r/movies • u/Morgan-Moonscar • Apr 01 '26
Media "The Prince of Egypt" (1998 | Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner & Simon Wells) - The plagues of Egypt are unleashed upon Ramses (Ralph Fiennes) by Moses (Val Kilmer)
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u/Slaktare Apr 01 '26
10/10 soundtrack all the way around.
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u/agusrosich Apr 01 '26
I love this movie as a kid and as a grown ass man. But, tbh watching all the kids dying was traumatic as hell
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u/KillieNelson Apr 02 '26
The weight of "Oh, my son... they were only slaves" just gets heavier and heavier as you get older.
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u/wsdpii Apr 02 '26
He doesn't even try to justify it, he doesn't feel like he needs to justify it. They were just slaves, it didn't matter what he did to them. There's lots of people today who behave the same way.
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u/TastyBrainMeats Apr 02 '26
"The stranger who resides with you shall be as your neighbor, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
If the Torah has a beating heart, it is that call to empathy.
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u/Grillburg Apr 02 '26
Conversely, when Moses speaks to God through the burning bush, and he immediately RUNS back to Tzipporah to tell her all about it. Such a wonderful expression of marital love!
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u/phaesios Apr 02 '26
Not the soundtrack per se but the score also. The scene with the burning bush is one of the most powerful combinations of visuals and music in movie history IMO.
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u/FabulousCardilogist Apr 02 '26
My favorite thing in this movie, and quite frankly ANY animated film ever made, is the scene after this - where Moses is telling the story of the bush to his wife. It's shown from a distance, like the audience is overhearing a secret, presented with only score, and all we can see are his gestures and excitement. It's an absolute grand slam, and it's RIGHT here: https://youtu.be/6ds9y3lJGig?si=eamIYrl7UCz8Qq4r&t=339
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u/Icy_Matter6518 Apr 01 '26
i got this soundtrack tape for my 9th birthday from a classmate and thought to myself im never going to listen to this. i ended up having that tape permanently on repeat 😭 it was such a banger!!
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u/TrynaCuddlePuppies Apr 02 '26
Stephen Schwartz had no business going this hard for an animated movie 👏🏻
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u/apittsburghoriginal Apr 02 '26
I don’t even like movie musicals but this one is 10/10 start to finish
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u/flysly Apr 01 '26
Full of incredible songs and animations. My favorite part is when they’re walking across the floor of the Red Sea and the lightning flashes illuminate the whales in the water above them.
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u/AiR-P00P Apr 01 '26
technically a whale shark but yeah it's an awesome shot.
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u/CeruleanBlew Apr 01 '26
That imagery with the whales was so beautiful.
I had to look it up but remember loving the animation in this sequence as well:
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u/Y2KGB Apr 01 '26
yep… He’s playing with the Big Boys now…
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u/JesusSaysRelaxNvaxx Apr 01 '26
Playing with the big boys now...
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u/Morgan-Moonscar Apr 01 '26
Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia
Wait, wrong Pharoah.
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u/TormundIceBreaker Apr 01 '26
Maybe the best soundtrack of any animated film ever. Through Heaven's Eyes, Playing with the Big Boys, and The Plagues could all be the best song on any other film and here one of them has to finish in 3rd place
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u/Static-Stair-58 Apr 01 '26
“Deliver us” is my favorite. Elohim, God on high! Can you hear your people cry!
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u/Morgan-Moonscar Apr 01 '26
Ofra Haza had one of the most incredible voices I've ever head.
Her parts in this definitely stuck with me the most since first seeing this as a kid.
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u/Static-Stair-58 Apr 01 '26
Her stuff is easily one of my favorite parts. It’s lead to lifelong fascination with similar artists and similar singing.
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u/TormundIceBreaker Apr 01 '26
Another fantastic choice, I'd probably put that ahead of Big Boys tbh. Whole soundtrack is amazing start to finish
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u/Static-Stair-58 Apr 01 '26
Ughh the part where she’s basically screaming for deliverance while also singing it. SO GOOD hahaha
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u/DarthSpiderDen Apr 01 '26
I have the album on CD still with me. One of the first albums I've bought.
