Through the release of another biblically-themed Hollywood film this year, acclaimed director Ridley Scott revives an epic story in the film Exodus: Gods and Kings. The 150-minute film is spectacularly filmed and relatively well acted, bringing to new life the tale of Moses as he leads 600,000 Hebrew slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt.
The storyline begins on the western bank of the River Nile, in the year 1300 BCE, and initially focuses on the intimate yet rivalrous relationship between a grown Moses (Christian Bale) as General in the Egyptian army and Ramses (Joel Edgerton), the son of the Pharoah Seti (John Turturro). The exposition of Moses’ Hebrew lineage sets off his exit from the royal family and arrival in Midian, where he marries the beautiful Zipporah (Maria Valverde). Here, Moses has his first encounter with God and learns of God’s campaign of destruction against Egypt. He thus begins an enduring struggle against the newly enthroned Ramses as Pharoah of Egypt to gain the Israelites’ freedom.
What follows merits description as an imposing spectacle. In a series of extravagant action scenes moulded on Scott’s earlier films such as Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven, Exodus takes the viewer through a furore of clattering chariots, swords, shields and burning arrows. Scott uses CGI effects to represent the 10 plagues and parting of the Red Sea in striking fashion by introducing savage crocodiles, sky-blotting swarms of flies, locust infestations, skin infections, giant waves and tornadoes in a succession of calamities that can only be associated with the wrath of God.
While the film is far more faithful to Old Testament scripture than Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, there seems to be a somewhat needless incentive on behalf of the director to make the movie appealing to a secular audience. This tends to deprive Exodus of some fundamental elements from the epic tale that may have better served the movie on a number of levels.
Despite an abundance of cinematic licence, one can be left to wonder whether such an epic film could have channelled its special effects to emphasise, rather than overshadow, the incredulous ways of God. In what emerges as the director’s struggle with accepting the supernatural power of God, the natural cause of the plagues is amplified. This leads to the bloody despoiling of the Nile being attributed to crocodiles attacking humans and fish, and the opening of the Red Sea to an accentuated low tide. Of course, God works through natural events, and perhaps the omission of the echoing voice from heaven so characteristic of Cecil B DeMille’s Ten Commandments may be forgiven, yet at times Exodus fails to convey that profound “divinity” and “fear of an omnipotent God” on which the Old Testament is founded.
Exodus may not be entirely faithful to the text, but then have we seen a director who has been true to Biblical accuracy since Mel Gibson and his Passion of the Christ? Fact-checking aside, Exodus is a compelling movie about God’s ability to free man from slavery and enable a passing (from Greek exodus: meaning “departure”; literally, “a going out”) into freedom. It is bound to trigger meaningful conversations and perhaps encourage many to read this incredibly rich chapter of the Bible.
Rating: M (Mature themes and violence)
Release Date: 04 December 2014
Genre: Action
Running time: 150 mins
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley