The word of God (according to Hollywood)! A look back on films based on scripture
WITH Exodus: Gods And Kings being released on Boxing Day RICHARD FITZWILLIAMS looks at the films based on scripture.
The new biblical epic Exodus: Gods And Kings which opens on Boxing Day is truly awesome.
Director Ridley Scott has recreated this famous biblical story with some of the most realistic, vivid and gigantic spectacular scenes ever seen on film.
This is a movie on a scale worthy of its subject.
In contrast the films made by Hollywood based on the scriptures have usually been either unintentionally hilarious or extremely dull.
The British comedy group Monty Python’s provocative satire Life Of Brian about a young man, Brian Cohen, born on the same day and next door to the Messiah for whom he is mistaken mocks these movies.
“He’s not the Messiah,” Brian’s mother protests as she confronts an angry crowd, “He’s a very naughty boy.”
The real sin has been the exploitation of the scriptures in dismal movies for box-office gain since cinema began.
The Ten Commandments, made in 1956, was the last film by the Hollywood director Cecil B DeMille whose name had been synonymous with excess, vulgarity and empty spectacle for decades.
The movie which made a fortune certainly delivers as a show.
Who can forget Charlton Heston’s Moses as God’s agent parting the Red Sea or the bacchanalian revels of the worshippers of the Golden Calf?
The script however was as wooden and stilted as some of the scenery.
Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Rameses II was unable to inject any charisma into the role beyond strutting and scowling and Anne Baxter as his wife Nefretiri imitated a femme fatale with frightful results.
At its climax Heston wears a most extroadinary white beard and looks like a waxwork from Madame Tussauds.
You could enjoy it for the crowd scenes but you could not take it seriously despite its pretentious prologue which was delivered by director DeMille personally.
The biblical epic which was rightly highly regarded was Ben-Hur, a 1959 MGM remake of the 1925 silent classic.
It won a record 11 Oscars for director William Wyler and starred Charlton Heston in the title role with Stephen Boyd as Messala, his boyhood friend who becomes a deadly enemy.
It features a thrilling chariot race with 15,000 extras and a fine battle.
However the last section of the movie where Ben-Hur witnesses the crucifixion is extremely dull.
It was considered sacreligious to show Christ’s face at the time but this was the film whose huge success inspired a series of costly movies with religious themes.
King Of Kings was a large scale epic telling the story of Christ with Jeffrey Hunter in the title role.
It is said that a preview audience disliked Hunter’s hairy chest in the crucifixion scene forcing its reshooting.
Hunter’s Christ although he was in his mid-thirties looked much younger and the film was nick named “I Was A Teenage Jesus”.
It was a colourful retelling of the bible story which was ideal for a children’s audience but which lacked depth.
It was one of Hollywood’s top directors, George Stevens whose version of the story of Christ, The Greatest Story Ever Told was the most catastrophic.
He cast Max von Sydow, a fine actor, in the title role but had the crazy idea of surrounding him with famous Hollywood actors such as Charlton Heston as John the Baptist and Telly Savalas who shaved his head to play Pontius Pilate and subsequently kept it that way.
John Wayne had once actually been cast as Genghis Khan but here he played the centurion who was present at the crucifixion which was almost as bizarre and says the words: “Truly, this man is the son of God.”
It has taken that idiosyncratic director Sir Ridley Scott to bring new life to the genre with Exodus: Gods And Kings
Legend has it that Wayne’s delivery lacked power and Stevens urged him to say it with awe.
Wayne solemnly then added “Aw” to his lines!
Despite von Sydow’s moving performance the film was an interminable bore and was seen by almost nobody.
The Bible: In The Beginning... included a Garden of Eden sequence where Adam and Eve were tastefully filmed in the nude but as though suffering from guilt at having attracted the prurient the tone subsequently became fearfully reverential.
The Ark sequence features John Huston who was also the director as a quirky Noah who is also the voice of God so he speaks to himself which is rather disconcerting.
The tower of Babel episode was impressive but was far too short.
The Sodom and Gomorrah sequences were badly lit and deadly dull which was ridiculous.
The film was released in 1966 and was the last such film for half a century.
Mel Gibson, a devout Catholic and one of Hollywood’s top actors, made The Passion Of The Christ in 2004, funding it himself.
It was subtitled as Latin and Aramaic is spoken. It is the most financially successful religious film ever.
The story covers the last 12 hours of Christ’s life and Jim Caviezel gives a fine performance in the central role though the 10-minute scene of him being scourged is one of cinema’s most violent.
The film was accused of anti-semitism and was highly controversial as Gibson was quoted as saying the Holy Spirit had made the film through him.
It was rumoured though not confirmed that Pope John Paul II had said of it: “It is as it was.”
The movie divided the critics but it had undeniable power.
Partly a work of science fiction the recent biblical epic Noah was made by director Darren Aronofsky.
The “watchers”, angels who build and defend the ark against the humans who are drowned in the spectacularly filmed Flood simply look idiotic.
However the film is worth seeing because of the integrity of Russell Crowe’s performance as Noah and its special effects.
Crowe attempted but failed to persuade Pope Francis to have a private screening.
However he was granted an audience with the Archbishop of Canterbury The Most Rev Justin Welby who found it “interesting and thought-provoking”.
It has taken that idiosyncratic director Sir Ridley Scott, who revived the swords and sandals epic with the superlative Gladiator in 2000 to bring new life to the genre with Exodus: Gods And Kings.
He has dedicated it to his brother the director Tony Scott who died so tragically more than two years ago.
The brotherly rivalry between Moses, brought up as a Prince of Egypt unaware of his Hebrew origins and Rameses, who becomes Pharaoh and refuses to free the Israelites from bondage is the pivot of the film.
There are flaws such as making a child the mouthpiece of God and the ending is extremely weak but Christian Bale as Moses and Joel Edgerton as Rameses give excellent performances.
Scott is an agnostic and there is an interesting ambiguity about the scene of the Burning Bush which could be Moses becoming delirious after an accident.
The plagues and the parting of the Red Sea might also be the result of natural phenomena.
The battles, the building of the Egyptian cities by slave labour and the crossing of the Red Sea by hundreds of thousands of Israelites are amazingly filmed.
This film also marks a seismic shift from the usual Hollywood approach to the Bible which was once summed up by the famous producer Sam Goldwyn.
When re-staging The Last Supper for one of his films he said, “Why only twelve?
"That’s the original number.
"Well, go out and get thousands.”