"One Night With the King" -- yes, there is a Hathach

In a previous post, I questioned any telling of the story of Esther without mentioning the role of Hathach, who speaks what many people think of as the most important lines in the Book of Esther. At the time, I was relying on the IMDB listing of the cast (See previous post for link) and Hathach was not listed as one of the characters. I was disappointed.

Well, now I have seen the movie. I hope it isn't giving away too much of the plot to any of the infinitesimally small fraction of the inhabitants of this planet who use the Internet, read this blog, and will have a chance to see "One Night With the King." and plan to see it, to say that there is a Hathach in the movie, after all, and that he does speak those lines to Esther. Like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Esther herself, Hathach is presented as having both a Jewish and an Mesopotamian name. Perhaps the original Hathach was Jewish by birth. Perhaps not.

I thank Claw of the Conciliator (See Some of the feeds I subscribe to, on the right, for a link) for pointing me to a review of the movie by Ben Witherington. Having seen the movie, I mostly agree with him. I thought that Tiffany Dupont had tremendous appeal as Esther.

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Addendum, November 8th: When I originally posted this, I hadn't included a link to the movie's web site. (Duh . . .) I have now done so. On visiting the site, I was surprised to see that the only actors mentioned on its front page are Dupont, Omar Sharif, and Peter O'Toole. Dupont had the main role. O'Toole had a very brief part, what I think is called a cameo appearance. Sharif did well in a supporting role. John Rhys-Davies, as Mordecai (aka Gimli in the Tolkien movies), had almost as much screen time as Dupont, and did his job well. I'm surprised that he wasn't mentioned on the front page.

I should have also said that the film was free of objectionable language and gratuitous (or any other kind of) sex and of gratuitous violence. There was a little violence, but it wasn't lovingly caressed (or hugged and fondled) as it sometimes is in the movies.

I should have also said "Thanks for reading!"