Bible films usually make for good movies, much like any of the literature form antiquity. In One Night with the King, an Old Testament story about the near destruction of the Jews is played out on the screen, providing a couple hours of engaging drama.

Cast:
Tiffany Dupont - Hadassah/Esther
Luke Goss - King Xerxes
John Noble - Prince Admantha
Omar Sharif - Prince Memucan
John Rhys-Davies – Mordecai
Tommy 'Tiny' Lister - Hegai, the Royal Eunuch
James Callis - Haman, the Amelekite
Peter O'Toole - Samuel, the Prophet
Javen Campbell - Prince Tarshish
Jyoti Dogra - Queen Vashti

Director: Michael Sajbel

Plot:
This story is based upon the biblical story of Hadassah, the young Jewish orphan who became a Queen. Set in ancient Persia, King Xerxes is being urged to wage war upon Greece to avenge the death of his father, King Darius, just years before. His wife, Queen Vashti, is against his war making, and makes it well known that she is so. The final straw comes when she is summoned by the King to appear before a banquet, and she refuses, this embarrassing the King. She is stripped of the crown.

So the King needs a new queen. All of the young maidens in the land are to be rounded up, and put through a series of tests to see if they are suitable spouses. Hadassah, concerned if she is taken, that she will no longer be able to obey Hebrew religious laws and observances, is urged to changed her name and forget her heritage, so that she may avoid any harsh treatment in the process. It is at this point she takes the name Esther. Needless to say, she is taken and eventually wins the attention and love of the King, become Queen Esther. However, her true identity as a Jew is never revealed.

She joins a royal court that is rife with intrigue. Princes plot to overthrow the King, poison the Queen, and drag Persia into war with Greece. One of the king’s advisors, Haman, has a particularly insidious agenda. He is a descendent of a group of people whom the Jews massacred almost to extinction many years before. He bears a vendetta against the Jews, and seeks the complete annihilation as a people. Through his own scheming, he is able to become a highly trusted advisor to the King. As the King is looking to find a way to finance a war on Greece, Haman offers the solution of taking all the property of the Jews. Of course, this would require exterminating them in the process, so that they could not seek redress.

So the wheels are set in motion. A lottery is held to determine which day the Jews throughout the Persian Empire are to be killed. Hadassah/Esther’s uncle, Mordacai, who is a royal scribe, gets wind of this, and sends word to her that she must do what she can to stop this from happening. After much wrangling and soul-searching, Esther seeks out the King, at the risk of her very life, to confront the King and ask him to reconsider. In a dramatic scene, she invites the King and Haman to a private dinner, in which she confesses her real identity, and convinces the King to stop the slaughter of the Jews.

Thoughts:
For a movie that really didn’t get a lot of fanfare or acclaim (none, actually, to my knowledge, since the first time I saw this film was in the video store), this was a rather good movie. The pace of the movie flowed well, the cinematography was fairly competent, and the acting was very engaging. When I first glanced at the cast list, I figured this would be a film on par with other biblical films, like The 10 Commandments, or something. While this movie definitely does not rise to the epic status, it is a quality film.

Throughout the film, I kept detecting a theme parallel to the Holocaust, which I guess is easy when watching a film about Jews, and a man set on exterminating them. But I thought it kind of ironic when the symbol carried by Haman, the guy who wanted to wipe out the Jews, was very reminiscent of a swastika. Now, I’ve heard somewhere that the swastika was derived from something out of Jewish folklore, but I am uncertain on that point. Also, there were a couple of scenes where Haman was shown orchestrating what can only be called a biblical version of a Nuremberg rally, where he gives fiery orations about the evils of “The Jews”. Regardless, if these were done for effect, then I would chalk it up to an extremely cheesy attempt on the film director’s part to stress, “this guy is baaaaaaad”.

The other thing I thought was interesting, having recently seen the movie 300, in which a small contingent from the Spartan army held off the hordes commanded by King Xerxes, that this film portrayed Xerxes in a very different manner. In 300, Xerxes was portrayed as a man-god, a warrior-king hell bent on subduing the entire world. In this film, he was ambivalent about war, feeling he was being dragged into it because of circumstance. Even his first wife told him, “you are no soldier”. So it was very interesting that the same historical character was portrayed in such different lights. Perhaps it has to do with the differing perspectives of the story. In 300, he was the villain, and needed to be made intimidating and threatening. In this one, however, not so much.

Overall:
This isn’t a bad movie to watch on a rainy day, when one is looking to kill a few hours. People who have an interest in biblical stories will most likely appreciate the story the most. People who do not have much familiarity with the tales of the bible can also find enjoyment in this film. As I am no biblical scholar, I cannot comment on how accurate this film is to the original bible story, but I would say it has sparked my interest in the original. I would recommend this film to just about anyone, and give this movie three and one-quarter stars.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older