What Exodus: Gods and Kings Gets Right

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/394599/what-exodus-gods-and-kings-gets-right-josh-craddock ^ | 12-13-2014 | Josh Craddock

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NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE~ DECEMBER 13, 2014 4:00 AM

What Exodus: Gods and Kings Gets Right

Ridley Scott offers some fresh perspectives without straying unforgivably far from Biblical orthodoxy.

By Josh Craddock

Joel Edgerton (left) and Christian Bale in Exodus: Gods and Kings

Bringing familiar Bible stories to the silver screen is a risky enterprise. A director must avoid mere rehash of previous tellings (think Cecil B. DeMille’s opus The Ten Commandments) but without allowing artistic license to veer off into offensive parody. That’s a difficult task when some 3.8 billion people believe the source matter is sacred revelation from God himself. In Exodus: Gods and Kings, Ridley Scott teases out fresh internal struggles within the major characters without straying unforgivably far from Biblical orthodoxy.

Scott introduces us to an agnostic Moses (Christian Bale) and his prideful and equally skeptical adoptive brother Ramses (Joel Edgerton). When Ramses ascends the throne, absolute power works its corrupting influence, leading him to buy into his own divinity cult and turn Egypt into a Bronze Age fascist state. As Moses learns the truth about his secretive past, he flees to Midian and into the arms of the enchanting Zipporah (María Valverde in a stellar, breakout role). On Mount Sinai, Moses loses his religious skepticism and returns as God’s general to deliver Israel. Throughout, Scott raises the questions Who is my brother? Who are my people? Who is my God?

It’s worth seeing Exodus in theaters solely for the experience of watching the ten plagues unfold on a big screen in 3D. Unlike the rhythmic refrain of “Let my people go!” that punctuated each plague in The Ten Commandments, Scott’s sequence is a crescendo of the spectacular and grotesque, making one feel as though swarms of locusts have truly invaded the cinema. In this battle between deities, the self-importance of Pharaoh — who gives voice to every human’s rebellious cry, “I am God!” – is no match for the might of the God of Israel. Scott captures the panic and devastation that each catastrophic plague brings upon the people, reminding us that “when the wicked rule, the people groan.”

Pharaoh’s adviser expresses an anachronistically modern desire to explain miraculous occurrences as natural phenomena, no matter how improbable. Scott’s depiction of the plagues leaves room for Pharaoh’s adviser to comically interpret them as the result of natural causes. As David Hume put it in his famous argument against miracles, “Nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it ever happen in the common course of nature. It is no miracle that a man, seemingly in good health, should die on a sudden: because such a kind of death, though more unusual than any other, has yet been frequently observed to happen.” Such an unusual death, however, is precisely the miraculous sign that breaks Pharaoh’s hardened heart. By the time he reaches the Red Sea, there can be no doubt that the I AM alone is God.

In his most significant departure from the Biblical account, Scott personifies the God of Israel as a capricious, petulant, and sometimes vengeful young boy (played by eleven-year-old Isaac Andrews). Christian Bale defended the boy-God portrayal in pre-release interviews, pointing out the difficulty of representing God in film and wondering what plausible alternatives might be. Admittedly, bringing in Morgan Freeman to voice The Almighty might be cliché. But Scott’s portrayal implies a sort of Marcionism, the early Christian heresy that the Old Testament God is a morally underdeveloped tyrant and different from the benevolent God of the New Testament.

Perhaps the reason we doubt Moses’s success in Exodus is that we question his deity’s truthworthiness and reliability. Moses wonders whether God’s final plague is “cruel” and “inhumane.” Grieving for his lost son, Ramses asks Moses, “What kind of fanatics worship such a God?” Israel’s redemption was costly, foreshadowing the infinitely greater cost of mankind’s redemption at the Cross.

At this point, it’s hard to avoid comparisons with the other big-screen Bible story of 2014. Both Noah director Darren Aronofsky and Scott (neither of whom are religious) project their own spiritual anxieties onto their characters, posing provocative questions about God’s justice and mercy. The Exodus script suffers from occasional tacky dialogue, a few missing logical links in story flow, and some Hollywood embellishment, but at least there are no rock giants or thinly veiled environmental-propaganda messages. Exodus is a better movie than Noah, both in its pacing and in its fidelity to the spirit of the Scriptural account.

— Josh Craddock is a writer living in New York City.

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NRO Slideshows~ Movie Preview: Exodus: Gods and Kings

[madison10]

...absolute power works its corrupting influence, leading him to buy into his own divinity cult and turn Egypt into a Bronze Age fascist state.

Really. Wonder how THAT happens and what could possibly go wrong?

God as a child just wouldn't work for me. I think he's about 25-30ish...forever.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It seems out of character for an embodied God to be speaking out of the bush. It’s not hard to portray a speaking bush on film so I don’t get this business about having no choice.

[ctdonath2]

Apparently it’s not that Scott portrays God as a child, but the child is the concrete manifestation/mouthpiece of God. Early on in Scripture, angels carrying God’s messages were portrayed as youths. Movies being what they are, viewers need a more believable “voice of God” than words emanating from a burning bush. I appreciate the problem, as I’ve not found any media depiction of God’s voice a satisfactory & believable form.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Sorry. Any movie with Bruce Wayne as Moses cannot be taken seriously.

