Egypt's ban of Exodus: Gods and Kings

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Basically what it says. Egypt banned it because of historical inaccuracies and the negative rep it gets because of said inaccuracies. What do you guys think about it? Justified, Unjustified?

I personally think that Egypt is in the right. Egypt's been getting a bad rap for over 2000's years because they didn't actually ever have Jewish slaves. There is literally no archaeological evidence that Jews were ever in Egypt. Egypt actually built most of it's own monuments, bringing in its own people to work on them during the flooding season of the nile when farming wasn't an option.

But we do know that droves of Canaanites had fled to Egypt to escape famine, and ancient Hebrews - who were indistinguishable from their neighbors - probably would have been among them. That's the truth behind the story of Joseph.

I don't think historical inaccuracies are a good reason to ban films. This is not a documentary anyway but a movie. Almost all historical movies are inaccurate to some degree. What about Noah's Ark? That never even happened and they made a whole movie about that too.
And Egypt gets a bad rep because it is a crazy dictatorship and their country is a mess, that doesn't improve by banning films.

Justified.

Egypt is a sovereign nation, and it's government can ban any movie it wants to, and with or without stating its reason for doing so.

I do, if they paint a bad picture about a modern day entity for the wrong reasons, we need to stop propagating myths to the uninformed. That story paints that country as the bad guy, which I'm sure they don't appreciate. It ties into the over arcing tension of the middle east and the west. I believe I read somewhere that Judaism actually has begun to accept that it didn't "happen", I did read something on the Canaanites a while ago as well. So yeah Hollywood really dropped the ball.

Also yeah, like you said Fnord, they can do whatever the hell they want.

Of course they can do whatever they want, they are a dictatorship. That doesn't make it right. They regularly imprison journalists as well, some of them have had to flee the country. Banning a film is pretty minor considering all the other over the top crap they do.
If anyone blames modern Egyptians for some silly Bible passages they are ignorant fools. If you want to ban the film for that, at least be consistent and ban the Bible too, because that is where the myth originated. I have not seen the film, but it seems it was a retelling of the myth, not of the actual historical narrative, just like the Noah movie was.
I think having an inaccurate retelling of a myth falls under freedom of speech (Life of Brian), but then they don't care about freedoms and rights over there. Once Egypt was the pinnacle of human civilisation, now they are just another silly impoverished dicatorship.

As I understand it, Muslims think it blasphemous for an actor to portray a biblical figure such as Moses on film, or for that matter, to even publish a picture meant to depict Moses, Abraham, Ishmael, etc.

A large portion of the public would be offended based on what they had been taught by their religion.

Plus this film presents the Judeo/Christian version of the events which I believe differs in subtle ways from what the Koran teaches.

Why should they ban it?

Exodus is made by one of my favorite directors... Ridley Scott. The same guy who made Alien.

Movies and Art in general don't have to be confined by fact, history, or reality. They are fantastical in nature although some may be more or less fantastical than others.

The reason they are banning it is because they don't think it makes them look good... can't have a movie that isn't patriotic.

It isn't much different than Turkey banning System of Down for speaking about the Armenian genocide.

You wouldn't see a movie in America about American warcrimes would you? And if they existed you'd know they'd get bashed immediately.

Even if the events in the movie are entirely fictional, it doesn't matter. It's about maintaining a sense of national identity.

We Americans make movies about our country's crimes all the time - slavery, the genocide of Native Americans, the Red Scare, etc - and we see those in droves. And we're not the only ones, as Germans watch movies about WWII from an allied perspective all the time, including revaluations of the Holocaust. I think free peoples, whether they're Americans, Germans, or who ever, don't have to be afraid of the past if they are willing to owe up to it.

Incidentally, The Life Of Brian had been banned in many places in the American south when it was first released, as it was deemed blasphemous by the Bible Belt fundies.

Yeah I would watch a move about American war crimes, because they actually happened. The point I'm making is that Egypt is right for doing this because the exodus didn't really happen. Open any reputable textbook on Archaeology and it will verify this. Ridley Scott is also a favorite director of mine and it really bummed me out that he was going to further propagate the myth that is still causing present day damage and furthers the rift between us and them. Their government is pretty bad right now, but we are also alienating the Egyptian people as well. I believe in the truth and I believe in world peace.

I guess I should say that there is little/no evidence to support that the exodus happened or on the scale it happened. Again the Canaanites who those of Jewish heritage may be descended from.

Hmm... right... look at us Americans... got to make our crimes fit the narrative... we did something nearly every other country did and we were one of the only countries to do it violently. How great we are.

Really, those movies are only made because those subjects would be too difficult to wipe under the rug. In all the movies I have ever seen about the subjects you mentioned, America is still almost always portrayed as the hero. Oh, slavery? That's them rebels problems, let's forget to mention the federal slave laws or the northern slave ports, let's set up the Confederates as horrible racists and the Federals as freeing saviors with absolutely pure motives with no financial greed, with no racism, or that the slaves were only freed because Lincoln needed something to keep the Europeans from siding with the South. The federal government is here to save you all. We are pure in heart, we only have your good in mind. Let's turn this into a story about how if we all stick together in a cohesive unions and never question that through our unity (and also often obeying the government) we can end all evils and live happily ever after.

Trail of Tears? Native American Genocide? Oh, well let's set up the Military as being harsh, corrupt, and with evil leaders. Let the chain of command be severed before the audience.

America's crimes are whitewashed. America's crimes are distanced.

Oh yeah, still waiting for a movie about the Philippine Genocide... where Teddy Roosevelt and his predecessor are blamed for killing hundreds of thousands of islanders (some estimates are as highs 1.4 million.)

Or maybe a movie about how the first Vietnam War where we disposed of a democratic government in a failed attempt to try to reestablish french colonialism... and how it became a major cause for the second vietnam war that we all hold so dear.

Or how about that movie about the CIA buying heroin from a druglord so that they could fund his mercenary army against the communists in east asia... and how they sold the heroin to black people in major cities across the U.S... and used the money for unethical human experimentation.

Or why not something recent. I'm sure there is some horrible thing we've done recently.

But the overwhelming majority of Egyptians likely believe in the Exodus story. Almost all of them are either Muslim or Christian, and way more conservative than most Westerners. They probably just don't want Moses depicted in film since he is one of the most important prophets of Islam. In other words: religious censorship done by the "secular" dictators (as opposed to the fundie opposition).
And I think most followers of the Abrahamic religions believe in the Exodus story. It's mostly the experts and non-religious that don't. But why listen to experts when you have "faith"?

And they turned out to be on the wrong side of history. The censorship committees, the dictators, the book-burners are all the same type of people.

protogenui-

Sure, cinema doesn't always portray history as it really was, but to be sure, that portrayal has gotten better. Recall how Custer at one time was regarded as a hero in movies like, They Died With Their Boots On. Sure, we Americans like to see ourselves as the good guys, even when we do bad things, but we are still at least able to admit when we had done the wrong thing.

Last edited by Kraichgauer on 28 Dec 2014, 11:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You're my hero, America was built on the blood of millions of innocents and those that chose to defy our empire. At least all that death may not have been for nothing, if America starts moving in the right direction. Its made a few baby steps already.