Samson Bible Movie
Is it time for Hollywood to retell the story of Samson?
2014 is going to see quite a number of biblical movies grace
the movie theater. First, there’s Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Noah’ starring Russell
Crowe, which of course, is about Noah’s Ark. Then, there’s Ridley Scott’s
‘Exodus’ which will see Christian Bale as Moses himself. Hollywood seems to be
gaining a liking for The Bible, despite its generally liberal masses. I kept
thinking about other potential Bible stories that may be turned into film, and
one that popped into my mind was that of Samson.
According to the Hebrew Bible, Samson was a means by which
God could aid the Israelites, who were suppressed by the Philistines at the
time. He possessed supernatural, omnipotent strength and in his endeavors, he
single handedly annihilated the Philistines, up until his death. He was a
Nazirite, set aside for God, and his vows included abstinence from alcohol and
shaving and cutting hair among other things. As long as he protected his vows,
he would be able to preserve his powers of unimaginable strength.
Word goes that his path was set by God so as to deliver the
Israelites from the Philistines. His falling for a Philistine woman was then,
planned by God. This simple act sets in motion a chain of events that results
in sheer carnage. When his betrothed Philistine woman is given to another man,
he burns the fields of the Philistines. This enrages the Philistines who exact
vengeance by killing his betrothed. This in turn, infuriates Samson even
further (his loved one was killed, obviously) so he slaughters even more
Philistines. The story goes on and on, with Samson taking on an entire army by
himself until he is betrayed by Delilah, another woman he falls for. She finds
out that if Samson breaks his vow, by say, cutting his hair, he’ll lose his
superhuman strength. Delilah, swayed by the coin the Philistines offered, cuts
Samson’s hair, thereby allowing the Philistines to capture him. But in his very
last hours before he was to be sacrificed, he pulled down the two pillars (his hair grew back somewhat) he
was tied to, killing many more Philistines and himself, in the end.
When the story is put out as I have done in the previous
paragraph, it seems preposterous. Well, that’s because I’ve left out most of
the detail to make the story as concise as possible. I was first introduced to
Samson through those Bible cartoons they used to show back in the day. It
started off with Jesus, Moses and then eventually the series made its way to Samson.
He was more likeable in the cartoon than in the Bible. He had to be in order to
make the program viewable for children. Ripping apart a lion with his bare
hands (yes, he does this, too) wouldn’t sit well with all those parent’s
councils watching over TV shows, waiting to pounce on anything that may seem
inappropriate.
When I first thought about a Samson movie, I saw some real
potential for a film. There’s a tremendous amount of tragedy to be seen with
the loss of his first betrothed, to his eventual betrayal at the hands of Delilah.
Even the fact that he was blinded after his capture, should set hearts to ache
at some point. Then there’s all the violence that could end up in the movie. A
fight with a lion, and the countless scores of Philistines he so easily
obliterates. There’s scope for some really strong rated R material that should
appeal to older audiences and teenagers. Add to this his weakness for
untrustworthy women who are no doubt appealing in more than one way, and you
have the possibility of some raunchy sex scenes, not that we’re trying to
besmirch The Bible in anyway. There were 2 notable loves in his life, so there’s
room for at least a couple of erotic scenes.
Tragedy, love, lust, violence. These components should make
for an interesting screenplay. But the story of Samson has some inherent flaws.
Firstly, when I was watching that cartoon years ago, I couldn’t help but
compare Samson to Hercules. He is a one man army. He took down most of the
Philistines by himself. Portraying this onscreen should be extremely difficult.
In fact, it won’t be highly feasible to have an individual do all those deeds
by himself. Unless it’s an animated feature like those cartoons were. Of
course, we could pair him up with a band of misfits and such to make the
scenario more plausible, but then the film would turn into the Hercules movies
set to be released this year, with Kellan Lutz and The Rock playing the Greek
hero in separate movies, both planning on providing a more realistic take on
the Greek hero. Hence, a realistic take makes it difficult to differentiate
Samson from the Hercules movies to be released soon. Then there’s the matter of
the hair. The bottom line is that if you cut Samson’s hair, he loses his
powers. To most, this is ludicrous and trivial. Imagine a seen where the
villain, Delilah, in this case, creeps up on Samson after some shenanigans in
bed, and cuts his locks off to weaken him. It’s almost impossible to see that
deed done in a serious manner on screen, without creating a laugh or two.
I thought that Samson would thus be an unfilmable idea,
primarily due to the hair, but it turns out that I was wrong. There’s a 1949
movie ‘Samson and Delilah’ which won 2 Oscars and a 1996 TV movie with
Elizabeth Hurley in it. There were also some films in the 1960s made in Italy,
with titles such as ‘Samson vs. The Pirates’. I’m guessing that it falls into
the category of a mash up film of sorts, the kind you see with monsters, like
Godzilla vs. King Kong. Must be quite entertaining. Anyway, it seems that
Hollywood was working on Samson long before I thought about it. While the
movies that are currently available on the Biblical character may not be suited
to the tastes of the present generation, it may only be a matter of time before
someone harvests an idea that translates the idea into a palatable film for the
present day. If Noah’s Ark can make a Hollywood premiere, why can’t Samson’s
glorious locks?
