I don’t even know where to start with this one. The story of the Moses Archetype exists for a reason. And the story of the Jews leaving Ancient Egypt is an immortal story for several reasons one of which is the profound religious significance it holds in the hearts of believers in The Book of Exodus. And another is that it is a great story. Both of those aspects of it are completely excised therefrom in this abysmal adaptation.
I acknowledge that Adaptational deviations are inevitable and necessary. Indeed, I liked The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt. So I expected to like this movie when I saw it. I was wrong.
First of all the most iconic phrase of the Exodus story is when Moses tells Pharoah “thus says the G-d of the Hebrews, Let my people go so that they may serve me” and warns Pharoah that if he refuses there will be plagues. In adaptations that tends to become “Let my people go”. And that phrase isn’t once uttered in the film.
Maybe they could have Moses relay divine instructions to Pharaoh to free the Hebrews without the phrase then, alright. Then Christian Bale as Moses holds a dagger to his throat and shouts “Am I to understand I should now call you Rameses the Great?!” and tells him to free the Hebrews. So it captures neither the spirit nor the letter of the text.
Speaking of which, Moses reveals that to free the Hebrews is divine decree and Pharaoh asks which god Moses serves. Moses cannot answer. But see that’s a surprisingly legitimate question considering that Bale doesn’t seem to be serving a Jewish or Christian depiction of the Deity at all.
The film has Moses take orders from a petulant 12 year old boy that he claims to be the divine eternal and that no one else can see. Ignoring the fact that in The Bible G-d tells Moses “I shall not show you my face for no child of Adam can see my face and live” depicting Him as a petulant child is nothing but an insult against all believers in Abrahamic faiths.
And what do they with Moses. Do they include the killing of the taskmaster? No. The fight he breaks up between two Hebrews? No. His interceding on behalf of Jethro’s daughters? No. He does none of the things his biblical counterpart does before the Burning Bush (which also isn’t in the movie).
But maybe the characterization of Moses is true to the source material? No. The film turns him into an Ax-Crazy deranged lunatic.
Rameses is pretty good as an antagonist though not as good as Yul Brynner and Ralph Fiennes whose motivations were more fleshed out.
Rameses’s wife who tries to have Moses assassinated never comes up again. Meanwhile Miriam and Aaron are relegated to watching things happen and that’s it. Not being Moses’s moral compass like in The Prince of Egypt or a foil to him or actually doing anything.
Film Terrible film. I encourage you not to see it
I don’t even know where to start with this one. The story of the Moses Archetype exists for a reason. And the story of the Jews leaving Ancient Egypt is an immortal story for several reasons one of which is the profound religious significance it holds in the hearts of believers in The Book of Exodus. And another is that it is a great story. Both of those aspects of it are completely excised therefrom in this abysmal adaptation.
I acknowledge that Adaptational deviations are inevitable and necessary. Indeed, I liked The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt. So I expected to like this movie when I saw it. I was wrong.
First of all the most iconic phrase of the Exodus story is when Moses tells Pharoah “thus says the G-d of the Hebrews, Let my people go so that they may serve me” and warns Pharoah that if he refuses there will be plagues. In adaptations that tends to become “Let my people go”. And that phrase isn’t once uttered in the film.
Maybe they could have Moses relay divine instructions to Pharaoh to free the Hebrews without the phrase then, alright. Then Christian Bale as Moses holds a dagger to his throat and shouts “Am I to understand I should now call you Rameses the Great?!” and tells him to free the Hebrews. So it captures neither the spirit nor the letter of the text.
Speaking of which, Moses reveals that to free the Hebrews is divine decree and Pharaoh asks which god Moses serves. Moses cannot answer. But see that’s a surprisingly legitimate question considering that Bale doesn’t seem to be serving a Jewish or Christian depiction of the Deity at all.
The film has Moses take orders from a petulant 12 year old boy that he claims to be the divine eternal and that no one else can see. Ignoring the fact that in The Bible G-d tells Moses “I shall not show you my face for no child of Adam can see my face and live” depicting Him as a petulant child is nothing but an insult against all believers in Abrahamic faiths.
And what do they with Moses. Do they include the killing of the taskmaster? No. The fight he breaks up between two Hebrews? No. His interceding on behalf of Jethro’s daughters? No. He does none of the things his biblical counterpart does before the Burning Bush (which also isn’t in the movie).
But maybe the characterization of Moses is true to the source material? No. The film turns him into an Ax-Crazy deranged lunatic.
Rameses is pretty good as an antagonist though not as good as Yul Brynner and Ralph Fiennes whose motivations were more fleshed out.
Rameses’s wife who tries to have Moses assassinated never comes up again. Meanwhile Miriam and Aaron are relegated to watching things happen and that’s it. Not being Moses’s moral compass like in The Prince of Egypt or a foil to him or actually doing anything.
It’s bad.