EXODUS Costume review: Exodus: Gods and Kings

It is always challenging to re-create historical costumes of a past era; it is even more challenging to do so when that era is Biblical times, given the religious significance attached to that period. People seeing the film with have strong, established ideas of how characters 'should' look based upon their personal beliefs and the numerous previous depictions of this era. Recreating images which had become iconic in previous films (as well as Egyptian hieroglyphics) was the daunting task which faced the designer of Exodus: Gods and Kings, the 2014 release which details the story of Moses and his attempt to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The costume designer Janty Yates, in an interview with the L.A. Times, noted that he was able to draw upon actual historical depictions of what individuals wore during this era. For example, " all the Egyptians [in the film] wear lamellar armor, which has this petal-shaped metal that's even more elaborate than chain mail" (Rottenberg 2014). Of the actual, historical Ramses: "He was so vain, he had 70-foot statues built of himself -- and not just one or two, like 40 or 50" (Rottenberg...

The designer also noted that Pharaoh's armor is gold to indicate his status but also his vanity. The gold armor with its pristine appearance is supposed to highlight the character of the Pharaoh, not simply recreate the past with historical accuracy. The extant statues of Pharaoh did provide a guide for the designers but were blended with the dramatic needs posed by the script.
Many of the scenes of the film look as if they were inspired by hieroglyphics in terms of their layout (with a little bit of the Ten Commandments and Ben Hur thrown in). All of the Egyptians are dressed in elaborate metals throughout the film in a manner that conveys wealth, coldness and their superior status while the Israelites are dressed far more humbly in what look like roughly-woven robes and burlap. Moses, however, still has an elaborate breastplate when he fights, given that he was raised in the royal family and still has armor he wore. According to the interview with the costume designer his conveys his special status and the fact that he once fought for the palace, even while he leads an army of poor slaves (Rottenberg 2014). There also needs to be a contrast between…