I love the story of Esther. You may have guessed that, given the large number of times I’ve blogged on Esther-related subjects. (Links to these are at the end of this article.) So it should come as no surprise that I’m reviewing “One Night With the King” today.
Beautiful costuming, lush sets, and gorgeous scenery accent this already impressive film. Tiffany Dupont stars as Hadassah, a beautiful Jewish orphan who has been raised by her cousin Mordecai (John Rhys-Davies). When Queen Vashti chooses not to appear at a banquet held by the king to rally support for the war against Greece, King Xerxes has her banished, and the search for a new queen begins. Every fair maiden in the land is gathered into the palace, and Hadassah is taken against her will. Going under the name of Esther for her own protection, she brings a spark of life to the harem and immediately gains a friend in Hagoth, the huge bodyguard assigned to the candidates for the position of Queen.
In a time and land where women aren’t educated, Esther can read, and Hagoth provides her with many scrolls from the palace library. She gathers the other women around her and reads to them, seeking to make their experience as enriching as possible. One night, when the king can’t sleep, Hagoth fetches Esther to read to him, and so they meet.
Asked to read accounts from the royal diaries, she quickly grows bored and starts telling stories from Jewish history, what we find in the Old Testament today. Curious, the king comes out from behind his curtain to meet her. She’s immediately fascinated with him, but when he doesn’t send for her again, she wonders if he found her pleasing at all. When the time comes for her to go before him as a bridal candidate, he tests her for a few minutes, then confesses that she’s been on his mind constantly and asks her to marry him.
With the war impending, he is called off to lead the troops, and while he is gone, Mordecai comes to visit Esther in the palace. The king returns suddenly and sees a man leaving, but Esther doesn’t tell him who it was, to protect the fact that she is Jewish. This leads to a whole marital misunderstanding which isn’t the slightest bit Biblical, and I felt it distracted somewhat from the beauty of the true story, but I guess the movie makers thought they needed to pump up the suspense a little bit.
Other parts of the movie didn’t exactly jive with the Biblical account. Haman wasn’t in position to do any actual harm to the Jews until nearly the end of the movie, while the Bible hints that he’d been at the king’s right hand for many years. I suppose much is in the interpretation, and goes to literary license, but I do suggest that if you want to know the real story, you pull out your Bible and get it straight from the source.
Even with divergences from reality, this was still a remarkably well-done film. It’s not one that your children will enjoy until they’re old enough to appreciate the Bible, but would be a very good educational tool for them later on. Despite the violence of the times and of the story, everything was handled rather tastefully, hinted at rather than shown explicitly. I really enjoyed it.
An interesting side note: For those of you who have seen the first “Work and the Glory” movie, you’ll recognize Tiffany DuPont as the actress who played Lydia. I don’t know why she didn’t stick around – I didn’t care for the girl who replaced her.
Omar Shariff also has a significant role in this film.
This movie was rated PG.
Related Blogs:
Liken the Scriptures: Esther and the King