My homework last night was to watch a movie. I’d like to focus on Abraham a little bit in one of my classes. It feels like he doesn’t get much attention in my lessons. It just so happens that there is a movie about his life that is pretty faithful to the Bible. But I needed to screen it before showing it, just to make sure it wasn’t too boring. The movie is three hours long, which I find to be just a little too much. But the first half of the movie covers only the call of Abraham, and his trip to Egypt. It’s mostly filler stuff that doesn’t appear in the Bible.
At the halfway point of the movie, there’s a screen that says “Many years later”. It’s the perfect place to start. Lot’s men and Abraham’s men are fighting over the land, and Lot and Abraham decide to split. From that point on, the movie is mostly just straight out of the Bible. Ehhxcellent!
But the best thing about the movie by far is that the actor playing Abraham is the guy who was Dumbledore in the first Harry Potter movie. Ha! It’s the story of Abraham starring Dumbledore!
I just spent five minutes reading about Richard Harris’ life. What I already knew about him was that – if you’re a fan of Mad Men – he’s the father of the actor who plays Lane Pryce, the English finance guy.
My class has been spending a long time on the Abraham-to-Moses part of the Bible. I like it quite a lot because we keep coming back to God’s promise to Abraham: Children and land.
And the chap can sing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WttwzF-VTss&feature=related
He was born 1 day before my dad…literally.
Btw: Did he make a good Abraham? I don’t suppose he got to say “Accio!” in this film, huh?
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Isn’t he from Camelot?
And what aboit the comparison between abraham in the Bible being willing to sacrifice his beloved son for ” the greater good” and Dumbledore being willing to sacrifice Harry for the greater good.
Miriam, that’s interesting. I hadn’t made the connection before, but there is a definite parallel. And if we take that comparison forward to Jesus, Harry is a willing participant in his own sacrifice.
I know there are Bible studies that use popular movies for jump-off points in discussion. …and now that I’ve googled it, I see that there are a few for Harry Potter too. Cool 🙂