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"King David" wants desperately to be the "Lawrence of Arabia" of its time, and it shows in almost every frame of Bruce Beresford's epic visual undertaking. There is no battle sequence he will not beef up, no set he will not envision on a grand scale; to more aptly describe it, the film is almost Biblical in scale. It's only a shame that this also happens to be one of the more gargantuan examples of style over substance since Joseph Mankiewicz helmed the biggest white elephant of them all, "Cleopatra," back in 1963. The plot covers the basic ground of the life of David (played as an adult by Richard Gere), who was born into the world a shepard boy and selected to assume the throne of Israel. The jealousy of then-king Saul (Edward Woodward) in the wake of David's defeat over the Philistine warrior Goliath leads to his fleeing the country; his return is marked by Saul's death in battle, after which he becomes the King of Israel, taking on multiple wives as well as neighboring enemies who would pose a threat to the Israelites. ***

It would be this sense of power that would ultimately result in David's undoing in the eyes of God; he just didn't know when to call it quits. The same can be said of Beresford and his team of filmmakers, who work so hard to produce so little. The story is narrated needlessly as a means to guide us through a series of unfocused, dull events that lack resonance or power; despite several examinations of points such as David's obsession with Bathsheba (Alice Krige), we never really have a sense of him as a human being. This can be attributed to the cardboard performance from Richard Gere, who just doesn't cut it in the role; or perhaps we should blame writers Andrew Birkin and James Costigan, whose screenplay ambles on and on without any sense of focus. Or maybe it's just Beresford, who pumps the movie full of so much production design and Biblical pageantry that it quickly becomes tiresome and, well, boring. There's just no emotion to this would-be epic; when compared to the likes of "Ben-Hur" or "The Ten Commandments," "King David" lacks juice or power.

Presented in big, beautiful 2.35:1 widescreen, the anamorphic transfer for "King David" looks very nice, indeed. Struck from a clean source print that features some slight film grain and no other visible blemishes, the image benefits from above-average small object detail and sharp edges that aren't too hampered by enhancement halos. Colors have come through nicely, with good fleshtone reproduction and solid blacks throughout. Contrast and shadow detail show some signs of fade now and then, but for the most part they remain decent. ***

The audio is presented in Dolby 2.0 Surround, and while it's not as good as 5.1, considering the material it does quite well. Surrounds are engaged with the score and some slight sound effects more than expected, and imaging, although not entirely clean, gets the job done. Dialogue sounds natural, and the balance between the high and low ends is quite good. The .1 LFE is engaged sporadically during the more intense moments, but isn't a frequent entity.