The Bible: In The Beginning... (1966)

Humanity's oldest stories still speak to our deepest questions about faith, sin and survival. John Huston's epic "The Bible: In the Beginning...," produced by Dino De Laurentiis, brings to life the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis with sweeping scope and power. It opens with a breathtaking depiction of creation, as light, oceans, mountains and living creatures emerge in stunning nature photography. In the Garden of Eden, Adam (Michael Parks) and Eve (Ulla Bergryd), innocent and unclothed, live in harmony until the serpent's temptation leads to their exile. Their son Cain (Richard Harris), consumed by jealousy, murders his brother Abel (Franco Nero) and is cast out to wander the earth. Huston also narrates, speaks as the voice of God and plays Noah in a warm, often gently humorous turn, building the ark while his neighbors mock him and then herding pairs of real animals aboard as the great flood rises. Stephen Boyd plays the proud king who builds the Tower of Babel, only to see humanity scattered and divided by many languages. George C. Scott and Ava Gardner are Abraham and Sarah, whose long journey of faith includes the promise of a son, the destruction of the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Lot's wife looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt, and finally, God's command that Abraham sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. Peter O'Toole appears as the angels who bring God's messages. Filmed on location in Italy, Sicily and Egypt, and beautifully photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno, it's a grand, reverent spectacle. Toshiro Mayuzumi's score earned an Oscar nomination.