Guardian on The Aquarian Gospel

The Guardian has picked up on the Aquarian Gospel story I covered in September, and they seem to have unearthed a good deal more about it.

"The Bible devotes just seven words to the most formative years of Yeshua's life saying: 'The boy grew in wisdom and stature'. The [film] will follow Christ's journey to the east where he encounters other traditions, and discovers the principles that are the bedrock of all the world's great religions," said Drew Heriot, the film's director, whose credits include the cult hit The Secret.

The film, which is due for release in 2009, sets out to be a fantasy action adventure account of Jesus's life with the three wise men as his mentors. Although the producers say the film will feature a "young and beautiful" princess, it is not clear whether Jesus is to have a love interest.

There are a few other themes coming through that the Variety piece suggested on such as ideas of meditation, loyalty to untouchables, Jesus's teachings having roots in Indian traditions, and so on. The piece also quotes Fida Hassnain, former director of archaeology at the University of Srinagar as mentioning that a tomb of Issa is still venerated in Srinagar, and claiming that there is archaeology to back up the film's unusual premise. "I have seen the scrolls which show Buddhist monks talking about Jesus's visits. There are also coins from that period which show Yuzu or have the legend Issa on them, referring to Jesus from that period.

Exodus (2007)a.k.a. The Margate Exodus

Tonight (19th November 2007) Channel 4. 10pm
2007 has been a busy years for Moses films. The summer found David Wain's bawdy examination of the Ten Commandments in The Ten. Then, last month, Christian Slater voiced a CGI Moses in Promenade Pictures' The Ten Commandments. Now it's the turn of a British film to take a look at this subject matter in Penny Woolcock's Exodus - a modernised take on the Moses story set in Margate on the south-east coast of England.

In this version of the story, the people of Israel are replaced by a group of immigrants and homeless people who are being incarcerated in a huge camp on the site of the "Dreamland" fun park. But as the police squads come in the night, one woman manages to escape just long enough to leave her baby with one of those who will remain outside.

The outsider happens to be Batya Mann, the wife of the politician who formed the idea of this incarceration camp, Pharaoh Mann. Thus Moses is brought up the son of this Pharaoh, and the real story of his birth remains a secret.

All that changes, however, when years later, Moses takes a trip into Dreamland, and kills a security guard. He's rescued by Aaron and Zipporah, but they reveal his true identity, and, as Moses is safe from prosecution inside the camp he decides to stay. Moses eventually marries Zipporah, and starts work for her father Jethro giving an education to the street children.There's always a danger when setting a well known story in a modern context that the parallels won't come off, or that the whole thing ends up feeling a bit contrived. Here, however, the various elements hold together fairly well. The idea of the "undesirables" of society being caged in seems a little far fetched until a reporter mentions the concentration camps of the last century, and it suddenly becomes apparent that these things are not as unlikely as they may have seemed.

That said, a lot hangs on the relationship between Pharaoh and his wife. It's established right at the start that she is opposed to his politics, but as the film unfolds we discover that in spite of this there is a strong mutual love between them. In order to maintain this they have both had to lie to themselves - Batya that she will be able to change her husband's appalling politics, and Pharaoh that his beloved son is not related to the people he has so cold-heartedly locked up.

The believability of this relationship is largely down to impressive performances by Ger Ryan (Stardust and Bernard Hill (Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers). It's no so much the way they deliver their lines as the way they carry themselves. Both are subtle and understated performances, and it's to the credit of Hill, particularly, that he is able to add some humanity to a truly monstrous character.What's fascinating about Exodus, however, is the way that we see the process happening in reverse in Pharaoh's adopted son. Initially, Moses seems to have followed in his mother's footsteps. He's compassionate, and troubled by the camp, smuggling books into it via his maid. But once Jethro is killed by a "Pest control" gunman he decides to start an uprising which becomes increasingly violent. He may be on the other side of the ideological fence to the man who brought him up, but he clearly has Pharaoh's ability to ignore the cries of his victims whilst in pursuit of his goal.

Moses plan to liberate those inside the camp is by unleashing a series of attacks that function as the 10 plagues. Initially he uses his love of micro-biology to poison the sea with a red algae. This is followed by spreading devastating computer viruses, and contaminating food, and so on.

