Exodus: Gods and Kings - A gripping historical

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS
Staring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley
Rated: 6/10
There are two big things happening to this historical — one, it unravels the biblical journey by Moses from the slavery den of Egypt to the promised land with millions of Jews who followed him in faith; and two, this oft repeated legend has been put on screen by master director Ridley Scott.
On paper, he has done nothing new. I saw The Ten Commandments when I was in junior school. The Prince of Egypt which came more in Ridley’s time dealt with the same subject. And now comes Exodus: Gods and Kings.None of the three can change the story of Moses and the journey of the Egyptian slaves to freedom walking through a parted Red Sea even as Moses holds the shepherd spectre to guide them to their promised land.
So Scott could not have done much except enhance the special effects and spice up the story from another viewpoint. This he does mostly to engaging effect. He tells you of a brother to brother (General Moses vs Pharaoh Rhamses) fight as a result of which Egypt went through recurring plagues — of cursed water in the Nile, of crippling locust attacks, of granary fires, of bee attacks of frog plagues and of a dark menacing shadow that takes away all the Egyptian children on a silent night, including the Pharaoh’s only son.
Scott captures the sufferings of the Hebrew slaves with moving impact as he does the filming of the film’s biggest moment — the parting of the Red Sea to give the freed population safe passage to the other side of the world. Over the years, and since the time of The Ten Commandments, technology has happened to the world so this parting is much more impactful and big than the one which was done for The Ten Commandments, and evenBen-Hur. Scott’s wizardry is that he spins a tale which everybody knows but is still ready to listen to because of his FX props and the angle he takes for the story.
Christian Bale plays Moses to perfection both as the general of Egypt and later as Moses, the leader of his Hebrew people, the man who freed the slaves from a life worse than death, the husband, the father and the propeller of a new faith and a new God. Joel Edgerton as Rhamses is no less as he brings the ultimate power syndrome of a King who thinks he is God, a father who worries for his son, a brother who has no way out but to kill his sibling and a man who finally has to come to terms with vulnerability and defeat.
Exodus... is an engagingly unhurried mount on a big story and bigger canvass.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 7 December, 2014

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