Dreamworks studio moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen were discussing what makes a great animated motion picture. They agreed that it had to be something epic and grand, as epic and grand as the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments. Eventually, it was the period leading up to Sinai that became the subject of the first animated movie from the new studio. It appeared at the end of last year and created a flurry of interest among evangelical believers. The large CLC Christian Bookshop in London carried at least four titles in connection with the film and some churches wove the film title Prince of Egypt into their programmes.
Positively
So what did we think of it? It is undoubtedly a great technical achievement. Any project involving 400 artists in 26 different countries working for three and a half years deserves some consideration. The scene near the end where Israel crosses the Red Sea is particularly impressive and brings home what an amazing thing it must have been to have been present. I spoke to an evangelical who was consulted and he said that they originally intended to present the scene with just three feet of water! Thankfully they were persuaded otherwise.
It is good that the film attempts to deal honestly and fairly with the subject matter and is not guilty of blatant blasphemy or distortion. Great care was taken by the studio to consult with the major faiths that acknowledge Moses as a prophet. Many theologians of different persuasions were consulted. Further, it cannot be a bad thing when books are on sale in the High Street drawing attention to the first half of the Book of Exodus. At the start of the film itself we are urged to read the full story in Exodus for ourselves. Hopefully, some have been prompted to read the neglected book and who knows where that may lead?
Negatively
However, to describe it, as one American evangelical review did, as having a 'Very clear God-honouring, theocentric, false-religion rebuking, biblical worldview where God is the hero behind the scenes and false-religions are exposed and rebuked' is to overstate the case. If you frequent the cinema this is not a film that you will want necessarily to encourage your Sunday School children to see. Like any adaptation from book to film it makes changes to the story and these are likely to confuse anyone not totally familiar with the original material. Scene after scene is altered. It is hard to think of even one where some change has not been made. Moses putting his hand into the burning bush is a particularly bad example.
More than that, by making the focus of the film the possible brotherly relationship between Moses and Pharaoh, elements are introduced that are alien to the biblical narrative. The dramatic turning point of the film is Moses' realisation that he is a Hebrew. It would seem far more likely that he grew up with this knowledge, passed on by his mother. In the film she quickly disappears from the scene but in the Bible she becomes Moses' nurse.
Then there is the very ethos of the film. As so often happens, all the subtle nuances and the truly theocentric nature of the original are flattened out into the drab humanistic landscape that encroaches ever further into the Eden of a truly biblical and life honouring belief system. Kelly Asbury, head of story on the film, explained the approach when in an interview she said, `We wanted to show that they are all humans with different belief systems that are not good or bad - it's what they believe.' Of course, it is difficult to sustain this in the light of the fact the Egyptians were given over to idolatry and were cruelly subjecting the Hebrews to slavery, but that is the stated aim.
Some of the songs serve to underline the basic humanism of the piece. Moses' mother sings, 'My son, I have nothing I can give but this chance that you may live.' Miriam sings, 'Who knows what miracles you can achieve when you believe. Somehow you will when you believe'. Even the best of the lyrics, Jethro's exhortation to 'Look at your life through heaven's eyes' eventually sinks into references to the 'winds of change and chance' and learning 'to join the dance'. The claim that 'the essence, the truth and the majesty of the story have been honoured' is highly questionable.
I took my three older boys to see it. The four and five year olds were not over impressed. Despite efforts to inject light relief with the youthful escapades of Ramses and Moses and the over-the-top antics of the magicians, this is a very serious film featuring slavery, hardship, plague and a very large number of deaths. My nine year old got on much better with it and I think it will serve best in helping older children and adults to reflect on the drama of Exodus - the people's suffering, Moses' rejection of Egypt, the role of Jethro, the struggle with Pharaoh, the Passover, the exodus itself and the crossing of the Red Sea. When it appears on video, an evening watching and discussing it may be time well spent. If you do that, perhaps you can discuss the claim of one evangelical that it 'Proclaims the sovereignty of God and his miraculous involvement with mankind ... shows the need for virtue, integrity, character and the Ten Commandments ... shows God acting in history ... foreshadows the Prince of Peace, who leads all those who ask out of their contemporary bondage into freedom in the kingdom of God.' If only it did.
This article first appeared in Grace Magazine. The flim first appeared in 1998.