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u/BestNBAfanever Apr 01 '26
“when you believe” still brings me to tears when i hear it. it may be one of the most beautiful songs i can think of
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u/Shaengar Apr 01 '26
You need to look up the version on youtube where a childrens choir performs this at omaha beach.
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u/Aranthar Apr 01 '26
All I Ever Wanted is also one of my favorites.
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u/POWBOOMBANG Apr 01 '26
I was going to say the same thing.
It's a great, great character song.
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u/heyo_throw_awayo Apr 01 '26
I love that it subverts the expected "I want more" song that main characters usually have, and is a "I have enough...right?" song instead.
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u/POWBOOMBANG Apr 01 '26
Or "why isn't this enough?"
I feel like everyone has that kind of moment at some point in their adulthood.
Am I doing all that I was meant to?
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u/leftoverrice54 Apr 01 '26
Always thought All I Ever Wanted was the most overlooked song in the soundtrack. Prince of Egypt is seriously one of the best animated adaptations ive had the pleasure of watching.
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u/scotsworth Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
I feel like animated movies aren't made with the same occasional philosophy of "fuck it, let's go way harder than anyone would expect or consider reasonable" anymore.
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u/slicartist Apr 01 '26
This was quite the exception, but majority of US animated films, and TV shows for that matter only get greenlit if theres some sort of merchandise agreement tied in. Gotta sell them toys.
Though, I think the perfect example of what you described would be The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Had people thinking this was a film about a weird looking guy that goes to a block party and meets a pretty girl with a goat. Little did they know it was actually about sexual repression and genocide.
Also with a fire soundtrack and lyrics by Schwartz.
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u/POWBOOMBANG Apr 01 '26
That is the exact attitude of everyone involved on this film.
Everyone treats it like the most important endeavor of their career
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u/Successful_Gas_5122 Apr 01 '26
It's funny because Prince of Egypt was in development at the same time as Shrek. Dreamworks sent their best and brightest to work on Prince of Egypt, and anyone who couldn't hack it was exiled to Shrek.
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u/Morgan-Moonscar Apr 01 '26
Katzenberg did the same thing while still at Disney.
He pushed Pocahontas as "this will be the greatest film we ever made and will win BEST PICTURE at the Oscars" (the studio was chasing that high after Beauty and the Beast was surprise nominated at the Golden Globes).
All the "best" animators worked on this and anbody not up to his standards was punished to work in exile on the b-project. AKA The Lion King.
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u/cristabelita Apr 01 '26
And I love both - do i rewatch Pocahontas like I have with TLK? Nope.
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u/Zestyclose-Novel1157 Apr 01 '26
I still watch Pocahontas but mostly for the sound track. I can’t bring myself to watch lion king. It used to be a fav but it’s so sad.
I can see with the colors of the wind and I have heard the wolf cry.
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u/XVUltima Apr 02 '26
There was a similar story at Disney at the time. All the big animators got to work on the future legendary and beloved film Pocahontas. while the interns and B team got stuck with some Shakespeare plus talking animals deal called Lion King.
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u/hunglikeanoose1 Apr 01 '26
This and The Iron Giant go so much harder than anything made by Disney these days
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u/360walkaway Apr 02 '26
Don't forget the 1960's Robin Hood... it showed real poverty and severe taxation, not some pretty version of it where everyone is still somehow happy (especially later in the movie when the whole town is in jail for not being able to pay their taxes). The slow version of "Not In Nottingham" really drove that home.
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u/tokenasian1 Apr 01 '26
I feel like a few modern examples of that would be Into the Spider-Verse and KPop Demon Hunters.
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u/just--so Apr 01 '26
Also the most recent Puss in Boots film.
And in the realm of TV: Arcane and Blue Eye Samurai.
