My very biased review of the new movie "Exodus:
Gods and Kings"
The phrase " I read the book and the book was better" is heard much too often from movie goers almost universally, so I won't descend into that banal and obvious cliche.
Hollywood does what Hollywood does: make entertainment for the masses worldwide, so it is obvious it will create visual story lines that will please most people just a bit and displease as many others, particularly when a plot is borrowed from a popular and well known piece of literature. We have seen Shakespeare's works bastardized over and over again, for example, so it is no surprise they have done the same over the ages with Biblical plot lines.
Some are pleased that the secular tycoons in "Hollyland " are embracing more and more stories based in the Holy Land. After all, It shows an interest in religion after a decades long pause, they explain. While that might be almost true, they delve into subject matter which is as foreign to them as a Tea Party rally. They take the Holy Bible as if it were another book from the library shelves and liberally apply their biases to the stories; add a bit of romance, lots of blood and gore, explosions, special effects, banal dialogue, mix it all together with a very loud soundtrack....tie it all up in a bow and wish "Happy generic Holidays" to the bored movie goers looking to be entertained between raucous office parties and last minute shopping.
So far, no surprises, it is a formula tried and true to those in "the industry".
This latest Xmas gift from them is "Exodus: Gods and Kings".
We are offered the main character, a Moses who is as ruthless and murderously vile as his adopted family , an antagonist in King Ramses who despite being a slave master and a sociopath, is given a pass because he and his adopted brother Moses are equally despicable. Can you say " moral relativity"?
We are introduced to god ( I used lower case here on purpose) who is reduced to a sniveling, pedantic bully-boy who appears and disappears like a ghoul in a Steven King novel.....never offering uplifting or kind words, but rather always whining and as precociously annoying as a typical middle school male.. Something I am much familiar with!
The subtext of social uprising is also present. Give a Liberal an opportunity, and he will insert it in a TV show or movie plot. The Hebrews are portrayed almost as
the ancient version of today's Wall Street occupiers while the Egyptians as the rich, corrupt slave masters who were probably following the teachings of Pharaoh Limbaugh on " ROX (hieroglyphics) News" While historically true, ( the part that the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews that is) the portrayal in the flick is trivialized and shown without context. Had they done their due diligence, they could have consulted the Text and found that God's hand in saving Moses' life, having him live amongst the Egyptian rulers, in calling the Hebrews "His people", in fulfilling His promises as foretold by the prophets and the ultimate preparation for the coming of a future Messiah were integral in explaining the events....in context.
Even the parting of the Red Sea is offered as an unexplained cataclysmic phenomenon (global warming??) occurring as a low tide event that then reversed itself tsunami style and caused the drowning of most Egyptian warriors and an even handed number of Hebrews, just to make it "fair".
Of course I can hear my Liberal family members and friends laughing at my paranoia and my right wing loony vision of the world. (There is no war on Christmas they proclaim, it's all made up on Fox News! ) I could go on with more examples, but I don't feel compelled to, since my readers will embellish and fill in the blanks with their own biased examples and anecdotes one way or another.
Let me just say this....according to the film makers, all this occurred many centuries BCE, if you turn away from the screen for a minute, you may have missed this little gem. By using the term BC, they would have had to acknowledge Christ, something abhorrent to them. Before the Christian Era (BCE) is much more palatable to seculars who hope to cash in on a story from The Holy Bible in order to make money around the Jewish and Christian Holidays. Need I say more?
Those who have never read the Book will come away either confused or less open to the Judeo-Christian faith. Those of us who have read and studied the Book will just shake our collective heads and move on, praying and hoping for a conversation in order to have the opportunity to share the real story.
In short: I liked the title, the special effects, the costumes, the acting.
Merry belated CHRISTmas.
The end.
Gods and Kings"
The phrase " I read the book and the book was better" is heard much too often from movie goers almost universally, so I won't descend into that banal and obvious cliche.
Hollywood does what Hollywood does: make entertainment for the masses worldwide, so it is obvious it will create visual story lines that will please most people just a bit and displease as many others, particularly when a plot is borrowed from a popular and well known piece of literature. We have seen Shakespeare's works bastardized over and over again, for example, so it is no surprise they have done the same over the ages with Biblical plot lines.
Some are pleased that the secular tycoons in "Hollyland " are embracing more and more stories based in the Holy Land. After all, It shows an interest in religion after a decades long pause, they explain. While that might be almost true, they delve into subject matter which is as foreign to them as a Tea Party rally. They take the Holy Bible as if it were another book from the library shelves and liberally apply their biases to the stories; add a bit of romance, lots of blood and gore, explosions, special effects, banal dialogue, mix it all together with a very loud soundtrack....tie it all up in a bow and wish "Happy generic Holidays" to the bored movie goers looking to be entertained between raucous office parties and last minute shopping.
So far, no surprises, it is a formula tried and true to those in "the industry".
This latest Xmas gift from them is "Exodus: Gods and Kings".
We are offered the main character, a Moses who is as ruthless and murderously vile as his adopted family , an antagonist in King Ramses who despite being a slave master and a sociopath, is given a pass because he and his adopted brother Moses are equally despicable. Can you say " moral relativity"?
We are introduced to god ( I used lower case here on purpose) who is reduced to a sniveling, pedantic bully-boy who appears and disappears like a ghoul in a Steven King novel.....never offering uplifting or kind words, but rather always whining and as precociously annoying as a typical middle school male.. Something I am much familiar with!
The subtext of social uprising is also present. Give a Liberal an opportunity, and he will insert it in a TV show or movie plot. The Hebrews are portrayed almost as
the ancient version of today's Wall Street occupiers while the Egyptians as the rich, corrupt slave masters who were probably following the teachings of Pharaoh Limbaugh on " ROX (hieroglyphics) News" While historically true, ( the part that the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews that is) the portrayal in the flick is trivialized and shown without context. Had they done their due diligence, they could have consulted the Text and found that God's hand in saving Moses' life, having him live amongst the Egyptian rulers, in calling the Hebrews "His people", in fulfilling His promises as foretold by the prophets and the ultimate preparation for the coming of a future Messiah were integral in explaining the events....in context.
Even the parting of the Red Sea is offered as an unexplained cataclysmic phenomenon (global warming??) occurring as a low tide event that then reversed itself tsunami style and caused the drowning of most Egyptian warriors and an even handed number of Hebrews, just to make it "fair".
Of course I can hear my Liberal family members and friends laughing at my paranoia and my right wing loony vision of the world. (There is no war on Christmas they proclaim, it's all made up on Fox News! ) I could go on with more examples, but I don't feel compelled to, since my readers will embellish and fill in the blanks with their own biased examples and anecdotes one way or another.
Let me just say this....according to the film makers, all this occurred many centuries BCE, if you turn away from the screen for a minute, you may have missed this little gem. By using the term BC, they would have had to acknowledge Christ, something abhorrent to them. Before the Christian Era (BCE) is much more palatable to seculars who hope to cash in on a story from The Holy Bible in order to make money around the Jewish and Christian Holidays. Need I say more?
Those who have never read the Book will come away either confused or less open to the Judeo-Christian faith. Those of us who have read and studied the Book will just shake our collective heads and move on, praying and hoping for a conversation in order to have the opportunity to share the real story.
In short: I liked the title, the special effects, the costumes, the acting.
Merry belated CHRISTmas.
The end.
