Excruciating Exodus Movie Exudes Errors
Exodus: Gods and Kings reeks with wretchedness
Note: This discussion of Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) contains spoilers.
Colossal expense equals colossal waste for the new Ridley Scott movie Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014). The story has been changed so much from the Biblical narrative that it is barely recognizable.
My mother always taught me that if I don’t have anything nice to say, I should say nothing at all. If I were to follow her policy, this review of Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) would end now.
I should say I am not a purist. I understand that Biblical material needs to be added to in order to make a motion picture. After all, very rarely does the Bible give a physical description of a character. I also understand that changes might need to be made for technical reasons or to make the story flow—though Scott’s explanation for the racial make-up of his casting falls flat. Heck, I even like Dan Brown books. Sure, I notice the inaccuracies, but the man tells good stories. So why am I annoyed that Exodus: Gods and Kings bears almost no resemblance to the Biblical narrative? Because it pretends to be something that it is not.
It is beyond me to understand why one of the most action-packed, intense Biblical narratives needed such dramatic altering by writers Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Jeffrey Caine and Steven Zaillian. Their story was so different that if they didn’t use the Biblical names and released the same movie with a different title, I might not have even recognized it—especially with all the Arthurian mythology woven in—though the caricature and stereotypes that ran through the film shoved the viewer in that direction.
Not only have the exciting Biblical elements, such as a lonely baby floating down a raging Nile, a hero with a speech impediment sent to speak to the most powerful leader in the world, a brotherly side-kick, been edited out of the movie, God has been turned into a petulant child. This is the precise opposite of the narrative, which depicts a God who has control of every element of nature, including death and Pharaoh. But movie Moses’ exasperated cry, “Who are you punishing?” misses the textual point that the Hebrews were not subjected to the majority of the plagues. I should not be surprised as it seems no one involved with this movie has ever read the Biblical account. This comic visually demonstrates the plague of darkness that affected the Egyptians but not the Israelites (Exodus 10:22–23). Image: bit.ly/1C3fxnd courtesy Barer at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.
The movie is manipulative in its anti-religious polemic. All the supernatural elements of the story (which are in the Bible to make theological points about the God of the Hebrews and thus are literarily important to the characterization of God, regardless of one’s faith position) are stripped away or given a “scientific” explanation within the dialogue. It’s amazing that the movie had time for that when it rushed through the plagues. To my count, only eight or possibly nine were depicted (though the alligator plague might be an improvement on the text). The Egyptian priestess (apparently there was only one in Memphis) and the prophet are slain for incompetence. Moses is a firm atheist until he suffers a traumatic brain injury which makes him hallucinate a boy-god. Which brings us to the petulant, malicious boy-god, who plagues the Hebrews alongside the Egyptians, ignores Moses’ pleas for mercy and binds the Hebrews to him without choice in the final plague. All of these alterations were designed to make religion look senile. This is misdirection at best considering the blatant attempt to attract religious viewers with the movie’s “Biblical” subject matter.
My intention was to create a list of all the changes made to the text, the historical inaccuracies and the archaeological brutalities, but there are just too many of them. To do this would result in a review that was twice the length of the script itself. Even where I might be able to offer praise at the movie’s use of paleo-Hebrew (a single rudimentary mem), it was written on a full sheet of papyrus by a slave. Seriously?! What slave can afford to buy papyrus? Not to mention can read or write? I know I am not supposed to ask these questions, but I am also supposed to find at least something nice to say about everything. I guess I am just not very good at doing what I am supposed to.
Leaving aside the mutilations to the text, the historical record and the archaeological remains, the melodramatic nature of the characters made them phony and dislikable. Thus, even if you can put everything else aside, I would still recommend you skip this incredible waste of time and money.
For more on Hollywood movies, read “The ‘Gods of Egypt’ Movie: A Mess of Anachronisms and Exoticization,” “Rock Giants in Noah” and “Blending into One: The ‘Left Behind’ Movie, the Book of Revelation and the Rapture.”
Ellen White, Ph.D. (Hebrew Bible, University of St. Michael’s College), is the senior editor at the Biblical Archaeology Society. She has taught at five universities across the U.S. and Canada and spent research leaves in Germany and Romania. She has also been actively involved in digs at various sites in Israel.
More on the Exodus in Bible History Daily:
Exodus in the Bible and the Egyptian Plagues
Who Was Moses? Was He More than an Exodus Hero?
Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination
Searching for Biblical Mt. Sinai
Related Posts
Must-Read Free eBooks
Unlock Unlimited Access to the Bible's Past
Unlock Unlimited Access to the Bible's Past
Become an All-Access Member to explore the Bible's rich history. Get Biblical Archaeology Review in print, full online access, and FREE online talks. Plus, enjoy special Travel/Study discounts. Don't miss out—begin your journey today!