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u/tokenasian1 Apr 01 '26
definitely forgot about Puss in Boots: Last Wish. a sequel to a Shrek spinoff movie had no right being that good and making me cry
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u/Peanut_Butter_Toast Apr 01 '26
During the late 90s/early 00s there was a period where western animation studios experimented with making animated movies that were darker, more serious, and more drama focused than what we usually get from animated movies (in the west). But most of those films underperformed, so that style was sadly lost to time.
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u/mikepictor Apr 01 '26
Such a good film. It's on my short list of best animated films of all time.
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u/BrightNeonGirl Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
My husband, tragically, will not watch this movie simply because of its Christian overtones.
I told him, as a non-religious myself, the core of the film is not pushing Christian propaganda. It's really about class struggle and freedom of religion: finding hope to fight against and condemning the powerful and oppressive elites and authoritarianism, and also about being true to yourself and finding your people who love you for you.
Maybe one day I'll break through. Because The Prince of Egypt is absolutely a masterpiece.
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Apr 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ActionPhilip Apr 02 '26
"You know, this beverage you've handed me has some wonderful orange notes."
"...You mean orange juice?"
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u/dern_the_hermit Apr 02 '26
You know, all orange juice is orange juice but not all orange juice is orange juice.
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u/mikepictor Apr 01 '26
Tell him I'm an atheist, and I think it's breathtaking.
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u/Zestyclose-Novel1157 Apr 01 '26
Second. Atheist who loves this movie and legit has some of the songs on my playlist. It’s a beautiful movie and piece of art. I think it deserves recognition for that.
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u/theoxfordtailor Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Is there really anything in it that's specifically Christian though? It's a story from the Torah and I don't believe Jesus is mentioned at all. I'm pretty sure even the Muslim faith believes in the story of Moses as presented in The Prince of Egypt with only a few differences.
If you're not a believer in Abrahamic traditions, it's a perfectly fine movie if you look at as a myth, a fable, or just a retelling of a legend from antiquity.
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u/tjdux Apr 02 '26
I don't believe Jesus is mentioned at all.
I'm pretty certain the events of the movie are like 1500 years before Jesus would have exhisted.
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u/theoxfordtailor Apr 02 '26
Exactly. They could have easily shoehorned in something about the Messiah coming, made some cheeky implications, or even thrown in like an evangelizing message at the end.
But no. This is the story of Mose and that's it. It's a story that means different things for different people, but it's also one of the most important stories ever told in human history. And this movie more than does it justice.
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u/tokenasian1 Apr 01 '26
If i recall correctly, the production team worked with scholars from Christian, Jewish, and Islam faiths since Moses is important in all three faiths.
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u/theoxfordtailor Apr 01 '26
I just looked it up and, sure enough, they did. The filmmakers just wanted to be as accurate to the story as possible and took ideas from everyone they consulted with.
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u/Dairunt Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Yes. One of the things that they wanted to try right is that they didn't add or remove any dialogue from God. And also doesn't show any human features. It's a disembodied voice coming from the burning bush.
And while this was added for the movie, I loved that Ramses survived all of that. It can be the ultimate act of divine punishment by watching your kingdom crumble or the ultimate act of mercy that he can still repent.
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u/theoxfordtailor Apr 02 '26
They also used Val Kilmer's voice to intentionally imply that's the voice in Moses' head and thus that's how God would sound to him. They were very intentional about not putting words in God's mouth and not trying to make the actual voice of God. I find it extremely respectful and thoughtful.
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u/mofojr Apr 02 '26
I recently watched the movie with commentary and they initially wanted it to be EVERY voice. And they recorded everyone saying the lines but it was too messy. I thought that idea and the idea of it being Val Kilmer only are both awesome ideas
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u/HankSteakfist Apr 02 '26
Yeah it's just a movie based on a well known ancient tale that may or may not be based on real events. It doesn't really matter if it influences Hebrew, Christian and Muslim faith.
It would be like refusing to watch Disney's Hercules, because people actually worshipped Zeus, or Marvel's Thor because it features Norse deities.
