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
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Hollywood has not been making Biblical films fora long time. they don’t want riots by religious groups. It bad for profits. Its interesting, now, they are but with secular overtones. Hollywood films are for profit and public stock market health. If you want a Bible lesson read a descent Bible translation if you can find one.
Fantastic review. Thanks so much!
You believer s are too funny, arguing the validity of a work of fiction
It was at the point in the script in which Rameses starts lecturing Moshe on economics that I threw up my hands and just MST3K’d the rest of it. God, I miss David Lean…
Love your review. Explain to me too how Moses rides a Fresian horse, let alone all of the other breeds that seem to be readily available in ancient Egypt? I think the hebrew slaves were using mules too. Lol. A ridiculous movie by someone who was so meticulous about a shipwreck!
GREAT review You are RIGHT and I have NOTHING good to say!! I found that this movie was COMPLETE GARBAGE and God is NOT a boy. The movie did NOT show God with all His majesty and sovereign power. It is another FAIL like NOAH. The world wants to belittle and water down God, but EVERY knee WILL bow and EVERY knee WILL confess…
Philippians 2:9-11
9For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
And I say “AMEN!”
Why would any Christian waste their time or money on a bible based story movie made by people who don’t believe in the Bible? It’s like going to a mechanic for information on human anatomy. Any Christian that supports this nonsense should be ashamed of themselves.
My husband and I saw the movie, and it was so far from the Bible, you had to discount it in it’s entirety. we did not read any reviews before we went. But the cinematography, was well done.
It’s all Hollywood junk any way. Their god is $$$. Wait till they find out each for themselves. That will be a block buster.
In my opinion, this is an artistic film, not a documentary. So, it is ok if it does not obbey to the story in the Bible. I could imagine what a borrowing scene it would be when Moses returns ten times to the Pharaon to ask to release his people! The symbolistic and the metaphoric images are the key in this movie. God is not a child, but remember that God chose to put his words in the mouth of innocent one, and only a child can be so innocent. It is obvious that God spoke from a burning bush. Moses seems very real, very human, torn between humanity and faith. He asks, he implores, he fights, his road is coarse and dangerous. I enjoyed pretty much the movie!
I saw it this weekend. Get over it, get a life, it was not that bad. I saw many of the inaccuracies, I felt their depiction of God was insulting, and many of the “fill in the blanks” that Hollywood for some reason feels compelled to do to make a movie interesting to those who are not accuracy freaks like myself are going to happen no matter what. If the movie “The Ten Commandments” with Charlton Heston was made today people would trash it. Sometimes we go into things like this looking for issues: “Look, those are clearly not the kind of palm trees found in that region!” From all the bad publicity this movie got I almost didn’t go, but all in all, not as bad as portrayed by critics.