My first contact with biblical stories happened still at home, when my grandparents spent their wit and creativity teaching me the stories of the book that grounds the Christian faith. Still as a child I had access to some hand-drawn little stories. Earnest but poor-quality attempts to show me the Red Sea parted, the giant Goliath, Samson’s muscles and the boy David with his “slingshot.” That was my childhood.
As a teenager I fell in love with the Old Testament. I myself read the Torah, the prophetic books, the historical books and the Psalms more than 5 times. By the time I was 18 or 19 I already knew by heart the names of characters, genealogies, political geography among other things that drew my attention. Unfortunately my religious leaders were half-blind, they could barely guide themselves and as a result they guided me the way they could — feeling their way in the dark and afraid of any shadow or any light different from what they were used to.
Only in the last 7 years have I experienced contact with diverse cultures, stories, music and experiences I had never heard about before (which were labeled as “of the devil” and therefore forbidden) — Cinema is one of them. Understanding cinema, its stories, the way it reflects our culture, our mistakes, our wins, and the way we communicate and express ourselves has made me a much richer man.
To my surprise and joy, in the last 10 years, at least 3 epic films have been released about stories I have known since I was a child. The Passion of the Christ, Noah and Exodus.
It makes me really happy that Hollywood is willing to spend MILLIONS of dollars to make films about Noah, Moses, Jesus, when they could pick so many other themes. I can’t understand the fuss about them not being extremely faithful to a book that tells 80 years of history in a page and a half — but believers love to complain — Me, for example, I love Christmas. I get happy when 3 out of every 5 songs in the malls I go to, in every store I walk into, in every restaurant where the radio is on, are about the Savior, the Boy of Bethlehem, the fulfilled promise. Some prefer to squeeze lemons into their eyes, I prefer to make good lemonade. Long live Christmas… long live films with biblical themes!
I have already written about the Noah film, and today I come home very happy, at 30 years old I feel again like I’m 4 or 5, coming back from another afternoon at VBS (Vacation Bible School) where the “aunties” told me stories, acted them out with puppets and drew little pictures.
The film is far from Oscar-worthy, but there is content there, there is story and there are many lessons. I spent a long time talking with my dear wife and sharing details that spoke deeply to my heart, the main one (and maybe the most controversial) being the almost natural way that God communicates with Moses (or would it be Moishe?!?).
I love God as a child, I love Moses questioning God, I am in love with the idea that only Moses saw and heard God, I love when they disagree, when Moses tells him to go alone, and it speaks deeply to my heart, the times Moses tries to use his “army” to face Pharaoh, until he decides to sit down and let God act.
For me there are some important lessons, but the biggest is still my joy, because it will be much easier for my son to “visualize” the stories that I had to imagine and draw in my mind… what a happy time to be alive, I love being in the future!
PS1: About the whining that’s coming (and very, very strong, you can bet) — “ahhh but it’s not the same as the Bible”… let’s do this: go, love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself… when you manage to do that, when you manage to make your life 100% the same as the Bible, then you come back and start deciding how faithful a Hollywood film director should be to the scriptures.
PS2: If you want a better cinematic review, I recommend the Tecmundo post: http://www.tecmundo.com.br/cinema/69520-assistimos-filme-exodo-deuses-reis.htm