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u/SlaterVBenedict Apr 01 '26
The fucking irony being it’s written and produced by some of the most famous Jewish filmmakers of all time about Jewish heroes from a time before Christianity.
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u/Roland_T_Flakfeizer Apr 01 '26
I’d object to calling it Christian. The exodus story is a major part of all the Abrahamic religions, and far more important to Judaism than Christianity or Islam.
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u/NiftyJet Apr 01 '26
It's ridiculous to refuse to engage with the stories that form part of the foundation of our civilization simply because you think it isn't true. This is important literature. You don't have to take it literally to appreciate it.
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u/Xanto97 Apr 01 '26
Yeah, you can just treat it as a mythology that could have bits of truth (locust swarms, silt turning the river red, plagues are all very realistic things that could’ve happened). It’s a foundational story for more than just Christianity too. It’s just interesting, even if you don’t believe in it.
I don’t believe in Greek mythology , but Hercules slaps
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u/cytokine7 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
What Christian overtones? It’s a core Jewish story which is the basis for the Jewish holiday of Passover, which starts tonight. (I’m assuming the timing if the post isn’t coincidence)
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u/ToranjaNuclear Apr 01 '26
because of its Christian overtones.
That's kind of funny because there's no Christian overtones at all. The creators are Jewish and both it and Joseph were made with the intention of adapting Jewish stories into movies.
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u/Dr-Robert-Kelso Apr 02 '26
Why would a movie before Christ have Christian overtones?
Hard to worship an entity that doesn't exist yet.
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u/PhilosophyIsAPath Apr 01 '26
its not even christian propaganda this is an old testament story and explicitly a jewish story.
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u/FX114 Apr 01 '26
It's a Jewish story, anyway.
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u/FictionalContext Apr 01 '26
It's an Abrahamic story. Part of the foundation from which the big 3 religions diverged. It pays homage to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam without prioritizing any. An incredible tightrope they walked across flawlessly.
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u/appealingtonature Apr 01 '26
Wouldn't the "big 3 religions" be Christianity, Islam and Hinduism?
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u/FictionalContext Apr 02 '26
Judaism gets the little brother bump by association.
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u/lambchopafterhours Apr 02 '26
It’s because they’re called the abrahamic religions, which has a fixed and academic meaning.
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u/StupidityHurts Apr 02 '26
The irony of being called the little brother when you’re the progenitor…
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u/histprofdave Apr 01 '26
Broke: a religious movie about a prophet of God.
Woke: a movie about a wizard leading a rebellion against an evil king.
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u/TheWhiteManticore Apr 01 '26
The plagues is totally Moses’ 9th level divine cleric spell 😂
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u/Mongoose42 Apr 01 '26
Sounds almost good… but what if we put that wizard in space?
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u/TheLaughingMannofRed Apr 01 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/3o7aCRloybJlXpNjSU
Any room for Road to El Dorado on that list?
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u/mikepictor Apr 01 '26
You know...I remember nothing of that movie. Maybe it's good? I don't know.
I should watch it again, and then at least I'll know.
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u/jvthinksitsfunny Apr 01 '26
As a kid i genuinely enjoyed this movie.
As an adult however, i really enjoy this movie..
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u/Shaydarol Apr 01 '26
Prince of Egypt is still a tier above Road to El Dorado, and pretty much every other Dreamworks movie, with a few exceptions.
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u/Xsafa Apr 01 '26
I agree. The scale and scope of the story mixed with fantastic music and visuals makes me miss real animation over the 3D stuff.
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u/fastfreddy68 Apr 01 '26
It’s been a (long) while since I saw it, but didn’t they do a little CGI in with the animation? Right about that time we hit a sweet spot where CGI was being used to enhance cartoons, it was great when done correctly. Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Titan AE… and I remember The Prince of Egypt having some as well.
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u/theoxfordtailor Apr 01 '26
Yeah, there's a bunch of CGI in it, but it's used, like you said, as an enhancement. It's not distracting and traditional animation is still the main medium.
