“Follow me, and you will be free. Stay, and you will perish.”
The H-Bomb: 2014 A.D. The year the Bible movie attempted a comeback. First, we were treated to Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, which was a fail of Biblical proportions, then came Left Behind, technically an adaptation of the Book of Revelation, and you can read my review to see how that laughable disasterpiece turned out. Finally, last December, legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott threw his hat into the religious movie ring with Exodus: Gods and Kings, and once again, the critics ravaged it, and it fell short at the box office.
But, as Sir Ridley himself once said, DVD provides films that were overlooked theatrically a second chance to find an audience and flourish, and now that Exodus has arrived on DVD/Blu, I shall put aside everything the naysayers have said about it, and judge it for myself. If you’ve seen The Ten Commandments, or The Prince of Egypt, you know the story: Moses (Christian Bale) and Ramesses (Joel Edgerton) grew up as princes in Egypt, where the Hebrews have languished as slaves for over four hundred years.
With the health of the Pharaoh Seti (John Turturro) rapidly declining, Ramesses is set to take the throne, with Moses as his general and closest advisor. Then, a secret from Moses’ past is made known (Spoiler: He’s a Hebrew), and Ramesses banishes him from Egypt. During his nine years in exile, Moses gets married, has a son, and becomes a shepherd. One night, after sustaining a serious injury, Moses sees a burning bush, and encounters a young boy (Isaac Andrews) who identifies himself as “I am.”
This child, whose presence Moses may or may not be hallucinating, instructs him to return to Egypt and free the slaves. Once Moses’ body has recovered, he sets about doing that, first approaching Ramesses directly, and telling him, “Pharaoh, let my people go,” or words to that effect. Ramesses, being the short-sighted one that he is, politely tells Moses to fuck off, and Moses comes to the realization that freeing 400,000 to 600,000 slaves (the movie can’t seem to settle on an exact number) is not going to be that easy.
So, the one time general organizes a resistance to the Pharaoh, planning out a number of surgical strikes that, in modern parlance, would be known as terrorist attacks. As this happens, some very peculiar events, like swarms of locusts, livestock dying, and water turning to blood, start taking place all over Egypt…
Exodus: Gods and Kings is exactly the sort of Biblical movie one would expect from the director of Gladiator. Personally, I prefer sci-fi Ridley Scott (Alien, Prometheus, Blade Runner) to historical epic Ridley Scott, though I am a fan of Gladiator, and I feel that his director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven is one of the most criminally under-rated films of the last decade. What Scott brings to his take on Moses is that gritty, grimy aesthetic that he brought to his earlier period pieces, and it’s a look that suits the material well.
Many accused Scott’s approach as being too dark and somber, but this is a dark and somber story. Remember, there was a plague that killed all the first born children in Egypt, and only the families who slaughtered a lamb and splashed its blood on their door were spared. There are only so many ways one can approach this material, folks. Yes, there are some down and dirty battle scenes that were thrown in for entertainment value, as well as a climax where Ramesses’ army pursues Moses and his flock to the Red Sea, but Sir Ridley is entitled to a little creative license. At least he didn’t shoehorn any lame rock monsters into his story.
What I can agree with many of Exodus’ detractors on, to an extent, is the assertion that Scott favors visuals and production design over character development. Bale’s interpretation of Moses is that of a brooding badass, who could very well be a little nuts. His dour take on the Biblical figure works fine for the story, though it does overall seem a bit one-note. Edgerton is actually given the more complex role as the conflicted Ramesses. Early on, he’s torn over Moses, who he clearly loves like a brother, but is forced to turn against. That inner struggle is compelling, and Edgerton conveys it superbly.
Later on, however, Ramesses becomes much more of a typical movie villain, and therefore is not nearly as interesting. The supporting cast is almost entirely wasted. Turturro is solid as the principled Pharaoh Seti, who has grave reservations of turning the throne over to Ramesses, though he exits the picture far too soon. Ben Kingsley, as the Jew who tells Moses of his true heritage, gets one good scene, then spends the rest of the film standing in the background. Sigourney Weaver has about two or three lines of dialogue, and then disappears, and Aaron Paul is credited, though I couldn’t even spot him anywhere in the movie.
Yes, more could have been done with this supporting cast, though I think the film does nail the central conflict between Moses and Ramesses, and that is what’s really important, here. As for Scott hiring caucasian actors to play Egyptians… come on, look at Charlton Heston, look at Yul Brynner. Those guys couldn’t be less Mediterranean if they tried. The actors’ race is a nonissue, so please stop playing social justice warrior and kindly shut the fuck up about it.
Exodus: Gods and Kings is not a perfect picture, though it’s not the failure that many made it out to be. It’s gorgeously shot and moves along at a steady enough pace for a 150 minute feature, and overall, is fairly entertaining. There are some visually stunning set-pieces (a visceral alligator attack, the parting of the Red Sea) that are an incredible sight to behold, even on the small screen. It’s not the greatest movie about Moses ever made, nor is it even close to being Scott’s best work, but as a modern take on an age old story, it’s not so bad at all.
