EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS (2014) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

exodus: gods and kings (2014) movie

Genre              |   Fantasy Drama

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   150 minutes

Released         |   12 December 2014

cast

Christian Bale ... Moses
Joel Edgerton ... Ramses
John Turturro ... Seti
Aaron Paul ... Joshua
Ben Mendelsohn ... Viceroy Hegep
Sigourney Weaver ... Tuya
​Ben Kingsley ... Nun

director

Ridley Scott

writer

Adam Cooper ... (written by) &
Bill Collage ... (written by) and
Jeffrey Caine ... (written by) and
Steven Zaillian ... (written by)

cinematographer

​Dariusz Wolski ... director of photography

music

Alberto Iglesias...(music by)

film editor

Ali Degismis ... co-editor
Billy Rich

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box office result

Worldwide               $268,175,631  

Australia                 $​7,054,991

North America        $​​​​​​​​​​​65,014,513

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movie minuitae

This movie was originally simply called EXODUS, but it later received the subtitle GODS AND KINGS, because Twentieth Century Fox could not procure the rights for EXODUS alone from MGM, who owns the rights through the unrelated movie, EXODUS (1960).

​In an interview with Esquire Magazine, Ridley Scott called religion "the biggest source of evil", explaining, "Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshiping the same god." In another interview, Scott claimed that being an agnostic was a good quality for directing a Biblical story "because I have to convince myself the story works."

In this movie, Joel Edgerton battles Christian Bale, who played Batman in THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy. In WARRIOR (2011), Joel Edgerton battles Tom Hardy who played Bane in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012).

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RELATED MOVIES

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956)

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS (2014) MOVIE IMAGES

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EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS (2014) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Egyptian Princes Moses (Christian Bale) and Ramses (Joel Edgerton) are raised together as brothers. When Ramses becomes pharaoh, Moses is his most-trusted adviser. However Moses soon discovers his Hebrew parentage, and Ramses banishes him to the desert -- often a death sentence. But God has a mission for Moses: Free the Israelites from slavery. Moses returns from exile and demands that Ramses let his people go, but the arrogant ruler is unmoved, leading to a battle of divine wills.

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 11 December 2014

Pop ​Movee Rating

Ridley Scott’s interpretation how Moses lead the Hebrews out of slavery never quite reaches the biblical proportions that audiences may be expecting from subject matter that is the basis of three of humanity’s pre-eminent religions.

Like many of Scott’s films, EXODUS feels workman-like in its execution, as much attention-to-detail is given to the production design and the incorporation of visual effects into the story. Unfortunately, characterisation runs second place, as key players in the story lack development and extremely talented actors are left languishing in almost non-existent roles. It’s a great shame, as EXODUS is not a bad film. Its core problem is that Scott struggles to tease the drama from the story in his quest to deliver an epic movie.

EXODUS is determined not to be slavish in its imagining of the story of the two brothers, Moses (Christian Bale) and Rameses (Joel Edgerton)...

The script picks-up with Moses and Rameses already young adults and entrenched in their roles as Generals in the army of the great Pharaoh Seti (John Turturro). Moses quickly fulfils a long-standing prophecy of “the man who saves a leader so shall become a leader of his people” when he saves Rameses on the battlefield. Moses shrugs off any suggestion of prophecy but a trip to Pithon, where Hebrew slaves are mercilessly worked for Egyptian building projects, casts the seed of doubt in his mind when the Hebrew elder Nun (Ben Kingsley) tells him that he is of their people. Rameses learns of the encounter between Moses and the Elder and tests his brother’s allegiance by threatening to cut off the arm of a woman who is supposedly Moses’ Hebrew sister. Moses relents to Rameses’ will and is exiled. During his time away from Egypt, he marries, has a son and encounters the Hebrew God for the first time.

The version of “God” depicted in EXODUS is the film’s most controversial element. Scott chooses to depict God’s voice through the use of Malak, an Angel, played by thirteen year old British actor Isaac Andrews. Bale’s Moses is almost killed as he chases sheep up the mountain during a ferocious storm. Submerged in mud and slurry from a landslide caused by the storm, Moses sees the burning bush and talks directly to Malak.

