PIYUSH ROY
“Exodus: Gods and Kings is exactly the sort of film Hollywood doesn’t need anymore: a gluttonous epic that fails to evoke or teach or entertain…
“Despite the always-commanding Bale as Moses, the emotional side of this story is lacking…
“Another major Biblical epic with dazzling visuals, and like Darren Aronofsky’s Noah it also understands that the God depicted in the Old Testament is, well, a cruel and sadistic murderer, only this time Moses follows the opposite path, from reluctant to believe to religious fanatic…
“While the pale skin tones (bronzer is selectively applied) and haphazard mix of American and British accents is distracting, it barely scratches the surface of Exodus’ ungainly artificiality…
“Ridley Scott and his quartet of screenwriters hint at a handful of ideas deserving of exploration, but none of them survive the frogs, locusts, crocodiles and other plagues – the most devastating of which is excessive and unimpressive CGI…
The above is a sampling of reviews and comments by audiences and critics of Exodus: Gods and Kings, one of the most eagerly awaited religious epics from Hollywood. Skyrocketing expectations weren’t unjustified given its making by Ridley Scott, of the Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Prometheus fame – films that set new benchmarks for costume dramas, war films and science fiction adventures respectively in our post 2000 times. A memorable experience at the cinema couldn’t be discounted either for the devout or the other faith audiences for the sheer drama, spectacle and adventure guaranteed by the Biblical event of Exodus. In it, is a moving emotional story about the emergence of a prophet, Moses, who also becomes a political and spiritual leader of men. In it, is a monumental journey of six lakh Hebrew slaves to freedom from Egypt aided and directed by none other than ‘God’ himself in a spectacular escape that has the sea part itself to lead them to safety. In it, is ample scope for some unusual spectacles like the 10 famous plagues heaped by the Heavens on Pharaoh Ramses II’s Egypt to force him to free his Hebrew slaves starting from turning
the Nile to a river of blood to sending armies of locusts, frogs, flies, and rains of fire, darkness and death (of all the first born Egyptian children).
Using state of the art CGI (Computer Generated Image) effects and 3D immersion, Ridley Scott, attempts an ambitious go at heightening the drama in the life story of a defiant Moses, ably played by Christian Bale. Yet, Ten Commandments (1956) made nearly six decades ago on the same theme remains a more faith friendly adaptation and a more fulfilling experience. Why?
Scott doesn’t offend, distort or reinterpret mythology like Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, on another Biblical icon, made last year that had horribly upset the faithful for its misplaced psychological explorations into the mind of a prophet. Yet the way Scott handles the parting of the Red Sea sequence, the biggest spectacle in the Exodus story, makes even a miracle look logical. Once again, the appeal is to the brains, not the heart, to reason, not emotions. You don’t leave the film feeling any more believing than when you entered, or even a remote notion of having witnessed something holy.
Contrast this with the just concluded Mahabharat series on the Star Plus channel, and the way it presented Lord Krishna, human and contemporary, and yet universal in his message with a natural aura of divinity always around him. Love, respect, compassion… should be the guide motif while engaging with any concretising of an abstraction like divinity. Mahabharat too has ample potential for spectacle, but that’s not why it’s considered sacred. Its makers with their modest budgets didn’t tamper with its sacredness and it worked. Special effects can never be the soul of any narrative, and definitely not the religious; they can at best be attractive embellishments that only decorate the body. The soul however is in the nature of the telling, feeling, and experiencing of a story – the maker himself has to first believe in a miracle to make it look believable for the audience. The interpreter has to inherently agree with the sacredness of his/her religious subject; only then, cosmetic tampering or contemporarisation updates will further elevate its impact, not alienate.
People flock to a spiritual or religious retelling of any faith to come back slightly enlightened, or a tad more mature or calmer to deal with their daily struggles. There is a timeless moral in every religious tale, a message in the actions and experiences of every prophet or God avatar – be it Rama, Moses, Mahavira, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Guru Nanak… The essence to that definitely doesn’t lie in better and bigger special effects. For that, one would rather watch a Star Wars episode, X-Men or Jurassic World, even Lord of the Rings or the next sequel of 300. A story from the Epics, the Bible, or any religious text should enlighten, even when it’s told through a medium that’s meant to entertain.
It hasn’t been a very faith friendly time for Biblical epics in Hollywood of late. No wonder, the critics and viewers are hardly impressed. Is it because of a growing lack of lack of faith in ‘Faith’ per se, in the ‘reason and logic’ prioritising, ‘religion spoofing’ secular civilizations of the First World? And are we any untouched by that fad… Think about PK!
