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Film: Exodus: Gods and Kings
Cast: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Indira Varma, Ben Mendelsohn, Isaac Andrews
Director: Ridley Scott
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Talking about quantum mechanics, the great (German non-observant Jewish) physicist Albert Einstein once said “God does not play dice”. In Ridley Scott’s visually splendid, Biblically skewed epic “Exodus: Gods and Kings” God is a small boy (Isaac Andrews) playing with dice when he first appears to Moses, the ex Egyptian prince of Hebrew extraction, later prophet, religious leader and lawgiver.
Less well known is Einstein’s colleague Neils Bohr’s response, “Stop telling God what to do”.
Moses argues with God (much in the manner of the pious Omani Job) he asks God, rather testily “Are you done?” when God unleashes havoc (in eye-popping plagues, ten in all) on Egypt. As Ron Hendel, a professor of Hebrew Bible at UC Berkeley points out half of the 10 plagues fall into a “formulaic genre of catastrophe” found in other Near Eastern texts.
Moi, I’m not done with Scott’s (cinematic) liberties. The Biblical Moses had a speech impediment (he stammered) Scott’s Moses speaks with ease. His brother Aaron (later, high priest) did the talking for him. with God though, Moses always had a one on one and Aaron in this cinematic retelling is reduced to eavesdropping on Moses’ intimate conversations with God on Mount Sinai which you could climb today by two ways, the hard way, Moses’ way or the easy way, over rough steps patiently carved all the way to the mountain top by the monks of St Catherine’s monastery.
The sunrise on the mount is glorious and it’s easy to see why it was /is called God’s mountain. Of course, Aaron doesn’t see a soul in a sight and wonders(?) if Moses has a touch of the desert sun. Last but decidedly not least, and at the risk of being accused of racism, I must point out that the principal roles are played by white actors.
(Indira Varma, the British actress of Indian origin has a small role as a high priestess).
Moses was married to a Cushite (Ethopian) woman who is played by a white actress in this retelling. In the Bible, Moses’ sister Miriam is struck (punished by God) with leucoderma after she mocks Moses’ choice of a dark skinned woman as wife). I am making this point because I am tired of blonde, blue eyed Jesuses and blonde, blue eyed Hebrews in the movies. Christian Bale with his dark, smouldering looks is better suited to the part of Moses. Actually, he is pitch perfect (and salaams to the actor and casting director) in essaying his identity crisis and divided loyalties (to the Hebrews, his own family whom he abandons in response to God’s call or his adoptive family, notably his brother Ramses (Joel Edgerton).
Don’t see this movie to quibble. See it for the amazing special effects (the closing of the Red Sea with tornadoes and a thunderstorm is awesome but I did like the parting of the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments). See it to know the timeless laws given by a God who wants freedom and liberty for the poor and downtrodden.
ronitatorcato@gmail.com[one_fourth last=”no”][/one_fourth]
ronita Torcato
