The Bible - Jeremiah [VHS]
The overwhelming conclusion of this 94-minute movie is that being a  prophet is tough. Jeremiah (Patrick Dempsey) is repeatedly imprisoned and beaten, dropped into a muddy well face first, and forced to  witness the stabbing death of his fiancée. And all for repeating messages  from God, most of them urging the Judeans to submit to Babylon's King  Nebuchadnezzar (Klaus Maria Brandauer). Dempsey gives an earnest performance, ably assisted by a strong supporting cast. Writer-director Harry  Winer spends the first part of the film on Jeremiah's formative years of  visions, moving on to his contentious relationship with King Zedekiah, who  ultimately--and tragically--listened to his general (Oliver Reed) rather than  the prophet. This bleak film ends with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians  and Jeremiah's self-comforting thought that the city will rise again. Parents  should be aware of some disturbing violence: in addition to Jeremiah's  fiancée's murder, Zedekiah sees his sons fatally stabbed before he is  killed.--Kimberly Heinrichs