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Prince of Egypt
DreamWorks, 1998
Reviewed by Gordon Matties
Not since Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 movie, The Ten Commandments, has Moses had as high a profile in popular culture as he received on December 18, 1998 when Prince of Egypt opened on more than 7500 screens in 38 countries.
No movie in history has spawned three "soundtracks": one includes original music from the movie, and two are "inspired by" the movie and marketed under "Nashville" and "Inspirational" subtitles. Twenty-six books (counting colouring books and scrapbooks) are geared to every possible readership, including a storyteller's edition by Madeleine L'Engle and a book of essays by Philip Yancey, Max Lucado, Joni Eareckson Tada among others. There is even a study guide for groups on the official Web site (http://www.prince-of-egypt.com).
Prince of Egypt is the creative child of the DreamWorks studio, founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen (Antz, Amistad, and Saving Private Ryan). Katzenberg, formerly of Disney, was involved in making The Little Mermaid and The Lion King. Much conspires to make this Prince destined for a long lifespan on video: songs by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pocahontas), score by Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer (The Lion King), together with superb animation by a staff of 380 artists (who utilized both hand-drawn and computer-generated animation) and voices of well-known actors (Val Kilmer, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ralph Fiennes, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, among others).
To safeguard wide acceptance, DreamWorks consulted a variety of experts and scores of leaders among Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities. The end credits even conclude with quotations about Moses from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an. Respecting the religious content of the story, Katzenberg emphasizes that DreamWorks' partner Burger King is not promoting a Prince Burger, nor can one find a Miriam doll or a Burning Bush Nightlight. Still, one cannot help but recognize a production in which Moses the prophet is redesigned for maximum profit.
Although the essence of the plot remains faithful to the biblical narrative, the movie fictionalizes Moses' early life. It is not worth quibbling about minor divergences from the biblical story: e.g. baby Moses is discovered by the wife, not the daughter, of Pharaoh. The movie casts Moses as a brother to the young Ramses. Their youthful and sometimes dangerous rivalry (including a spectacular chariot race in which the Sphinx's nose makes an appearance) sets viewers up for the tragic consequences that will later unfold as Ramses chooses to live by the political expectations of power and the personal expectations of his father. This characterization is important because it allows us to imagine how Moses might have felt as he discovers his Hebrew identity, and as he and Ramses experience the growing alienation between them. We feel the pain of both Moses and Ramses as the first born of Egypt die. The movie adds to the biblical story, but it does so differently from the way a reader might fill in the gaps in the Exodus story. The addition of fictional elements supplies emotional depth to the story, which engages our senses and our bodies in the tensions of the plot.
There is no real danger that this movie will replace the biblical text. But it does raise several questions about how a movie might, over the years, shape the imagination of young Bible readers and limit their perception of what the text offers.
First, true to the animation genre, music plays a significant role in telling the story. Although characters like Miriam and Moses speak a rather profound theology of dependence on God's strength, and of persevering in prayer in times of God's silence and apparent inaction, the music simplifies and humanizes those themes. When Miriam's theology is set to music, she sings: "There can be miracles / When you believe / Though hope is frail / It's hard to kill / Who knows what miracles / You can achieve / When you believe." In other words, human beings are capable of great things, if only they believe.
Second, the movie omits the frailty of the people even as it emphasizes the laudable hope of the characters for freedom and dignity. But they do not complain against God or against Moses, nor do they build a golden calf. The God of the movie, as in the biblical story, has compassion on an oppressed people. But the God of the biblical Exodus must also come to terms with intransigence and moral ambiguity.
Third, the movie offers no idea of what Moses means when, in the biblical story, he tells Pharaoh to let God's people go "that they might serve me." That this people is about to be bound to a new master, whose instructions will shape and transform their lives, is missing in the movie. At the end of the movie Moses appears with the Ten Commandments, but for no apparent reason. Why provide instructions for a people who are already good?
And fourth, the movie perpetuates a romantic ideal of male-female relationships by introducing Zipporah, Moses's wife, as a beauty who is both bound and desired by royal courtiers. Fortunately Moses, who sets her free and pursues her only to lose her to a fast camel, gets her in the end. We have not come very far from Pocahontas.
The movie is worth seeing because of its artistry, because of its genuine humanity in depicting both Egyptian and Hebrew characters, and because it draws us into the pathos of the story. It is disappointing, however, because it allows a shallow and digestible spirituality to overwhelm the theological power of the plot.
Gordon Matties teaches Biblical Studies, along with a course in Religion, Film and Popular Culture at Concord College, Winnipeg, MB
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