c. 2006 Religion News Service
NEW YORK _ It almost seems made for the silver screen. A princess goes from rags to riches, an evil plot is foiled _ and a couple lives happily ever after. Mix in a few big names, a message that appeals to Christians and Jews and a $20 million budget, and you might have a dark horse candidate for a box office fairy tale.
The story of “One Night With the King” is taken from the Book of Esther, which appears in the Christian Bible and the Hebrew Scriptures. Jews read it every year at the joyous holiday of Purim. It’s the story of an orphan named Hadassah who catches the eyes and warms the heart of the Persian King Xerxes. By bravely revealing her nationality at a critical moment, she is able to thwart a plot to exterminate the Jewish population in Persia.
The movie marks the full-fledged return of the biblical epic, in the tradition of “Ben Hur” and “The Ten Commandments.” Swooping aerial shots pan across thousands of spear carriers, massive feasts are thrown, and the jewels on the royal concubines glint in the torchlight.
The production values are opulent, which is a sharp departure from the historically low-budget fare coming from Christian filmmakers. The film is shot in Rajastan, India, on location in and around an actual castle, which becomes the crossroads of the ancient world, a mix of the Mediterannean, Africa and Asia.
Based on the book by the Rev. Tommy Tenney, “Hadassah: One Night With the King.” the plot makes a few concessions to a modern sensibility. Esther has a youthful crush who meets a bitter fate. There is a sort of magical necklace that seems more Harry Potter than Macabees. On the whole, however, it remains faithful enough to the biblical text to earn an “accurate to Scripture” label from the American Bible Society.
There’s even some star power. Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif both pull notable cameos, though perhaps nothing to deserve the top billing they have received in much of the advance publicity. John Rhys-Davies and John Noble, both of whom appeared in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, again do yeoman service in tunics. Esther herself is played by Tiffany Dupont, a fresh-faced newcomer who seems a little ill-at-ease with the faux King James language but acquits herself admirably.
All in all, it is a sturdy retelling of a biblical story, destined to be popular in synagogues and Sunday Schools for years to come. The producers are hoping that reviving the biblical epic will serve to interest viewers in the scriptural sources of the story.
According to Bob Hodgson, a scholar of the Bible in film and dean of the American Bible Society’s Nida Institute of Biblical Scholarship, the Bible has always been reshaped in the media of subsequent generations _ whether that is painting, song, architecture or the silver screen.
“A film like `One Night With the King,”’ Hodgson said, “is cashing in on the fact that we have become a visual culture.”
KRE/JL END ANTHONY
Editors: To obtain photos from “One Night With the King,” go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.
See mainbar, RNS-FAITH-MOVIES, transmitted Oct. 5, 2006.