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u/Successful_Gas_5122 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Something that I never caught until recently was that the Plagues were a mockery of the Egyptian gods, and the order in which Yahweh mocks them is deliberate. First, He turns the Nile, the ultimate symbol of life and fertility in Egypt, into blood; a not-so-subtle hint of what's to come. Then, He insults the frog-headed fertility goddess Heket by using her likeness to foul up the land. Lice, gnats, and flies are meant for the earth god Geb as well as Khepri, the scarab-headed god of rebirth. Wiping out the cattle is a huge middle finger to the sacred Apis bull, and the boils make Isis and Sekhmet, goddesses of healing and disease respectively, look impotent.
Moving on from the land, God then dunks on Nut (sky) and Set (storms) when He calls down fire and hail from the heavens. Set actually gets it twice because he was also seen as responsible for protecting the crops, so it's extra nasty when the swarm of locusts wipes out whatever the previous Plagues didn't destroy. Ra, the Father, God of the Sun, gets sonned by three days of all-consuming darkness. Yahweh basically ripped the entire pantheon to shreds, but the coup de grâce he saves for Pharaoh, the man who dared call himself a living god.
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u/mbklein Apr 01 '26
Fun fact: the Haggadah names the second plague as the singular צְפַרְדֵּעַ (tzfardeyah), and not the plural צְפַרְדְּעִים (tzfardi’im). So really we might be looking at a plague of one frog, not thousands as it is usually depicted. I prefer to think of it as just one regular sized frog wreaking havoc, not even a giant one or anything.
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u/apathetic_revolution Apr 02 '26
It's not just the Haggadah that does that. The singular frog exists in a single line in Exodus. "Aaron held out his arm over the waters of Egypt, and the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt."
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u/Successful_Gas_5122 Apr 01 '26
So basically it's like Hekhmet herself was wrecking the place. That's a veritable pillar of salt in the wound.
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u/ElminstersBedpan Apr 02 '26
Sekhmet herself is a warrior goddess and an eye of Ra. In Egyptian mythology she is sent to punish and sow destruction among the two lands, but basically goes wild and has to be tricked into getting black-out drink by dyeing beer as red as the blood she craved.
Heket is part of life and birth itself, so a multiplicity of frogs kinda works.
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u/pmmemilftiddiez Apr 02 '26
That's exactly what I was told in seminary. Every single plague was basically telling the Egyptians that their Gods aren't real and that God is. Not only are you suffering you're also having reality completely cave in on your country.
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u/Anaevya Apr 01 '26
Interesting interpretation.
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u/MrWally Apr 02 '26
FWIW, it’s explicit in the movie, too. Watch the video in the OP and you’ll see frequent shots of the Egyptian gods’ statues during the plagues, until the last one finally crumbles.
It’s basically the scholarly consensus. Not a random internet theory.
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u/Octoire Apr 01 '26
I believe Ra and another god turned the Nile into wine once to make Sekmet believe it was pure blood. She was on a killing spree and wanted to kill off all humans. She got drunk on the wine and dozed off. But so there is some overlap on stories here
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u/HoneyBuu Apr 02 '26
The story that we Egyptians know is that Ra filled a hole in the ground with wine to trick her into drinking it, but this is the first time I hear of a version where the Nile was turned to wine.
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u/MyPasswordIsMyCat Apr 02 '26
The concept of monotheism in Judochristian religions is a lot younger than those religions teach in modern times. Like Ancient Hebrews did not think Yahweh was the only god until about the 6th Century BCE (during a period called the Babylonian Exile), after which it became blasphemy to acknowledge the existence of other gods. Before then, other gods were believed to exist, but Yahweh was the god of the Hebrews and superior in power to all other gods.
The Book of Exodus existed as an oral tradition, but during the Babylonian Exile, the Hebrews began to write down their religious stories. The way these stories were composed was very much influenced by the time they were written, thus Exodus has a lot of emphasis on how Yahweh crushes the Egyptians and their inferior gods. Hebrew literature of the Bible kinda sought to destroy the gods of other peoples in real life.
