The Reluctant Shepherd

The story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea is familiar to those of us who had ever been (or forced to go) to Sunday School when we were little, or who had seen the 1956 biblical epic ‘The Ten Commandments’ starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner.  Given the recent surge of Christianity-themed films such as ‘Son of God,’ ‘The Giver,’ ‘God’s Not Dead’ and ‘Left Behind,’ director Ridley Scott attempts to capitalize on the trend with his $140 million biblical epic ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings.’  Call it ‘The Ten Commandments Redux’ if you will.

 

For a movie based on one of The Book’s most well-known stories, ‘Exodus’ is surprisingly secular in character.  Christian Bale’s Moses is more of a warrior than Charlton Heston’s version, and early in the movie he saves the life of his lord and friend Ramesses II (Joel Edgerton) when the pharaoh-to-be was about to be run over by a charging Hittite chariot, thereby fulfilling the prophecy of the Pharaoh’s chief seeress.  We all know what God asked Moses to do, but little did we know that God was a spoiled and petulant little brat when He appeared to an exiled Moses and demanded that he incite a slave revolt against Memphis and lead His people out of Egypt.  Impatient with Moses’ insurgency, God then took matters into His own hands and displayed His wrath by visiting the ten plagues unto Egypt, culminating in the deaths of all first-born Egyptian children.  Can we truly blame Moses, then, for being reluctant throughout the movie with such a great responsibility?  All he wanted was to live the normal, simple life of a shepherd with his beautiful wife Zipporah (María Valverde Rodríguez) and son Gershom.

 

After all is said and done, I’m giving this film high marks because I enjoyed it immensely.  ‘Exodus,' dedicated in memoriam to his late brother and director Tony Scott of 'Top Gun' fame, proves that Ridley Scott is still on top of his game and the master in visualizing grand, sweeping, spectacular, beautiful, lush and sumptuous ‘historical’ epics.  I’m not knowledgeable enough to say, nor do I care for that matter, if the chariots in the movie were actually historically correct.  If I’m willing to give ‘Fury’ a pass on such mundane details, I certainly have no problem with not nit-picking on the ‘historical accuracy’ (or lack thereof) in ‘Exodus.’ 
 

Grade: A (yeah, whatcha gonna do about it?)