Thanks for this review. I will definitely give this movie a skip. Hollywood has this unnecessary tendency to over-embellish on the facts when the facts themselves are dramatic enough. For example, Braveheart and the recent movie about Noah. Grrrrrr!
Why is Hollywood so afraid of the Bible? It doesn’t make sense to me that they replace the mystery and miraculous with “more acceptable” explanations on one hand and release their own brands of miraculous on the other as though the Biblical account is inadequate. They give us Howarts and not Moses? Of course God wasn’t consulted at all when the writers, producers and directors were hired. I passing on this one.
The exodus never happened. Its just imagination. There is no proof at all. See even Finkelstein and Silberman. So that movie also just “something” based on that fiction.
I like your review. Thank you for speaking out–and up for God!
I’ve long said we each must choose weather we believe in God or not. I choose to believe! Obviously from the comments, many do not. I suggest they begin reading the Bible. It is the oldest book written in continuous use-could so many people over ?3,000 years of time all be wrong? I think one purpose of the Bible was to give us all instruction in how to live peaceful, prosperous lives. If followed-we will-if not- well, look at America’s decline in the last 50 years, since the Bible, and God, have been pushed out of our daily lives. Do you not see a correlation? If I were the biggest atheist ever (but smart)(oxymoron :))- I would want everyone on earth to learn and follow the Bible’s rules just so I could have a better -peaceful life! I would definitely NOT try to stop people from believing in God. After all, what does it hurt (assuming no excess-but that argument doesn’t work). It’s evil creeping in that causes people to bash God and His word! Who said, “The devil’s biggest victory was in making people believe he doesn’t exist.”
I’m sure the critics of the Jewish reworking of the Gilgamesh flood myth were just as disappointed at some of the changes to the original story. They did like the name change from Ut-Napishtim to Noah because that is easier to say. It’s just sad that the unknown author of the Jewish Flood Myth didn’t stay 100% true to the original story found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Of course the Jewish Flood story is just one of hundreds found around the world. Maybe there was just too many flood stories to pick just one to copy! http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flood-myths.html
Well said, Dr. White!
Dear Ellen,
But who has made the most mistakes: the film or classical theologians?
If you read Josephus (Judaism’s greatest historian), he clearly states that the Israelite Exodus was the Hyksos Exodus (and this the Israelites and Hyksos were the same people. If so, then we have the following similarities:
They were both called shepherds.
They both wore earrings and curly sidelocks of hair.
They both were circumcised.
There was darkness and storms for three days (Tempest Stele)
There was an ashfall, with the air thick enough to kill people (Thera)
There was a volcano (Thera).
There was a battle (civil war) with the Egyptians.
Tribute of gold, cloth and oil was given to make the people leave (Tempest Stele)
Some 500,000 of these shepherds went on the Exodus.
They both left from Pi Rammase (Avaris)
There was a tsunami (Thera).
They both trashed Jericho.
They both went to Jerusalem (Manetho)
See what I mean? The reason you cannot find historical evidence for the Exodus, is because you are looking in the wrong era. But Josephus says the era was 1550 BC, and if you look there you will see that all of the Exodus story is historically correct. See ‘Tempest & Exodus’.
Ralph
We saw the movie,Exodus, Gods and Kings last night. My opinion is that if you’re going to make a movie about the Bible, it should follow the Bible,not make fiction of it. It didn’t show the 3 days of darkness. The Nile turning to blood was because of giant crocodiles eating the Egyptians. Moses threw a sword into the Red Sea instead of holding up his staff. The Bible tells that they crossed on dry land, the movie had them wading into waist deep water. The Egyptians lost half their army to a landslide, in the Bible they were held back by a pillar of cloud by day and fire at night. In the movie you only heard their names mentioned once or twice, no building of characters. This movie doesn’t hold a candle to Cecil B Demile’s The Ten Commandments. Also depicting God as a small boy is blastphamous.
The upcoming movie Patterns of Evidence (releases January 19th, 2015 in ~600 theaters) also attempts to say that there is some really tantalizing evidence for Hebrews in Avaris, Egypt, and more in the 13th dynasty rather than the 19th dynasty. It also discusses some of the evidence at Jericho. I was able to preview the documentary in full recently and enjoyed it’s mind-stretching, bound-to-be-controversial approach. More info at http://www.patternsofevidence.com/en/.
I applaud any serious effort to present the stories of biblical miracles in an historical context. After all, archaeology has verified much of the history of the Bible, but has yet to validate one small miracle, or show that any revelation is anything more than hearsay. But this movie fails both as validation of the biblical story or any of the science there might be behind it. The first 9(?) plagues are reasonably explained, but for the 10th plague and the parting of the Red Sea, no explanation is presented–particularly given the detailed description of the wall of water on both sides, which is reiterated. I think because they explained the first plagues, they figured we’d be lulled into skimming over the miracles. BTW, neither the Bible nor the movie explain how a wind strong enough to part the sea wouldn’t blow people, animals, carts and baggage to kingdom come.