they'd get a vivid picture of Nebuchadnezzar ... a "bigger than life" narcissist that had an impulsive temper and a capricious mind. (Hmm ... sounds a bit like someone with orange hair ... hmm ...) TEMPO: OK, but it splinters off too often to call the tempo cohesive. CINEMATOGRAPHY: I was impressed by the settings which gave a feel of that geography and setting in late 7th century BCE. DIRECTING / WRITING: There's a reason this feels like a "Made-for-TV" film - Winer is a TV hack (Ugh). He also wrote this ... (Oy Vey !!!) Is it a good film? No. It stinks, like sulfur from the mines near Sodom. Should you watch this once? No, please don't. Rating: 3.0.