“Exodus: Gods and Kings” – a shorter take

“Exodus: Gods and Kings” – a shorter take January 26, 2015

 

(20th Century Fox)
(20th Century Fox)

Director Ridley Scott’s imagining of the first half of the Book of Exodus is dramatic and majestic. We meet Moses (Christian Bale) and his “cousin,” Ramses (Joel Edgerton), who have been brought up together. When Pharaoh (an almost unrecognizable John Turturro) gives them almost matching swords and then switches them, he tells both men to watch out for the other. It is the beginning of a sibling-like rivalry that will frame the rest of the story.

They go into battle, where Moses emerges as a military leader, which is not how the Scriptures describe him. He is not a general, but a leader whom God has chosen to liberate the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.

Scott tells his version of the Exodus story on a very large canvas. It rivals Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 epic The Ten Commandments in sight and sound, but not in character development. Scott only hits the high points of the Book of Exodus, and seems reluctant to concede the miraculous. His image of God, whom Moses meets at the burning bush, is unlike any I have ever encountered in film.

Seeing the film will hopefully inspire people to read the Book of Exodus to understand not only crossing the Red Sea, but also what the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai actually means. CLICK HERE for my column at St. Anthony Messenger


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