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ridley scott

A Moses named Christian and a Pharaoh named Turturro

Generally speaking, Ridley Scott’s “Exodus: Gods and Kings” is more biblically respectful than Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah,” which saw Russell Crowe performing a well-paid infomercial for Al Gore’s environmentalism.

Jerusalem Becomes Queen of ‘Kingdom’

In 1986, Oscar-nominated production designer Arthur Max (\”Gladiator\”) visited Jerusalem in the midst of the intifada.\n\n\”People told me not to go almost everywhere, but I went everywhere,\” said Max, who is Jewish. \”Of course, some of the Old City was closed off for security reasons, but I went to the Western Wall and into the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. And I stood on top of the Jaffa Gate and I looked out over what to me always had been a name, and suddenly I felt connected to my heritage, a close connection to all the Jewish history I had studied as a bar mitzvah.\n\nMax drew on those feelings to recreate medieval Jerusalem for \”Kingdom of Heaven,\” in which the protagonists also journey to Jerusalem to connect to their religious roots. The Ridley Scott film revolves around a crusader (Orlando Bloom) swept up in the 12th-century battle between Christian King Balian and Muslim leader Saladin.

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Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.