The use of these plagues will be the largest determining factor in how people respond to the film. Some will argue that these modern plagues do not offer a fair comparison. After all, those in the Bible were the work of God whereas these are solely the work of Moses and his comrades. At the other end of the spectrum will be those who, for some time, have been troubled by the carnage wrought on the Egyptian people by the plagues and the death of the first born, and are pleased to see a film that gives voice to their concerns.

There will be still others, however, who find watching this film is a genuinely disturbing experience, as, for perhaps the first time they see the story of the Exodus from the point of view of those on the losing side. The Exodus story has long held a cherished place in Liberation Theology, but it's rare that people consider the lot of the ordinary Egyptians, ruled by a tyrant, and blighted by plagues and the death of their children because of his stubbornness.

Unfortunately, having pulled off this brilliant expose, the film flounders, seemingly unable to suggest a way forward. It's clearly not in favour of incarcerating any group of people en masse, but it's unable to give them the ability to rise above the morals of their oppressors. It's perhaps the starkest of warnings about the current course of this country's politicians on the issue of immigration, as if it's saying that if competition continues to mount over who can be toughest on immigration, then look what might happen. The problem is that this ultimately depicts those seeking asylum in an eerily similar light to the way they are portrayed by far right politicians.

So whilst Exodus delivers strongly in it's re-contextualisation of the Moses story, it's arguably less successful in creating meaningful dialogue about immigration.

The Future of NT Gateway:Jesus in Film

Mark Goodacre has been discussing for some time the future of New Testament Gateway, and he's just posted a lengthy part 2.

In it he happens to mention his Celluloid Jesus pages which I have been an admirer of for a long, long time. Thankfully it appears that these pages are not to be retired. Here's what Mark actually says about it all:

One other major part of the site needs a major overhaul, the Jesus in Film pages. This is something of a speciality niche, but it is a very popular section of the site, so it needs a major update rather than retirement. I will be asking for help on this section, and may even consider loosing it off from the main site and giving it its own lease of life.

I'm glad he's taken this decision - as he points out these pages are very popular. Even without regular updates they still appear quite a way above this site if you search for "Jesus films" on Google. It'll be great when they have been updated. I'll keep readers posted as, and when, there's more news.

Speaking of NT Gateway, Mark also has an interesting series of posts on the major agreements between Matthew and Luke against Mark.

Golem, l'esprit de l'exil(Golem, the Spirit of Exile)

One of the reasons I first started this blog was to have somewhere to write down a few notes on a Bible film after I had seen it. One of the things I've found over the years is that by writing about a film I come to understand it more. But somewhere along the line, I've ended up only writing reviews, or scene guides, in other words things that are a bit more polished. This, in turn, means that I end delaying writing certain pieces until I forget about them and they never get written

So I've decided to return to my roots for this one. The main reason for doing this is that Golem, l'esprit de l'exil is such a complex film that it's hard to really "get it" on a first viewing, particularly given the paucity of commentary and analysis on it. I may return, on further reflection, to write a more thought-out review, (particularly once I've had a chance to watch the interviews that are included amongst the DVD's extra features), but if not then at least I've documented my thoughts in some form.

The story of Golem is not,from the Bible of course. It's based on later Jewish texts which describe an "animated being created entirely from inanimate matter".¹ A wealth of stories have sprung up around these texts, involving appearances to Rabbis, defending the Jewish people from anti-Semitic attacks, and so on. The stories of these dumb, shadow beings, and the themes associated with them can be seen at work in more recent artistic pieces. The monster in Shelley's "Frankenstein" is clearly in this tradition. Other examples are Gustav Meyrink's 1915 novel Der Golem which inspired a series of silent movies, (such as the 1920 film The Golem) and Julien Duvivier's "Le Golem" (1936). Today "Golem" evokes "Lord of the Rings", which has clearly been influenced by these traditions.Having said all that there is also a strong biblical element to this film. This functions on two levels: narrative and text. The film's narrative is essentially a modernisation of the story of Ruth. Naomi and Elimelech are migrants in gentile France and their two sons are romantically involved with two gentile women. Elimelech's death is followed swiftly by his sons "being killed in a hate crime", leaving the three women alone.² One returns to her parents, the other, Ruth, stays with Naomi, and the pair return to Israel. There Ruth meets and marries Boaz and eventually bears him a son.

