Noah recalls the famed flood that represented God’s do-over on humanity. God warns Noah (Russell Crowe) of the impending catastrophe and orders him to build an ark to save the animals. Since Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden, humanity had been heading downhill, turning the paradise of earth into a post-Industrial wasteland. Only a seed leftover from Eden can restore the landscape and provide the trees necessary to build the ark. Noah’s grandfather Methuselah, hides away in a mountain desperate for some berries. Apparently it’s been centuries since he had some. His pursuit is successful right up until he drowns in the flood. Along the way Noah gets some help from the “Watchers” fallen angels in the form of giant rock monsters. They agree to aid in building the ark because they care about people; they were kicked out of Heaven for helping Adam and Eve after their exile. The “Watchers” fight alongside Noah as he defends the ark from the rest of mankind who understandably don’t want to drown. The “Watchers” sacrifice themselves as water engulfs the undeserving and Noah launches the ark to safety.
 |
| Noah's not gonna take it anymore |
Crowe’s Noah epitomizes single-mindedness. God has given him a mission and he has to carry it through. First, this means letting the rest of humanity die. He fights and kills those who try to save themselves by boarding the ark. Later, Noah becomes convinced that God wants his family to die out as well. This becomes a problem when his son’s wife becomes pregnant. So he resolves to murder the child if it turns out to be a girl. This determination drives his family away, at least emotionally—they can’t go too far, they’re stuck on an ark after all. Jennifer Connolly plays Noah’s long suffering wife and spends most of the film crying, horrified at what God and her husband have done. Emma Watson plays the pregnant daughter-in-law, sobbing at the idea of having her child immediately killed. When Noah’s son builds a raft to escape his lunatic father, Noah burns it. God gave him a mission and he’s going to see it through. After a climatic confrontation with the villain who somehow secreted himself away on the ark, Noah finally comes to his senses. As he looks into the eyes of his twin grandchildren he lowers his knife and professes his love for his family.
The sets are the most impressive thing about Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings. That is to say they’re real, built on soundstages to the cost of something like $140 million dollars. They add a level of realism that so many filmmakers fail to replicate through CGI. But they’re not used for any particularly interesting or useful purpose. The film begins with sort of brothers Ramses and Moses heading off to battle against their enemies. A soothsayer predicts that one of them will save the other’s life and become a great leader. In a gigantic shocker, it’s Moses who saves Ramses’ life. Everyone is troubled by this mostly because it is Ramses, not Moses, who will become Pharaoh once his father dies. Scott has explored this ‘the man who should be king vs. the man who would king’ dynamic before in Gladiator. Only in that movie, he had Joaquin Phoenix chewing up the scenery left and right. Phoenix embodied Roman decadence while searching for some twisted notion of familial love. Joel Edgerton’s Ramses is engulfed by petty jealously, anger, and an absurd amount of eyeliner.
After some boring bureaucratic infighting, Ramses banishes Moses. Moses goes away, falls in love, has a kid, and becomes a shepherd. All is well and happy in the world until a burning bush appears. Well it’s not so much a burning bush as it’s a bunch of sticks drizzled in Sterno. Then a boy appears, he claims to be an angel of God, but he’s really the Man Upstairs himself. Moses needs to go back and lead his people to freedom. He agonizes over his decision, but like Noah, decides that he should obey the Almighty. Moses goes back, meets his brother, and begins training an army. God, however, is unhappy with Moses’s progress. Again in the guise of a young boy, he wants freedom NOW! And if he can’t have it NOW! Then he’ll unleash a wave of plagues on Egypt. Ramses can’t muster up any excuses better than releasing the slaves will ruin the economy, so God sends forth his worst. The plagues come and come. Scott’s filmmaking seems to revel in the death and destruction. Swarms of insects devour cattle and people. Crocodiles gobble up sailors. Boils burst and rivers run red with blood.
Moses pleads with God to stop, but he won’t. In case you weren’t paying attention, he wants freedom for the Jews! In the scenes with Bale and the boy playing God, the Almighty isn’t interested in Moses’ opinion. He knows what he wants and it’s Moses’ job to carry it out. Moses is rightly skeptical of this young boy who talks like a prepubescent Brit. In Scott’s conception of Moses, he’s more harried babysitter than Messiah. Yet Moses, like Noah, obeys. By the time the plagues finish, Moses and Jews leave, only for Ramses to change his mind one last time and chase down his escaping slaves. The movie is two hours old by this point, but Scott includes one more final battle as Ramses drives his men to their deaths and Moses parts the Red Sea. What should be the film’s triumphant climax instead becomes a moment to wonder how much longer this is going to drag on.
Aronofsky’s Noah and Scott’s Exodus present a ruthless and angry God. He’s not looking for followers or interested in the salvation of his flock. He wants blood and he’ll have it. God needs a little bit of help from Noah and Moses, but he wants faith and obedience, not some much needed perspective. Noah’s faith in this version of God turns him into an ideologically consistent, but hardly sympathetic fanatic. He’ll kill his own granddaughter, if the Almighty wishes it. Moses, too, reluctantly obeys as God smites the Egyptians. He wants the killing to stop, but God isn’t satisfied until all the first born sons are dead. Ultimately God isn’t some doting deity, he’s an omnipotent bully. Too often in the world God is used as a cudgel against others, turns out it’s the same in the movies too.
No comments:
Post a Comment