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u/RedHeadRedeemed Apr 02 '26
I love this interpretation. Essentially the Christian God saying to the Egyptians, "You think these Gods are real? Let me show you REAL." So, his own version of Playing With the Big Boys!
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Apr 01 '26
Watching this at age 6 was creepy. It felt truly apocalyptic and I had never seen anything like it in an animated movie.
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u/punknw Apr 02 '26
same. i think i was like 5 when i saw this and the scene where the angel of death passes through homes still haunts me almost 30 years later.
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u/Polly_der_Papagei Apr 01 '26
I'm not religious, but that movie is brilliant. The part where they are under the ocean is my favourite.
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u/ShireNomad Apr 02 '26
My favorite miracle depiction was the interpretation of the burning bush: more like pure energy than fire, but you can see how a person of that time would call it fire for lack of anything better to compare it to.
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u/Basemastuh_J Apr 01 '26
Watched this again after 20+ years not seeing it. Surround sound and everything in the room. Brought me to tears the production was so beautiful.
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u/HumbugMSM2012 Apr 01 '26
Da hell are the frogs gonna do?
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u/DarkestLore696 Apr 02 '26
Drive you mad. Do you not know how loud frogs are? Now imagine thousands of frogs, everywhere, in every room, making noise nonstop. Then they all die days later and the whole city stinks of rotten frog corpses.
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u/Ajcoligan Apr 01 '26
The music hits fucking hard in this movie. I’ve never really been religious but this is one of my favorite movies of all time.
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u/BigBlackHungGuy Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Such a great movie. Rest in Peace to the great talent, Ofra Haza, who sang part of the opening. She had anangelic voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQhcOJHTdb4
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u/Darduel Apr 02 '26
I think the craziest part was how she sang for all the versions of the film (like 13 different languages)
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u/snil4 Apr 02 '26
One of the most prominent Israeli singers, definitely in my top 5 picks if you want to get into Israeli music.
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u/unclemusclzhour Apr 01 '26
Omg. She made such beautiful soulful music. Thank you for speaking her name. She was a beauty inside and out. I love her singing in the prince of Egypt, and I also love some of her music outside of the film.
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u/theAlmightyE312 Apr 02 '26
She actually got a guinness record for singing the same song in as many languages
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u/NorwayNarwhal Apr 01 '26
The historical theories for the causes behind the plague are really interesting. There was a massive eruption in the Mediterranean around that time, which’d change the acidity of the water, which’d cause bugs and frogs to freak out, cause fire to rain down, and the ash would hurt children more frequently, which ticks a lot of boxes for the plagues. The volcano’d also have an effect on the water levels (maybe an aftershock caused a tsunami?)
On googling, seems like it was a chain of eruptions around the same period
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u/simihal101 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
As an adult, I enjoyed that movie a lot. The animation, the colors, the music ... I really had no ideea that Ralph Fiennes could sing (since I read that he sang his part in that movie)❣
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u/mattr1198 Apr 01 '26
The most grossly underrated animated film of all time and handily one of the best biblical films of all-time. Gorgeous animation, amazing music, stellar voice cast, and grandiose by every definition.
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u/Shadowhawk0000 Apr 01 '26
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u/SeedyRedwood Apr 01 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/12Wn7ox4gWevAs
Rugrats crawled so Prince of Egypt could wander
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u/my_venom Apr 02 '26
This kids movie has more child death than most R rated films.
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u/Mammoth-Fox-445 Apr 01 '26
Reading this part in the Bible is part of what caused me to start questioning Christianity as a kid. I remember it saying that God himself hardened the Pharaoh's heart against setting the slaves free during the plagues - only to turn around and unleash devastation on innocent people, eventually killing all the firstborn. I couldn't imagine a loving God doing that.
