To make matters worse: The logic behind these decisions is suspect because it's proven detrimental to box office profit margins. He explains further, 'Depictions of white only Biblical figures … were intentionally used to subconsciously indoctrinate the false belief of white divinity (and therefore superiority) upon the minds of the oppressed and conquered.'Īdd this to a well-documented history of Hollywood marginalizing people of color's experiences and you have a popular narrative that continues promoting white stories as the only stories worth telling - an implicit endorsement of white superiority. 'Throughout the history of European imperialism and colonialism this type of indoctrination was present.' ' continues a well-established practice of white sacralization through religious indoctrination,' writes Ryan Herring at Sojourners, a Christian social justice blog. Why does this matter? Aside from being an extremely high-profile depiction of a religious text worshipped by billions of people around the world, the whitewashing of the Bible and Bible cinema has a troubled political history:

As a non-Bible bonus, here's Elizabeth Taylor as Egyptian monarch Cleopatra (1963): Don't forget Jim Caviezel's prosthetic nose and digitally altered eyes in The Passion of the Christ (2004):ĥ. And Willem Dafoe as the ' bronze-skinned,' 'wool-haired' Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ (1987):ģ. And if there's anything we can count on, it's that prominent Bible characters will usually be played be either Anglo white people or Anglo white people in borderline-offensive makeup, no matter where they're actually from.įor instance: Here's Charlton Heston as Moses, a Hebrew, in The Ten Commandments (1956):Ģ. What's noticeably missing, however, are the people of color who overwhelmingly populated the Middle East and North Africa at the time and persist there in massive numbers today.īut this is Hollywood. Lots of swords, lots of sandals, lots of horses, lots of sand.

Along with white co-star Christian Bale, he's partnered with Ridley Scott to tell the story of Moses and the Israelites in Egypt - a tale that ostensibly took place in a very, very visibly brown region of the world.īackground: The trailer to this effects-laden blockbuster has been making the rounds online and it's about what you'd expect from the director of Gladiator: You're not mistaken: That is indeed white Australian actor Joel Edgerton in the role of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II. Before: Here's what Ancient Egyptians looked like, according to the Ancient Egyptians:Īfter: And here's how they looked according to Hollywood's new Bible epic, Exodus: Gods and Kings:

Moses the movie