On a textual level there are, of course, a number of passages from the Book of Ruth. However, the script also quotes numerous chunks of scripture from various places in the Old Testament: Genesis, Ecclesiastes and the prophets. All of this is interwoven with modern day additions which give the biblical quotations a more staid feel whilst simultaneously underlining their importance.One of the most interesting things about this film is how it uses it's French context. As noted above, this is a gentile, and furthermore secular, setting, and there's a sense in which the characters of Naomi, Elimelech and their two sons always seem out of somewhat out of place. This is perhaps underscored most forcefully when the Orpah figure returns to her parents home. But it also has the effect of putting us (well, westerners) on the side of the original story's Moabites, rather than on the side of the original stories Israelites (as The Story of Ruth does by choosing a non-US actress to play Ruth).

Whilst, on the one hand, being companions, there's a tension in the original story between Naomi, who is eager to return to her home land, and Ruth who is actually leaving her home land in order to stay with Naomi. This aspect is brought out superbly by what is perhaps my favourite shot in the film. Naomi and Ruth are seated on the back of an open truck, sights from urban France passing in the background. There's a deliberately unrealistic feel here which combines with the slightly meditative soundtrack to give the scene a feeling of detachment. But whereas Naomi sits out in front and looks forward to what's ahead, Ruth looks behind her with a certain sadness.

Screen Shot to follow

It's relatively unusual that films based on the Bible contain much nudity, perhaps because this might alienate some of the potential audience for such films. As Golem clearly isn't on a quest for ratings it's a little more free to experiment in this regard. So all three couples are shown in some sort of frank love scene, which as Peter Chattaway points out gives extra poignancy to the scenes following their deaths. Their depth of relationship has been heavily underscored prior to the tragedy.³

There's also an unusual nude scene between Naomi and Ruth. This could also be interpreted as a love scene, especially as Song of Songs is quoted at the time, but there's little indication, at least from the acting that this is the case. Some scholars have speculated that Ruth 1:14's use of the word translated clave (traditionally used to indicate marriage e.g. Gen 2:24) suggests this, but personally I'm unconvinced. The book does indicate a strong attachment between these women, and the intimacy and tenderness of this scene, whilst clearly beyond the realms of the text, does bring that home.

It's perhaps stating the obvious to say that this film also has a great deal to say about migration. Many consider the canonical purpose of the Book of Ruth to be to counter anti-gentile feeling during / following Ezra's reforms. Here Gitai is clearly keen to highlight the dangers migrants to the west - Elimelech is killed in a (preventable) industrial accident; his sons are "murdered" because of their nationality, and you get the impression that the police are not taking the case particularly seriously; Naomi is evicted and is told that she cannot bury her family in France, and thus, is effectively deported.

I'll end with a quote from Gitai himself:

"The Book of Ruth is based on a documentary story: a family in Bethlehem suffers from the famine there and goes to Moab, the "new country of exile". But the biblical writer takes this event and transforms it into fictional material. And this then becomes eventually even more than fiction: it becomes a sanctified myth. We, in turn, place the biblical story in the present and work with those ambiguities, but we strip away some of the sanctification, keeping the mythological echoes but placing them in the here and now. The issue of creation is the general framework of the film and, inside this framework, there is a permanent back and forth movement to the issue of exile. Through the Golem, I tried to deal with some of my own questions regarding the cinematic language. In Golem, the Spirit of Exile, the central spine of the story is the theme of being uprooted, which links the whole trilogy".⁴

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1 - "Golem" from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem
2 - Peter Chattaway - "Passion disturbing, inspiring and challenging" - http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/bc.cgi?bc/bccn/0304/22passion
3 - Peter Chattaway - OnFilm message board - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/onfilm/message/4404
4 - Amos Gitai, in Yann Lardeau, "Les Films d'Amos Gitai", (unpublished)

Evan Almighty UK DVD Release

Film © 2007 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Evan Almighty gets its UK DVD release on Monday, in what seems to be a slightly different version of the disc from that which was released last month in the US and elsewhere. I say that because my friend Peter Chattaway had his name included on the North American DVD for attending the promotional "junket" earlier in the year. This DVD doesn't have that feature at least.

