‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ is clearly inspired by the great monumental films of the fifties and sixties, such as ‘The Ten Commandments’ and ‘Ben Hur’. However, Ridley Sott naturally gives his own, much more visually oriented twist to his work, which is also based on a biblical story.
“Exodus: Gods and Kings” runs today, March 6, 2024, at 8:15 PM on Kabel Eins. If the date doesn’t suit you, you can currently watch the show as part of your streaming subscription Disney+* And RTL+*Look. The FSK 12 title is also available as paid video-on-demand and – for fans of haptic image media – as (4K/UltraHD) Blu-ray or DVD:
Expect ‘The Dark Knight’ title hero Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton from ‘Warrior’ and ‘The Thing’ to star. Joining them were John Turturro (“The Big Lebowski”), Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”), Ben Mendelsohn (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”), Sigourney Weaver (“Alien”), Oscar winner Ben Kingsley (“Gandhi “) and Dar Salim (“Darkland”) for equipping “Napoleon” cinematographer Dariusz Wolski.
“Exodus” on Kabel Eins: that is the story
Circa 1300 BC: Egypt is ruled by Pharaoh Seti (Turturro). The king receives loyal support from two generals: his son Ramses (Edgerton) and his best friend Moses (Bale), who is also like a second son to Seti. The two generals grew up together and have felt like brothers for a long time. The older they get, the more character differences become visible and mutual understanding steadily decreases.
After Seti’s death, Ramesses takes over the throne and rules the country with an iron hand. Moses, on the other hand, who was found in the river as a baby and is not actually Egyptian, becomes the voice of the Israelites who are forced as slaves to build the pyramids. He receives a vision in which God himself instructs him to lead the Israelites through the desert to free them from their yoke.
Moses is determined to follow the divine command. With more than half a million slaves that he has freed, he begins an extremely difficult journey towards the Promised Land of Canaan. Of course, Ramses – egged on by his scheming mother Tuja (Weaver) – doesn’t like this at all, and so he tries to stop the action by any means necessary…
For the senses, not for the brain
The heart of the story of ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ could be the conflict between two men who go from brothers to bitter enemies. Anyone who knows anything about the Old Testament (or has seen “The Ten Commandments”) knows how the whole thing will ultimately end. Perhaps that’s why Ridley Scott focused more on powerful images and monumental crowd scenes than on character development in his film. With all this spectacle there is simply no time for such nuances and so – despite the top-notch cast – all the characters, apart from Moses and Ramses, quickly become pure accessories, which can be a bit frustrating.
However, if you’re mainly looking for epic tracking shots, perfectly choreographed, sometimes shockingly brutal battles, and fascinatingly implemented depictions of the Biblical plagues, then you’ve definitely come to the right place. As our good FILMSTARTS review of 3.5 out of a possible 5 stars indicates, the parting of the Red Sea, followed by a gigantic tidal wave, is purely visually the absolute highlight of a film that is made much more for the senses than for the senses seems to be. brain. That’s completely okay considering the qualities on offer here, you just need to be prepared for this constellation in advance.
As a kind of bonus material for the current TV broadcast of “Exodus: Gods and Kings” we have it here an interesting interview with Ridley Scott and Christian Bale conducted by FILMSTARTS editor Björn Becher for you. The video was made for the cinema release in 2014:
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