"samson and delilah" dvd review

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a representative from FishFlix to see if I'd be interested in reviewing a DVD. I hadn't heard of FishFlix before, so I went to their website to check them out. They have lots of Christian DVDs, Hallmark movies, and other family friendly DVDs for sale, and their prices are pretty comparable to Amazon's—some DVDs are cheaper than on Amazon, and others are slightly more expensive. (So shop around!) What interested me the most is that many of the older Hallmark movies are cheaper on FishFlix than they are on Amazon ... and you know how I love my Hallmark movies!

I agreed to let them send me a DVD, and when it arrived, I saw it was Samson and Delilah, a TV film that aired on TNT in 1996.

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Elizabeth Hurley stars as the seductive Delilah, the Philistine who used her beauty to draw super-strong Israelite Samson, played by Eric Thal, to his eventual downfall. Dennis Hopper also stars in this powerful recounting of the Old Testament story.

As told in the Old Testament, Samson, a simple shepherd with the strength of a titan, is betrayed by a scheming Philistine beauty, Delilah, who is torn between her love for Samson and her loyalty to her people. Samson's epic revenge vanquishes his Philistine enemies.

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Prior to watching Samson and Delilah, I reread the biblical account in Judges 13-16 to refresh my memory. Samson and Delilah basically takes the original story as source material and then goes off on its own tangent, changing large portions of the story while loosely following the timeline of Samson's life.

I'm going to be honest: getting through this movie was almost painful. It's horribly long (3 hours!), fairly boring, graphically violent, and disturbingly sensual. Knowing the source material, I expected a movie about Samson to be both violent and sensual, and that's exactly what it delivered, though the amount and intensity of the sexual content surprised me. Though the content is milder than much of what is on TV today, it is also decidedly not family friendly.

Then there's the acting. While Diana Rigg shines as Samson's mother and Elizabeth Hurley portrays Delilah just as you would expect her to be, Dennis Hopper is horribly miscast as a Philistine general. He is the only one to speak with an American accent (I'm not saying the other actors' British accents are particularly appropriate, but Hopper's flat American tone definitely stood out in a bad way), and his acting is wooden and unbelievable. (Some of this could probably be contributed to the writing...)

Overall, I cannot recommend Samson and Delilah, and it's not a movie I'll ever watch again. 1 star.

Note: While I will not be watching Samson and Delilah again, FishFlix is a place I'll go when I'm looking to feed my Hallmark movie addiction! Just as with any retail site, you have to check things out for yourself—is Samson and Delilah suitable for the whole family? Absolutely not. But FishFlix does offer many movies that are.

Buy Bible Stories Samson and Delilah DVD.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this DVD free for review from FishFlix.com. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."