[ConorMacNessa]

I will not see this film. I know what Exodus says and I won't tolerate some modern-day heathen telling me what it means.

Among other things, the moral equivalence advanced by this film between the pagan gods of the Egyptians and the God of Israel is repugnant.

If you disagree, please give me an example of one moral principal from their pantheon of dog and bird gods that endures today.

"Dia shábháil ar fad anseo!"

This is the Arabic character "nun" – the first letter of the word "Nazarene." I post it as my avatar in solidarity with people of all faiths suffering persecution at the hands of Islam. Many of them are members of the oldest of our Christian Communities, dating from the days of the Apostles. They endure cruel, merciless and unrelenting persecution. They are Orthodox and Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical, Coptic, Pentecostal, and Baptist. To the persecutors they, and we, are all "Nazarenes."

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

That is enough info for me to never see it. To me, portraying God that way is blasphemy. I can’t be a part of that.

[Alex Murphy]

Sorry. Any movie with Bruce Wayne as Moses cannot be taken seriously.

Allow me to correct you. Any movie with Patrick Bateman as Moses cannot be taken seriously.

[Moonmad27]

Alan Rickman played the Voice of God in Dogma. At least that film got the casting right!

[Publius]

George Carlin’s best role.

[Bratch]

Michael Medved loved it.

“GODS AND KINGS”: A MATTER OF CHOICE

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Cinematically, this EXODUS is brilliant and moving, raising deeper emotions about this sacred story than THE TEN COMMANDMENTS from 58 years ago.

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[GeronL]

Medved is a fool too

[Swordmaker]

Among other things, the moral equivalence advanced by this film between the pagan gods of the Egyptians and the God of Israel is repugnant.

It is not our modern sensibilities that are at play in the Exodus of the movie or the Exodus of the Bible, but the beliefs of the Egyptians and of the Hebrews who did hold those thoughts in their respective religions. Even the Bible shows us that despite the very literal evidence of their own recent experiences the erstwhile Egyptian slaves were pretty fickle about whom to worship, being wiling to toss aside their belief in their unseen God (which is why I have serious problems with Ridley Scott's interpretation of God as a visible 11 year old boy) in favor of the Golden Apis Bull of Egypt, hoping to perhaps re-establish a relationship with the pantheon of Egypt and regain lost favor.

THEY believed in this moral equivalence. . . it was not fully developed yet. YHWH had to punish them with 40 years of wandering in the wilderness for that transgression.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Him too.

[smoothsailing]

Well I certainly have no intention of paying good money to see this film. I havn’t seen a movie in a theater in over 30 years and I’m not going to start now.

At some point it will be available on cable for free and maybe I’ll check out the special effects on my 42” Vizio HD TV. That will be the extent of my interest.

[ontap]

having Moses portrayed as a union negotiator is repugnant to me!!!

[ConorMacNessa]

And after three millennia we still face the same assertion of moral equivalence. Our modern sensibilities are not in play - morality is in play, and what was once the common ground of Christianity has been supplanted by some hedonistic imperative.

I do not know whether we are in the final days, but I do believe we are witnessing the death of Western Civilization.

I hope I'm wrong.

"Dia shábháil ar fad anseo!"

This is the Arabic character "nun" – the first letter of the word "Nazarene." I post it as my avatar in solidarity with people of all faiths suffering persecution at the hands of Islam. Many of them are members of the oldest of our Christian Communities, dating from the days of the Apostles. They endure cruel, merciless and unrelenting persecution. They are Orthodox and Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical, Coptic, Pentecostal, and Baptist. To the persecutors they, and we, are all "Nazarenes."

[Salvation]

You don’t believe that Christ born in a manger is God? The second person of the Holy Trinity?

Read up on the miracles of Santo Nino.

[Dick Vomer]

I like to think of Jesus like with giant eagles wings, and singin’ lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with like an angel band and I’m in the front row and I’m hammered drunk!..............or..............

I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo T-Shirt because it says I want to be formal, but I’m here to party........or

Eight Pound, Six Ounce, Newborn Baby Jesus, in his golden, fleece diapers, with your curled-up, fat, balled-up little fists pawin’ at the air.., lyin’ there in his ghost manger, just lookin’ at his Baby Einstein developmental videos, learnin’ ‘bout shapes and colors.

[Swordmaker]

Oh, I agree, Conor. The question is, do we try to show the situation historically in an historical play, or do we change the story? Do we have the Hebrews NOT worship the Apis Bull? Do we have Pharaoh throw over his beliefs in his pagan pantheon, which culturally and historically survived his nation's and culture's encounter with the God of Israel for another 1000 years or so (by the way, I do not think the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Ramases II, called the Great, but an earlier Pharaoh who lived about 360 years earlier because Ramases the Great conquered Jerusalem, a city that had not yet been founded, seeing as how the Hebrews had a lot of wandering, conquering of Canaan, etc., yet to do, before getting around to founding it.), in favor of anachronistically embracing a one God religion because of his experiences with the ten plagues? No, we should tell the story as it happened. . . warts and all in God's chosen people. Even Moses had some pretty bad warts.

Are we heading down the path of the final days? Could be. I always find it amusing that movies about those final days have religious people desperately running around trying to PREVENT them from coming about. . . when God says they will occur. . . and must occur for the Second Coming to also occur. I think they would be the LAST ones to prevent the fulfillment of prophecy.