As important as what his first encounter with “God” is, the film underplays the impact of it and Moses’ need to leave his wife and family to save the Hebrews never feels like the imperative it should be. It seems far more like a chore that must be done, as opposed to a fundamental epiphany that has changed the way Moses thinks and lives his life.

Upon Moses’ return to Egypt, EXODUS moves from scene-to-scene in a very plot-driven manner. Besides his interactions with Malak, there are few scenes between Moses and other characters that illuminate any personal drive in any character. Moses’ actions are directed by Malak’s vindictive desire to see Egyptians suffer for their mistreatment of the Hebrew people. At one point, Malak determines that the efforts of Moses and his freedom fighters are completely unsatisfactory and he takes matters into his own hands.

From pestilence, plague and even a completely unnecessary depiction of a crocodile attack, Rameses and the Egyptian people are made to suffer as Malak takes control. The suffering culminates in the death of thousands of Egyptian children as a supernatural darkness befalls the city of Memphis. Of all this, only Joel Edgerton delivers a performance with any real substance, as the love for his son is used as the key driver that launches the final part of the film.

The finale of the film is an extended version of the Hebrew’s flight from Egypt, Moses questioning his role as their leader and the journey to their new land across the parted waters of the Red Sea. At this point, it’s hard not to compare EXODUS to the Cecil B. DeMille classic THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

In DeMille’s film, Charlton Heston’s Moses is the instigator of the Red Sea parting, as he calls on God to lead his people to safety. EXODUS is far more passive in its approach, depicting the parting more as a natural occurrence than an act of God. (Ridley Scott has even gone so far as to suggest that the reality may have been some kind of tsunami-like event that allowed the crossing to take place.)  Only at the end of the Hebrew’s crossing the sea does the finale take on an air of God-like intervention and it highlights the dilemma that EXODUS never quite overcomes.

EXODUS never establishes whether it’s trying to be a realistic interpretation of the Moses story or an out-and-out fantasy based on it. This is a fundamental problem when tackling a religious topic as a film...

Christianity, Judaism and Islam all recount versions of the Moses story and, for people of these faiths, his story is real. For people not of those faiths, the story is largely fiction with a small degree of factual content.

For non-believers Scott’s wonderful attention-to-detail makes the film look and feel very real, but the supernatural events surrounding Moses and the Hebrews flight from Egypt look preposterous and make it feel like one of the many eco-disaster films that have graced cinema screens over the last decade. Scott and his screenwriters - Steven Zaillian, Jeffrey Caine, Bill Collage & Adam Cooper - never quite manage a way to overcome this problem and Scott’s own acknowledged agnosticism appears to be a contributing factor as to why EXODUS never hits its religious high notes.

A problem also exists with the way manner in which the characters are used throughout the story...

In the movie’s early scenes, Moses is a sceptic and Christian Bale does a good job of balancing the character up to the point where he marries and is shown to be a loving father. The transformation of Moses into a believer is not as convincing and his performance in the second half of the film is driven purely by plot points.

Joel Edgerton’s Rameses is the more interesting of the two main players as he attempts to find some light and dark in the character’s actions. At times, his character disappears from the story as the focus shifts entirely to Moses, but Edgerton’s performance is solid throughout. John Turturro is great as the dying Pharaoh Seti but is not in the film nearly long enough. Many of the other noted thespians in the cast list are largely under-utilised including Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver.

Weaver’s appearance is little more than a cameo but the film’s 150 minute running time really feels like a cut-down version of the story Scott really wanted to tell and it would be no surprise to see a larger role revealed in a Blu-ray Director’s Edition… 

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS is not short on spectacle. Ridley Scott and Dariusz Wolski, his director of photography, do a great job in the depiction of ancient Egyptian civilisation, but the visuals can never quite compensate for the feeling that the film is close but not close enough to being recognised as a great film.

​In the catalogue of Ridley Scott’s work this film is closer to KINGDOM OF HEAVEN than GLADIATOR.

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS MOVIE (2014) USEFUL LINKS

Exodus: Gods and Kings - Wikipedia
​Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) - IMDb
​Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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