It does, however, have a very generous number of extra features, including several mini-documentaries. Indeed given the film's poor performance at the box office, and the wealth of extras already supplied in this release, it's hard to imagine a special edition of this film coming out any time soon. The full list of features is as follows:

Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
The Ark-itects of Noah's Ark
Becoming Noah
Steve Carrell Unscripted
Animals on Set Two by Two
The Almighty Green Set
It's Easy Being Green
Acts of Random Kindness
A Flood of Visual Effects
Casting Call Serengeti

Film © 2007 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

For me, the best extras are always those that lead you to appreciate the film more, and there are at least 3 features here that tick that box, (although from a technical point of view more than anything). "The Ark-itects of Noah's ark" talks about the feat of reproducing Noah's ark for real, which is one of the film's most impressive feats alongside the use of animals. Evan used more animals than any other film in movie history, and so it's hardly surprising that it gets its own feature entitled "Animals on set two by two".

The other more technical features discuss issues around Carell's make-up ("Becoming Noah"), and the CGI effects ("A flood of visual Effects"). I always find CGI docs interesting, but feel geeky afterwards for enjoying them as if they're some kind of guilty pleasure.

The other features fall into two categories, those tied into the film's messages, and those that are just cast / crew enjoying themselves. This was certainly a "message movie", which aimed to challenge its audience to live more sustainably, and to engage in Acts of Random Kindness. There are two features on the first issue ("The Almighty Green Set", "It's Easy Being Green"), and one on the second ("Acts of Random Kindness"), which sometimes feels a little preachy and other times seems a bit token. For example, will the world really be saved by putting a quarter in a parking meter if someone's car has run out of credit?Film © 2007 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

In-jokes by cast and crew rarely make good extras, and this DVD is no exception. Whilst "Casting Call Serengeti" raises the occasional smile, "Steve Carrell Unscripted" is poor. In fact generally these extras supply ample evidence that Carrell is far more amusing when scripted than not.

In terms of the movie itself (my review is here), the quality seems pretty good - although I'm no expert. The above image is the bitmap from my screen grab software so you can see for yourselves (click on it to see the full size image). Overall it's a decent release of this film, and, as there is unlikely to be a special edition in the near future, those planning to buy the DVD should probably go right ahead rather than wait for another, even more extensive version.

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Anyone interested in this DVD might also want to know that Peter Chattaway has also recorded an unofficial, downloadable, audio commentary for the film as well. There's also a new trailer available.

November Faith and Film Blog-a-thon

Somehow this entirely passed me by, but a Faith and Film Blog-a-thon ran last week and I totally missed it. And the worst thing is that there are no excuses as it was announced as far back as September!

There are over 40 entries. I must admit I had no idea that there were quite so many Faith and Film blogs out there, particularly given that many of the ones I read regularly didn't even participate. I wonder if this is going to run regularly, in a similar vein to the Biblical Studies Carnivals, if so I'll have to enter something for future blog-a-thons.

Two Bible film related posts are Joe's Movie Corner on The Prince of Egypt, and The Listening Ear's thoughts on Monty Python's Life of Brian.

By the way I also discovered that RC, the host for this blog-a-thon, also wrote out a lengthy quote from one of my favourite 3 films Cool Hand Luke.

The Ten Commandments (2007)Scene Guide

I've been meaning to post this ever since I wrote my review of Promenade Pictures'The Ten Commandments (2007), so here it is. Readers may be interested to compare it with the Scene Guides for a couple of other Moses films, last year's live action TV mini series The Ten Commandments (part 1 and part 2), 1996's mini series Moses (part 1 and part 2). I've been meaning to post scene guides for Moses the Lawgiver (1975) since July, but have never quite got around to it. Anyway, on to the scene guide for this film.

