Ridley Scott's epic film "Exodus: Gods and Kings" was banned in Egypt. The country's Minister for Culture Gaber Asfour said "It gives a Zionist view of history and contains historical inaccuracies and that's why we have decided to ban it." Additional reports also show that the film was also banned in Morocco, although the Moroccan government has yet to release an official statement about it. The final months of 2014 has seen some pretty massive letdowns and controversies on the film industry. There was the Sony attack, "The Interview" fracas and now the historical inaccuracies of "Exodus".
The film industry has been scarred by historical inaccuracies before. Most recently, "Argo" was targeted by the Iranian government, claiming that the portrayal of the attack on the U.S. embassy in Iran was clearly an overkill. Additionally, the New Zealand and British government was also enraged as it was portrayed in the film that they turned down the "houseguests".
The latest film to come into the keen eyes of scrutinizing historians and critics is Ridley Scott's "Exodus: Gods and Kings". The biblically inspired film tells the story of the Moses and how he led the Hebrews' exodus from Egypt. The film raised arguments especially Scott's choice of actors. "Exodus" has a cast composed entirely of white actors, even film characters who were supposed to be Middle Eastern and Africans were played by white actors. Historians also criticized Scott's film saying that the "Book of Exodus" should not be taken literally as what was done with the movie adaptation. Critics also poked fun to the character of Rameses II, which was played by Australian actor Joel Edgerton.
As the old saying in show-business goes "there is no such thing as bad publicity". The film may be banned in some places and it may score low on critics' review but it hasn't stopped the film from topping the box-office record. In fact some experts say that the growing interest on the film started when it was widely criticized. Some critics even said "the film was so bad, it was good".