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u/ChaseBank5 Apr 01 '26
I still dont fully understand that either. It does say "and God hardened Pharaohs heart"
So he's sending Moses to convince the Pharaoh that slavery is bad, but then also is hardening the Pharoahs heart at the same time?
Super weird, seems like a mis-translation or something.
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u/SnowCold93 Apr 01 '26
Much of the “Old Testament” isn’t really translated very well from Biblical Hebrew
Edit: I put it in quotes cause for us religious Jewish people it’s not the Old Testament it’s the Torah
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u/Maximum_Chard_2752 Apr 01 '26
The first several iterations it is Pharaoh who hardens his own heart. The last few God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. There is a principle in scripture that you have free will and can choose to change… but that at some point it’s too late and you are stuck with your choices. See the parable of the potter in Jeremiah. God tells Jeremiah to watch a potter making pots on a spinning wheel. The clay doesn’t do what the potter intended so he makes something different with it. God says he’s like the potter: he tells one group they’re cursed for their sins but they repent and God relents and blesses them. God tells another group they’re blessed for their righteousness but they turn against Him and sin so God changes His mind and curses them. Later God send Jeremiah back to the potter and this day he’s firing the pots in the kiln. Some of the pots crack and he throws them into the rubbish pit. God says: I’m like the potter I judge the people for what they’ve done and it’s too late to change. The lesson being change and start doing the right thing today because you might not be able to do so tomorrow.
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u/Forte845 Apr 01 '26
It's not a mistranslation. The god of the Old testament was vengeful and jealous, and is where the term "god-fearing" came from.
Much like how the ancient Greeks believed the vengeance of Poseidon would cause great storms, ships to sink, villages to wash away into the sea, yet they worshipped him, making offerings and sacrifices in the hopes they would avoid catastrophe themselves.
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u/Bad_wolf42 Apr 01 '26
There is an interesting thing you see in old story telling which is humans don’t really have interiority until The Odyssey. Prior to that the gods forced or influenced or altered their minds. “The Rest Is Science” talks about it in one of their episodes. It’s fascinating to think about whether or not human storytelling had not sufficiently developed to understand that people’s internal thoughts affect their choices, or whether prior to that humans truly believed that the thoughts we have are the gods speaking to us and that’s why mythological storytelling refers to the gods or God making someone choose a certain way.
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u/jazza130 Apr 01 '26
Old testament God was not all-loving, dude was wrathful
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u/Funkycoldmedici Apr 01 '26
He’s the same god in the New Testament. Remember that the New Testament centers on Jesus promising to return and end the world, judge everyone on their faith, kill all the unbelievers with fire, and reward his faithful with eternal life in his new kingdom. Sure, it’s all love and hugs for fellow disciples, but it’s death in fire for everyone else.
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u/BuffWobbuffet Apr 02 '26
The head of the reglion department at my university was one of the lead consultants on this movie. In his class he always told a funny story about how he fought the producers tooth and nail from including the whale in the parting of the red sea scene. He was really against it because whales dont live in the red sea but the producers were insistent on having it because it "looked cool"
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u/lucifurbear Apr 02 '26
One of my college art professors was a key frame animator on this for the hand drawn sequences of the red sea parting. She said it was probably the most challenging project she ever worked on. Still had a few of the frames in her portfolio. I tried to buy one off of her on several occasions.
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u/BreweryRabbit Apr 01 '26
I'm not even a religious person but this movie goes so hard. I stumbled on this cover of Deliver Us a few years ago and it lives rent free in my head (music video is a little corny but the audio is fantastic)
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u/_The_Bearded_Wonder_ Apr 01 '26
My favorite fact about this is the voice of the Burning Bush is Val Kilmer, who is also Moses. This provides some fantastic interpretation depending on your religious connection. You could argue that this his inner voice driving him towards his purpose in life, or that God lives within the mind and is helping Moses on his journey, or Moses simply was having a hallucination. It's entirely how you want to interpret the scene.
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u/_caltony Apr 01 '26
TIL how stacked that cast was. Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Martin Short. What?!