Customer Reviews

The Story of Ruth [VHS]

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The Story of Ruth, the movie, adds a great deal to the biblical story of Ruth and changes some of the biblical narrative. I understand why there are additions to fill in some of the gaps, but I have never understood why writers and directors want to change the biblical story. For instance, Boaz's rival wants Ruth in this film. In the biblical story it appears his rival want's land, but is very willing to give up the land when he learns it comes with Ruth. The film shows Jewish disdain for Ruth because she is a Moabitess. Even Boaz initially shows disdain in the film. There is no such showing in the biblical story. Boaz appears gracious from the beginning in the Bible.

That having been said, the film is still worth watching and does capture the essence of the biblical story of Ruth.

Stuart Whitman, Jeff Morrow, Peggy Wood, and Elana Eden star in this screen version of the story of Ruth.

Ruth is a young Moabite woman who was raised from childhood to become a priestess and revere a pagan idol, but when she meets Mahlon the Judean (Tom Tryon), she's deeply affected by his belief in a merciful God who demans no human sacrifices, so she marries Mahlon, and when he dies, she renounces her own culture to remain with her mother-in-law, Naomi (Wood).

Now she comes into Judea, where she meets Boaz (Whitman), and the story begins anew. There is a wonderful depiction of loyalty, romance, faith, and devotion, and although the film is 132 minutes, it seems so short once you get into it.

Highly recommended, and the whole family with enjoy it.

The Story of Ruth was released in 1960 and I remember seeing it on a wide wide screen, curved, and in stereophonic sound; it was glorious, as were all Cinemascope films.

This film is not the Bible, but a meditation on it, factual, no, but it gets the point of The Book of Ruth across.

The best bits are a very moving perfromance by Peggy Wood as Naomi, and some stylish acting by Elena Eden and Stuart Whitman.The Wood scenes are excellent, and Naomi's prayer is quite striking, all filmed in a small house in earth tones...very good. Peggy Wood's many scenes of emotional upheaval are instances of excellent screen acting.

The Moabite scenes are crazy, as is all of that Chemosh stuff, but this film has great appeal...for die hards only, and especially for cinemascope afficionados of yore who can re-imagine it all even on the tiny screens we must put up with now, TV and movie alike. Buy and enjoy. Still not letterboxed.

I saw this movie just last night on AMC. There are two ways to look at this movie: Scripturally and story-wise.

Scripturally the movie is not that good. There is a lot of license with Scripture (not surprising considering how small the book of Ruth is). But the license isn't really congruent with revelation. For example, this movie makes Ruth out to be a high priestess of chemosh and married for about 1/2 second to a Jewish man just before he dies. Boaz is a bitter man who makes a Moabite man drink poisoned water. The roles of kinsmen-redeemer is not even close to accurately portrayed. These things were done to try to make the movie have additional action, but detracts from the very real story. Also, here Naomi does not change her name, Moab tries to track Ruth down and kill her, and so on and so forth.

From a story perspective, the story is your classic structure. Boy meets girl, girl is coy, boy gets into trouble, girl rescues, boy says sappy stuff, girl falls in love, boy dies, girl moves on, girl meets new man, girl marries new man. And the actors do a good job with this standard plot line. For a movie made 41 years ago, it's still enjoyable watching. The production is pretty good and the acting is good. The sets remind you of Ben-Hur. The pacing of the story is standard for a movie made at that time, kinda slow (for today's tastes).

Overall the movie is fun to watch as long as you can overlook the Scriptural errors.

When you watch this film, you have to think back and analyze the time period. The Story of Ruth was made at a time when Bible-themed films were being produced massively, i.e. The Ten commandments, The Robe, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Esther and the King. These films were not accurate, but they were entertaining, and gave us a sense of victory in faith. This film brings a simple messsage to life- Faith moves mountains and transforms lives.

I sam this movie as a teenager and still I love it - The scenes belong to the most beautiful romantic "oriental"scenes I've ever seen. It is true that the biblical story has been changed according to typical Hollywood manner - but despite that it is made with much effort and more religios bias than others. This Film is Henry Koster`s best piece and a classic as well as "Ben Hur", "The Robe" or others. It`s only too bad that it has become forgotten and is still not available on DVD even if there are people waiting for it to come.

Great Movie, should be seen by more women. It is an awesome example of virtue and love. I would watch it over and over again. The quality of the movie is wonderful

A Biblical Story about the beautiful Moabite Ruth ( Elana Eden ), who was brought up to be a priestess of the stone god Chemosh. When she mets a goldsmith, the Jewish slave Mahlon ( Tom Tryon, who stars in The Cardinal ), she is deeply affected because his religion do not require human sacrifices, so she embraces the Ten Commandements and the Jewish laws. Then Ruth and her fiancé Mahlon are pursued by the King of Moab. Ruth knows Naomi ( Peggy Wood ), Mahlon's mother, and marries him but he is killed by the Moabites. Ruth and Naomi must run away from Moab, nowadays Jordan, going to Judea, and a true and deep friendship based on mutual trust joins both women. Later in Judea big problems arise when people know about Ruth's past and she is accused of idolatry. Two men, Boaz ( Stuart Whitman ), a bit rude but noble and the self-seeking Tob ( Jeff Morrow ) help both women and begin a competition to conquer Ruth's love. Ruth goes to court to prove that her Jewish beliefs are true. The trial is brief and it is stunning how easily things change due to Ruth's witty remarks. The final contest, between Boaz and Tom to marry Ruth, is as bright as the trial, and now Naomi suggest to Ruth the brilliant idea to marry the one she likes though he has less law rights to marry her than the other one.
King David and Jesus were Ruth's descendants. Nice color spectacle and sets, fair performances. A good movie!.

I am a movie lover since childhood. "The Story of Ruth" holds every emotion that humans possess. There is a wonderful love story intertwined throughout the plot. In the beginning of the movie there is saddness of family losses. There is supsense at Ruth being chased by evil and finally greed shines its beady eyes at Ruth. Will Ruth get her one true love? If you've read the "Good Book" then you know the ending. The movie is a real keeper for me, but I am a lover of movies. Kathy

I love the story of Ruth, but unfortunately this movie is more like a Hollywood fairytale. They make up a strange story of Ruth's childhood and present her as a child sold for service to pagan god temple. They also create their own story of how Naomi's husband and sons were killed. Where do they come up with this stuff? The movie rarely follows scripture. I was terribly disappointed and would NEVER recommend this movie because it is so far from the truth. If it doesn't follow God's word, there's no reason to watch it.