Date: Fri 25-Dec-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Prince-Egypt-Kilmer-Fiennes

Full Text:

NOW PLAYING : DreamWorks' Latest, `Prince Of Egypt' Isn't Exactly The Gospel

Truth

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Only a Grinch would dare to pan an ambitious new animated film about Moses

that was released during the Christmas season. I'm no Grinch, but I do feel a

bit of "Bah Humbug" coming on as I consider the latest project from former

Disney animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, as his new studio, DreamWorks,

adapts the Old Testament account of the well-known prophet in The Prince of

Egypt , which is currently playing in theatres.

Moses (Val Kilmer), a boy born at a perilous time in Egypt for Hebrew

children, is taken in by Egyptian royalty and reared as a member of the

family. His brother Rameses (Ralph Fiennes) is destined to be the next

Pharoah, and Moses, oblivious to the suffering of the Hebrews, the oppressed

laborers of Egypt, could think of no better life than to be at his brother's

side. But all his aspirations change when he discovers his true heritage

(revealed in a stunningly rendered dream sequence in which hieroglyphic

drawings come to life) and finds that God has chosen him to lead the

Israelites from a life of tyranny and on to freedom in the promised land.

Rated PG for its often intense and somber depictions, The Prince of Egypt is

an earnest, often visually spellbinding film that does a canny job of

tiptoeing through a potential minefield of a story in an age of special

interest groups and political correctness. For example, at one point, the film

quotes from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran... lest anyone

be offended. In fact, one could even make the case that the movie could be

read as a very New Age text.

"When You Believe," the theme song of the film, asserts there are miracles to

be achieved if only one believes. But in what is it we are to believe? God?

Man? Despite being a story of Biblical proportions, man is more the focus here

than God, and if you really want to ponder subtext, consider that the voice of

God in Prince is also portrayed by Kilmer. Moses is God? God is Moses? God is

created by Moses? Hmmm...

The movie does attempt early on to side-step any possible qualms by stating

that while it aims to be a faithful re-telling of events from the book of

Exodus (the film boasts over 500 scholars and religious leaders as

consultants), it admits that some artistic and dramatic liberties have been

taken.

Dramatic license is especially taken with the movie's focus on the sibling

relationship of Moses and Rameses. Akin to a Civil War tale in which a family

is torn asunder by divided loyalties, The Prince of Egypt depicts two brothers

whose close ties are rent when one discovers his true heritage and sees the

plight of his native race, while the other rises to power as the leader of a

nation that has grown strong off the labor of these oppressed people.

Although largely embellished, this aspect of Prince is also arguably its most

compelling, as one is led to ponder anew what it may have been like for Moses,

raised as an Egyptian, to return to his former countrymen not only as an

outsider, but now the leader of the Hebrew people and God's spokesman. It is

an interesting dramatic conceit, particularly since the film opens with some

magnificent sequences that convey the sibling comraderie of Moses and Rameses

and thus further emphasize the potential conflict within Moses as he must

later witness the horrible plagues that are brought down upon Egypt as Rameses

refuses to let the Hebrews go.

Visually, The Prince of Egypt is a gloriously realized treat from beginning to

end, and follows in the footsteps of Beauty and The Beast , nominated for Best

Picture in 1991, by boldly showing that animation is not just for kids. As a

drama, however, it qualifies as superior entertainment, but not exactly gospel

truth.