Who Knew That Moses Was White?!?

The synopsis on the promotional website for Ridley Scott's latest film, Exodus: Gods and Kings, reads:

Scott brings new life to the story of the defiant leader Moses as he rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 400,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.

www.exodusgodsandkings.com

If you’ve seen any of the posters or trailers for Exodus: Gods and Kings it probably became apparent that historical accuracy was not the top priority for the film makers. I mean, it’s a blockbuster action movie about an old testament story. My prediction is that the movie goes light on the history of ancient Egypt but that we get lots of vivid shots of the gruesome effects of the plagues (and maybe some shirtless men). There is one particular aspect of historical inaccuracy within the film that is really drawing criticism, and that is in the film’s casting.

The main cast includes Christian Bale, Sigourney Weaver, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, and Ben Kingsly. Of these actors, Kinglsy is the only one who might fall in to a racial category other than white since his father was of Indian descent. The time of the exodus is unknown, but it is estimated to be around either 1450 BCE or 1270 BCE. In either case, it is pretty safe to assume that the Caucasian cast of Exodus: Gods and Kings does not accurately represent the population of Egypt at that time.

Sigourney Weaver and Joel Edgerton in Exodus
image from www.cinema.com.my

Rupert Murdoch stepped up to defend the film which is being distributed by 20th Century Fox. On November 28th Murdoch tweeted: "Moses film attacked on Twitter for all white cast. Since when are Egyptians not white? All I know are." A couple minutes later he followed up with: "Everybody attacks last tweet. Of course Egyptians are Middle Eastern, but far from black. They treated blacks as slaves." Despite, or quite possibly due to Murdoch's response, the hashtag "BoycottExodusMovie" did not decline in popularity on Twitter.

In the November issue of Variety, an interview with Ridley Scott did briefly mention the controversy.

"Exodus" became the subject of intense media scrutiny before Scott had ever exposed a frame of (digital) film... Much of the outcry online stemmed from his decision to cast white American, European and Australian actors in most of the key roles, no matter that the same could be said of "The Passion of the Christ," "Noah," "The Ten Commandments" and virtually any other big-budget Bible movies. "I can't mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such," Scott says. "I'm just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn't even come up."

While I did not have much initial interest in seeing Exodus: Gods and Kings upon its release, I do believe that I am even less likely to purchase a ticket now that I know that "Mohammad so-and-so" is not part of the cast.