Throughout the course of history, many historical events and people have been portrayed on film. While some films have been done accurately, others take an extensive liberties with historical reality. Likewise, the book of Esther, a commonly known book in the New Testament, was recently portrayed in a film in 2006 called One Night with the King. During the time period of the book of Esther, Persian culture and the Persian Empire were a dominant force throughout the ancient world, which ends up playing a key role in the development of One Night with the King. This film is an adaptation of what is known in Judaism as Megillat Esther (the book of Esther in the Bible). The epic journey of Queen Esther in the Persian Empire is an intriguing story…show more content… A young Jewess, named Hadassah at the opening of the film, switches her name to Esther in order to conceal her Jewish identity. She then proceeds to ascend to the queenship of the Persian Empire, a dominant force in the ancient world at the time. Simultaneously, a man named Haman, known as an enemy of the Jews, also gains power and gets the King of Persia to approve an order to destroy the Jews and take their property away from them. Esther’s uncle, Mordecai, tells her that she is in a good position to save her people. A great love story between Esther and King Xerxes develops as they later get married. With great personal pride and peril, Esther approaches the King without permission and begs him to save her people--advocating on behalf of the Jewish people and revealing herself as a Jewess. Haman ends up being punished as the King grants Esther’s wish and the Jews are not destroyed, leading to the founding of the holiday known as…show more content… However, this fact does not say that the book of Esther portrays people that are completely estranged from God, but rather, the book simply does not mention God. Because this story does not mention God once, this idea shows the importance of God, similar to how in Genesis 3 the story of the Fall describes the entrance of sin into this world while not mentioning the word “sin” once. On the contrary, the film mentions God throughout its entirety, while keeping Him behind the scenes but repeatedly having the film characters make decisions based on His activity in human affairs and His love for His people. For example, in an emotional scene between Queen Esther and King Xerxes, Esther states, “My father told me it takes the glory of God to conceal a matter. And it takes the honor of Kings to search it out.” Subsequently, King Xerxes goes on to beg her to marry him in order to discover this “truth” together. Such an idea strays away from the actual book of Esther in the Bible as the film needs to mention God directly to the audience in order to show and tell the audience everything they need to Sorry, we just need to make sure you're not a robot. For best results, please make sure your browser is accepting cookies. Type the characters you see in this image: Try different image Conditions of Use Privacy Policy © 1996-2014, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates In Biblical times, a girl disguises her Jewish origins when the Persian king comes looking for a new bride among his subjects.In Biblical times, a girl disguises her Jewish origins when the Persian king comes looking for a new bride among his subjects.In Biblical times, a girl disguises her Jewish origins when the Persian king comes looking for a new bride among his subjects.
Videos1More like thisReview What a satisfying movie At first I thought it was going to be a disaster. I was not impressed with Tiffany Dupont early on. She was more of a 21st century character than a woman of 2500 years ago. She seemed silly and frivolous, and her dialog was ludicrous but only in the first 10 minutes or so. She definitely matured and grew gracefully into the role of Queen Esther as the movie progressed and fortunately her dialog improved as well. I was very drawn into scenes that featured other actors from the beginning however. Each scene with Luke Goss was mesmerizing. He is a very charismatic actor and was perfectly cast as King Xerxes. I confess that I fell in love with this character and this actor. Another favorite was Tommy "Tiny" Lister, who stole scene after scene. There were some very funny, touching, and powerful scenes built around this mighty actor. What a wonderful performance. My next personal favorite was James Callis. He probably turned in the most stunning performance of all, and I truly think he deserves a best supporting Oscar for this captivating role. That won't happen of course. No way that secular Hollywood will endorse this movie or praise this movie in any way -- even though it's deserved. So far, at least 75% of the reviews that I've read from the "professional" critics dish this movie. I think their reviews are being filtered though their bias and intolerance. I'm a Christian, and I'm not a supporter or fan of Gen8x or TBN -- but they finally got a movie right. Really right. And I hope it's a huge success for them. I loved this movie. It has everything...a beautiful love story, humor, intrigue, great acting, noble characters, dastardly villains. Plus the locale, costumes, and music are magnificent. I'll go see it again...and again. I'm also going to buy the DVD as soon as it's released. I'll be thinking about this movie for some time to come. Doralynn |
