To what do we owe the second coming of the biblical epic?
A genre that was once as moldy as stale communion wafers has been reborn this year, first with Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” and now with Ridley Scott’s “Exodus: Gods and Kings.” The resurrection is partly to capitalize on the faith-based moviegoing audience and partly because the Bible offers stories suited to this blockbuster era, offering both spectacle and name-brand familiarity.
More than 50 years after “The Ten Commandments,” sandals are back in style. We can only hope the trend will culminate in a seemingly ordained bit of casting: Someone has got to make a Jesus film with Jared Leto.
But big-tent Old Testament tales are no easy sell in times marked by both religious discord and secular disbelief. “Noah” was interesting because it saw the arc-builder as a hero of environmentalism, a protector of both morality and animals.
