I saw Ridley Scott's latest big screen big budget epic interpretation of the Old Testament story of Moses as told in The Book of Exodus last night. 'EXODUS : GODS AND KINGS' is his US$140M saga starring Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ben Mendelsohn, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, John Turturro, Aaron Paul and others amongst its cast of literally thousands. Ridley Scott knows how to craft a story and do it on a big scale - he has a proven track record after all (think 'Alien', 'Blade Runner', 'Robin Hood','Gladiator', 'Prometheus', and 'Kingdom of Heaven') but this could just about be his biggest telling yet - of Biblical proportions you might say!
As the story opens we have two men who have grown up as brothers - Moses (Christian Bale) and Ramses (Joel Edgerton) living in palatial comfort in the Egyptian City of Memphis - it is 1300BC. Seti (John Turturro) is the ruling Pharaoh and father to Ramses who will succeed him, because he is the bloodline, unlike Moses whose story we already know from our own Bible Classes, but is recounted to us later on down the track for the sake of the uninitiated. After a little bit of war mongering that sees Moses and Ramses thrash the Hittite's, and the former saving the life of the latter, the pair return victorious to Memphis. Seti asks that Ramses go to Pithom to meet Viceroy Hegep (a creepily camped-up Ben Mendelsohn on fine form) but Ramses believes it to be beneath him because the Viceroy is overseeing the Hebrew Slaves, and so Moses volunteers to go instead. On arrival Moses is appalled at the conditions the Hebrew Slaves must endure and their treatment at the hands of their captors. Hegep has nothing but contempt for the Hebrews whilst looking down on them from his luxurious palace. . . a fact that does not go unnoticed by Moses.
Whilst at Pithom Moses is invited to meet with the 'elders' - one of whom is Nun (Ben Kingsley) who one evening reveals to Moses his true identity, his parentage and that he himself was born into Hebrew Slavery and cast out in a wicker basket to float downstream on the Nile current as an infant to save him from certain death. Moses finds this hard to believe and leaves in a rage, but not before this secret conversation is overheard by two Hebrews who report this revelation back to Hegep.
Upon returning to Memphis, Moses finds Pharaoh Seti on his death bed, and on passing the throne now ascends to Ramses. Soon afterwards Hegep bursts in seeking private consultation with King Ramses to reveal what he knows of Moses, and muscle his way into the Royal Palace and the good life! Confronting Moses with his new found information, Ramses threatens Palace Servant Miriam to reveal the truth and if she is Moses sister - she denies it but when, with a sword to the arm Moses intervenes, and comes clean that he is Hebrew, and was born into slavery. As a result Ramses banishes Moses to a life in exile and he is set loose in the mountains with a horse and meagre supplies and the chance to say farewell one last time to his sister Miriam and his birth mother. He ventures into the desert battling the elements as he does so, and two would be assassins that we later learn were sent by Ramses.
Nine years go by and Moses is living a contented life as a shepherd in the mountains having married Zipporah (Maria Valverde), and they have a son, Gershom. Chasing three of his wayward sheep one night up a nearby mountain in a severe storm he is caught in a landslide, knocked unconscious and wakes with a broken leg and buried neck deep in mountain sludge. There is a burning bush nearby and a young boy Malak (Issac Andrews, easily the best performance of the film) manifests himself to Moses as the messenger of God with some pearls of wisdom about freeing the Hebrews and leading them back to their promised land.
Recovering, Moses has his calling and leaves his village, his wife, his son and begins his quest to free several hundred thousand Hebrews from their life of slavery and return them to their true home for the first time in 400 years. Using his military skills and experience he musters and trains a small Hebrew army including brother Joshua (Aaron Paul) to wreak as much havoc on Memphis as he can to bring Ramses to his knees and so free the slaves. But this doesn't really go anywhere except to piss Ramses off, and so he starts hanging families daily until the location of Moses and his family are revealed. God then intervenes (again in the form of young lad Malak) who is becoming increasingly agitated by Moses lack of traction, and decides to take the law unto his own hands, and show Egypt exactly what he is capable of.
