I went with my son to see the “Exodus” movie the other night. It was very interesting. Immediately I saw all kinds of comments on Facebook,
so I figured I would contribute my two cents to the discussion. Here are my positives and negatives of the
movie.
Positives of the
movie:
1.
My biggest positive is that I think it will
cause many people to read the book of Exodus from the Bible to find the true
account. Anything to get people into
God’s Word is a good outcome.
2.
Hollywood is making more movies based on
biblical events, and this certainly shows that they know there is a large
audience for such movies.
3.
The movie was obviously done with a very large
budget: sets, costumes, number of
people, locations (e.g., Spain, Canary Islands, and Egypt), etc.
4.
There was nothing sexual or overly violent in
the movie. I would advise almost any age
to go see it.
5.
It definitely shows the humanness of Moses and
some of what it could have been like for him to be raised in Pharaoh’s
household.
6.
The brutality of the slavery the Israelites had
to endure was definitely done well.
7.
It made it clear the enormous number of people
involved in the Exodus.
8.
Plagues were depicted well, although I have a
concern about them under the negatives.
Stay tuned for that.
9.
I loved the “Passover” scene and how that was
done.
10. Parting
of the Red Sea was very dramatic.
11. God
definitely wins in the end, even though God’s true presence and activity was
quite obscure.
12. I
liked the way the 10 Commandments were given at the end (i.e., as a way to
guide the people after Moses would depart as their leader).
Negatives of the
movie:
1.
Moses is not shown to have much of a
relationship with God. Though his
humanness was definitely shown, it missed the strong relationship with God he
did have.
2.
The plagues just “happened” and not as the
Scripture says (i.e. with God proving His superiority and Moses directly
appealing to Pharaoh to “let My people go” …. or “else”).
3.
The many ways the movie went away from Scripture
was not necessary and did not add to the drama of the story in any way. They should have stayed with the biblical
story and it would have been much more interesting and dramatic. God’s Word is pretty interesting and
dramatic. Hopefully Hollywood will
eventually realize this. They don’t need
to divert from Scripture to have an amazing movie.
4.
Having the little boy as God’s spokesman took
away from the power and greatness of God. Some may see that as “out of the
mouths of babes and infants” (Ps. 8:2), but I did not like this.
5.
The Bible clearly shows God being deeply
concerned for the plight of His people, and delivering them as a powerful and
caring God (Exodus 3:7-12). The movie did not bring this out.
6.
The Bible says the Egyptians let the Israelites
have what they asked for, and that the Israelites plundered the Egyptians when
they left Egypt, and thus took much provision with them (Ex. 12:36-37). This
was not in the movie at all.
7.
The scene where Moses is swept into the sea but
survives is pretty weird. Not sure why they did that.
8.
The crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 14) took
place with God proving His greatness (14:17-18) and Moses demonstrating strong
faith in God (14:13). The movie was weak
on these fronts as well.
9.
The bottom line is that the movie did not depict
God as the loving, caring, sovereign, all-powerful God He is. But for secular
Hollywood, it wasn’t terrible.
As you can see, I think the positives outweigh the negatives,
and I would recommend everyone see the movie …. And then read the book of
Exodus!!!
