David and Bathsheba (1951) on Netflix
Approved19512h 3mDramaFamilyHistory
King David comes back to Jerusalem after defeating the Philistines. He is drawn to Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his captains. The law of Moses forbids an affair between them.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.2/102,995 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes60%
Trailer
Plot summary
David, king of Israel, comes back to Jerusalem after defeating the Philistines. On the way, a cart carrying the Ark of the Covenant almost tips over. Uzzah, one of David's captains, reaches out to steady it and dies. The prophet Nathan calls this God's will. David disagrees and says the man died of natural causes. In Jerusalem, David and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, are drawn to each other. Both know that Moses' law forbids an affair. Bathsheba becomes pregnant, and David sends for Uriah.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about David and Bathsheba (1951)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- David and Bathsheba was banned in Singapore because the censorship board objected to its unflattering portrait of David, an important prophet in Islam, as a hedonist susceptible to sexual overtures.
- After Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah succeeded, Darryl F. Zanuck hired Philip Dunne to script a King David film, but Dunne's three-chapter version would have run four hours, so he pitched a film solely about David and Bathsheba, which Zanuck loved.
- For the shepherd-boy scene in David and Bathsheba, Alfred Newman used a solo oboe in the Lydian mode, and for David's Mount Gilboa turmoil a vibraphone, the instrument Miklós Rózsa had used for Peck's Spellbound (1945).
