Just came home from the
much awaited movie Exodus... I am so upset and disappointed. The movie was
not true to the Torah, the midrash, the archeological findings... and left out
much of the scenes of awe and wonder.
So there might be
conjecture as to whether Moses knew of his true ancestry before he was an
adult... but turning this into a brother against brother was a stretch. Where was the scene where he kills a taskmaster to save a Hebrew
slave and then needs to flee? I'll skip over the drawn out battle scenes
at the beginning where he saves his "brother's" life... the future
Pharaoh Rameses. His Egyptian sword is practically elevated to a
character in itself, but where is his staff?
Where is his being called
from the burning bush? Rather he is buried in a rocky landslide during a
rainstorm with only his face above ground, and suffering from a broken
leg??? Huh?
And God is portrayed as a
petulant boy who chides Moses rather then empowering him???!!!
Where is the humble,
stuttering Moses who needs Aaron his true brother as spokesman? Nowhere.
Where is a "duel" using his staff turned to snake matched by the
Pharaoh's wizards? Nowhere. Rather there are scenes of Moses as guerilla
army trainer preparing the Hebrew men for battle through archery lessons.
God as the little boy tells him he isn't getting anywhere that way
(Hebrews are being hanged every day for not giving up Moses who
is hidden in their midst at the home of Nun - papa of Joshua ben Nun who
doesn't appear at all as protege for the future... ). So the plagues begin in a
graphic, naturalistic style to force the Egyptian people to pressure their
Pharaoh to give in to Moses' demand that the Hebrew slaves be set
free. There are no warnings or repeated requests by Moses to Pharaoh...
Those ugly blistery, bloody, scary plagues just keep on coming.
The slaying of the first
born is a touching scene that finally does break Pharaoh's resolve.
Moses wants to lead the
Hebrews out by the route he had taken years before southward through the
straits of Tiran to Midian where he had met Zippora, was accepted by her
wise and kind father Jethro, and started a family. Zippora seemed
like the best cast character in the whole movie.
Moses decides instead to
take a route eastward through the mountains, since the rocky terrain will make
it very difficult for Pharaoh's chariots to follow. When Moses leads the
Hebrews down the cliff sides to the sea, it isn't marshy or easy to ford as he
had expected from his previous crossing to Midian, but rather there are
crashing waves and very deep ocean water. Rather than confidently
stretching forth his staff, he lies down on the beach after throwing his
Egyptian sword, which he has kept all this time, into the water. Alerted
by cawing birds he later notices that his sword is sticking up out of the
water, showing that the water had receded. He seems bewildered,
surprised... unsure of how to proceed.
Where is Nachshon ben
Amminadav to show his faith by jumping into the water which then recedes?
Where are the walls of water on each side? Nowhere. They
Hebrews kind of slosh through muddy pools that look like the bay on Cape
Cod at low tide. Pharaoh and his remaining charioteers soon follow into
the water. The Hebrews scramble onto a rocky shore on the other side, and
suddenly there is a mano-a-mano moment where both Moses and Pharaoh are alone
facing each other, and both are thrust into the tsunami-like tidal wave that
envelopes them, followed by a slo-mo montage of drowned and floating horses,
pieces of chariot wheels, and dead soldiers. Somehow the next scene
features close ups of both Moses on one side of the sea which has returned
to its lapping of the shore, and Pharaoh is standing on the other side, dazed,
bruised, but whole.
Fast forward, not to a
monumental Sinai ablaze with smoke and fire, from which the elders are warned
not to approach, but rather to a unassuming rocky outcropping where Moses is
busy chipping away with a hammer and chisel at stone tablets. No booming
dictation of the Commandments; nor even a holy silence filling the screen, but
merely the God-boy figure warning Moses that if he doesn't have the faith to
follow through he should put down his hammer. Moses reflects for a second
and keeps on chiseling. That's it for the Giving of the Ten
Utterances??!!
So skip over building the
Mishkan - Tabernacle with the golden ark and its coverings. None of that
here. Jump to the very last scene years later as Moses, aged, with a flowing
white beard, rides in a covered wagon kind of cart with a plain wooden
box, ostensibly containing the Tablets of the Law, placed unceremoniously and
unadorned behind him.
There are so many
midrashim possible to mine for gems.... How did the writers and director come
up with these scenes that extended the battles and reduced the awe-inspiring
narratives?
The costumes, sets, music,
and effects were so professionally crafted, why not the dialogue and character
development?
I am mystified by this
production, and saddened that this is what may stay in the minds of
movie-goers, especially those who haven't studied the Torah and its
commentaries.
You
know what would have been great... if they included bits of midrash - children
finding whatever they wanted in the walls of water... etc.
and...
a kind of dream sequence when Moses leads the Children of Israel out... they
start to sing Mi Chamocha… and it turns into Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
speaking to the blacks in America about their Exodus from slavery…. a
contemporary seder with children singing "Let my people go" and strains of Hallel. "B'tzeit Israel.." When Israel went out of Egypt ... all kinds of Exodus reminders in our world today…..
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