Israel enslaved - (Ex 1:8-14)
Moses on the Nile - (Ex 1:22-2:10)
[extra-biblical episode - Opening credits]
[extra-biblical episode - Moses and Ramsees play]
Moses kills the Egyptian - (Ex 2:11-12)
Moses sent away - (Ex 2:15a)
Moses and Jethro's daughters - (Ex 2:15b-22)
Burning Bush - (Ex 3:1-4:17)
Moses returns to Egypt - (Ex 4:27- 2:23)
Moses's first appearance before Pharaoh - (Ex 5:1-10; 7:8-13)
Bricks without Straw - (Ex 5:11-21)
Moses appeals to God - (Ex 5:22-6:9)
Water to Blood - (Ex 7:14-25)
Lice - (Ex 8:16-19)
Frogs - (Ex 8:1-15)
Flies - (Ex 8:20-32)
Murrain - (Ex 9:1-7)
Sores - (Ex 9:8-12)
Hail - (Ex 9:13-35)
Locusts - (Ex 10:1-20)
Darkness - (Ex 10:21-23)
Pharaoh appeals to Moses - (Ex 10:24-29)
Passover - (Ex 12:1-28)
Death of First Born - (Ex 12:29-30)
The Exodus - (Ex 12:31-39)
Pilars of cloud and fire - (Ex 13:20-14:4)
Pharaoh changes his mind - (Ex 14:5-14)
Parting of the Red Sea - (Ex 14:15-31)
Song of Moses - (Ex 15)
Water from Rock - (Ex 17:1-7)
Manna and Quails - (Ex 16:1-15)
Aaron and Miriam question Moses - (Num 12:1-8)
Moses on Sinai - (Ex 19:1-6)
Golden Calf - (Ex 32:1-6)
Ten Commandments - (Ex 20:1-17, 34:29)
Golden Calf - (Ex 32:15-)
Building Tabernacle - (Ex 36:1-38)
God changes his mind - (Ex 32:7-14, Num 14:10-35)
Death of Miriam - (Num 20:1)
Death of Aaron - (Num 20:22-29)
Moses tells joshua about his death - (Num 27:12-23)
Final Speech - (Deut 1:1-8)
Death of Moses - (Deut 34:1-12)

Notes
A quick look at that confirms one of the points I made about this in my review: this film crams an awful lot of the biblical material into it's 90 minute run time. A quick comparison with those other scene guides - which were for 3 hour productions - confirms this. There's obviously many more episodes that could have been included (battle against the Amonites, Jethro's visit, other rebellions etc.), but this is as complete a telling of the full Moses story as any other, yet in a fraction of the time.

That said it's interesting how this film handles much of the material in a similar vein to DeMille's take on The Ten Commandments. (He made two versions in 1923 and then the Charlton Heston version in 1956. It's the latter one that is dominant in the public imagination, largely because it imports the best aspects - to DeMille's mind at least - from the first film, and expands on them.) So, for example, both the Ten Commandments scene and the Golden calf incident, are handled as DeMille handles them; Moses goes up a mountain, receives the tablets bearing the commandments, and returns to find rebellion in the camp, the punishment for which is wandering in the desert for 40 years.

Biblically speaking, however, the Ten Commandments are given to all the people whilst Moses is at the foot of the mountain (although he has made several treks up and down the mountain by this point), and he then goes to spend time with God. When he discovers the people's unfaithfulness, the punishment is death to those who refuse to repent. It's not until the survivors refuse to trust Joshua and Caleb, as opposed to the other 10 spies, that the people are sentences to wander in the desert until they die. It perhaps not surprising that an animated film aimed at kids edits the material in this way, but the reliance on DeMille is striking. Another example is Moses' banishment after killing the Egyptian. I wonder to what extent the script writers were aware of this as they wrote?This is one of the only films about Moses that deals with each of the ten plagues in turn. The sequence in Exodus does become rather repetitive and so usually film-makers focus on the reaction to one or two before seguing their way through the rest of them, or just omitting / combining some of the ones in the middle before returning to the plague of death at the end. This one gives time to each of them.

One thing I did notice, however, is that it moves the plague of lice to number 2 (rather than number 3). It's an incredibly minor point, of course, but that only peaks my curiosity. Why was this change made? (That's not an objection, by the way, it just strikes me as strange).There were also a few little visual things I wanted to add in her. Firstly, it's interesting how this film makes the giving of the Ten Commandments even more spectacular. In the DeMille films there are pyrotechnics as fire from heaven carves the words into stone.This film goes way beyond, as the two tablets are caught up into the sky in a whoosh of stars, and are gradually lowered in front of Moses. It's one of the film's most original moments, and, sadly, its worst.

As I mentioned in my review, there are, however, some nice visual moments. I was reminded of the God shot during the parting of the Red Sea, which, again, is otherwise very DeMille. There's also a shot during the manna and quails episode of one of the older men, whose naked chest bears the scars of his time as a slave, and lends extra poignancy to the rose-tinted nostalgia that the people are expressing for Egypt and it's food.