'Exodus' and Other Bible-Based Movies to Breed Controversy
It should come to the surprise of absolutely no one that Ridley Scott’s new biblical epic, Exodus: Gods and Kings, has been mired in controversy. Why? Because, as laid out in the Yahoo Movies video above, there have been plenty of previous major motion pictures based on the Bible that have also sparked some type of dissent, outrage, or protest.
Scott (Blade Runner, Gladiator) has been criticized for casting white actors like Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton as ancient Egyptians, leading to a backlash that manifested itself on social media with the trending Twitter hashtag #BoycottExodusMovie. The director didn’t do himself any favors when he defended his casting decision by telling Variety, “I can’t mount a film of this budget… and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such.”
A quick rundown other recent controversial religious movies:
Noah (2014): The year’s other major-studio biblical epic from director Darren Aronofsky caught grief for a variety of reasons: its all-white cast, the fact that God is never mentioned by name, and the filmmaker’s description of Noah as “the first environmentalist.”
The Passion of the Christ (2004): While it remains one of the biggest box-office success stories of all time, Mel Gibson’s New Testament-based tale was attacked for being overtly violent and anti-Semitic.
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988): The final sequence in Martin Scorsese’s drama sparked protests across the globe for its portrayal of a sex scene between Jesus Christ (Willem Dafoe) and Mary Magdelene (Barbara Hersey).
Exodus is now theaters.
