Maybe part of the problem is that this movie that profoundly misunderstands the God of the Old Testament. In the original book, were dealing with a God who cannot be embodied — he even forbids the creation of graven images as blasphemy. He speaks to Moses from a burning bush as nothing but a voice because he is abstract righteousness, totally unrepresentable as anything other than the words I am. But in the movie Exodus? He comes to Moses in the form of a little boy. Its like some kind of new age Christian interpretation of God. Tonally, nothing could be more wrong. God in the Old Testament is like an invisible, heavy metal version of Smaug — all fire, all power, all violent badass stormbringing. He is anything but humble and childlike. The Old Testament God of brutality and might is exactly the kind of entity that the humbled, degraded, shackled Hebrews need on their side. Who else could help them defeat the greatest empire on Earth at the time? Scott has watered down his protagonists, giving us almost no insight into their suffering and burning need for liberation. And hes made the people of Egypt so fascinating and realistic that we cant help but wonder why the whole situation couldnt have been resolved diplomatically rather than with the angel of death killing every firstborn son in Egypt. Its a bizarre and unconvincing interpretation of one of the most powerful stories we have about why slavery isnt just doomed to fail — its doomed to destroy the civilizations that depend on it... io9/the-exodus-mystery-how-can-a-movie-be-so-wrong-in-so-m-1670415771
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 03:51:59 +0000
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