What follows is the stuff of Biblical legend that we learned in Sunday School, and Scott pulls off the imagery of big screen plague, pestilence, death and destruction with a deft hand. With God now at the end of his tether and a few strong words exchanged between he and Moses we first see the rivers of blood as giant alligators attack every living creature (humans included) close enough to eat, and so turning the Nile crimson. Then the fish all die as a result, but the frogs survive and prosper and like a marching plague spring out of the river and infest everything in their gazillions. If this isn't enough the frogs die in time due to lack of food, and together with all the dead fish floating on the surface rotting away the flies come in vast black swarms covering everything, and laying their eggs in just about everything else. As a result sheep, cattle, goats all die horribly having been infected by disease carrying flies, maggots and other crawling insects. Next up come swarms of locusts in more numbers than you can fathom and devour every living plant in their path, and with the heat turned up to number ten on the dial everything dies and the plague effects the humans who all break out in weeping pustules, boils and soars - even our King Ramses and his family. Still Ramses digs his heels in and will not relent, and continues to beat the downtrodden Hebrews into submission despite warnings from Moses who has reappeared on the scene attempting to forewarn him of Gods further impending wrath. Then comes a darkening of the skies as a violent storm erupts sending down torrents of rain and hailstones the size of golf balls to smash the city into near oblivion. To cap it all off God sends in The Grim Reaper who descends on Memphis turning daylight into nighttime and in so passing snuffs out the lives of every child below the age of 14, unless the front door to the household has been daubed with fresh lambs blood. Needless to say this vital piece of information is known to every Hebrew, but not a single Egyptian, and in the process Ramses young son & heir dies. At this Ramses confronts Moses and orders that he, and his people go, leave the city and return to their homeland.
Here begins the epic journey as Moses leads his followers back to the land of their birth right, but as we know it is no easy journey, and taking a wrong turn on a treacherous mountain track leads them to the Red Sea where further onward passage is impossible. With Ramses now giving relentless chase with his army intent on exacting his revenge now on Moses and the Hebrews once and of all, time is running out. Taking the same passage with a mighty army and horse drawn chariots along narrow mountain tracks Ramses loses half his army in a spectacular land slide. Knowing not what to do, Moses seeks counsel with God but none is forthcoming. Sleeping on the beach of the Red Sea Moses and his followers awake the next morning to see that the waters have subsided, withdrawn and they can now make safe passage through to the other side. As they advance across the now shallow sea so Ramses is closing in with what is left of his army, who give chase across the sand. The final tidal wave scene as the Hebrews reach the other side leaving Ramses and his army at the mercy of the oncoming wall of sea is very well handled and one of the visual highlights of the film. Needless to say - the slaves and Moses reach the shore saved, while Ramses still lives but now washed up on the opposite shore!
Little in this story will be new to you if you paid attention at School, but it has been Hollywood-ised and it is impressive enough on the big screen when the action comes. In between time though I thought it laboured on, lumbering along and not really giving us anything different than we have seen before in other 'swords & sandals' storytelling - just this has all the latest technical wizardry to create the epic world that Ridley envisions for us. Bale is solid enough as Moses, but for me the jury is still out on Edgerton as Ramses who occasionally blurts out with an Aussie twang, and failed to really ignite his anger and emotion with any real force when it called for it. Weaver as Queen Tuya gets about 47 seconds of screen time, and we meet an 'expert' who has a rational answer for all of God's wrath but sounds decidedly Scottish (actor Ewen Bremner is Scottish granted, but had Egypt conquered Scotland then I wonder?).
All in all this lacked depth, urgency and the ability to really connect with the characters (like we did with Ripley, Maximus or Deckard for example), but delivers in story interpretation, spectacle and grandeur that should be seen on the big screen.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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