Samson is based on the story of Samson and Delilah in the Old Testament Book of Judges.
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Amid a myriad of movie releases Feb. 16, was “Samson,” an account of the biblical story of Samson and Delilah.
The story of Samson was originally found in the Old Testament of the Bible in the Book of Judges. Chapters 13 to 16 tells the story of a man born to the Hebrews to free them from their enslavements to the Philistines. To free his people, Samson was born with inhuman strength allowing him to win every fight thanks to God.
For the most part, the movie follows the source material, but like any adaptation, there were creative licenses taken.
The movie begins with Samson (Taylor James) and his brother Caleb (Greg Kriek) stealing food and grains from a Philistine storehouse. All the while they try to trip each other up by giving each other riddles. The use of riddles in Samson’s life was in the bible, but Caleb and thievery were not. The brother’s attempt at stealing is discovered, but they luckily escape back to their village where the audience meets Manoah (Rutger Hauer) and Zealphonis (Lindsay Wagner), father and mother to the two men.
Before Samson and Caleb arrive, the Hebrew people are finishing up loading carts with grain as almost all of their harvest goes to the Philistines. One of the first Philistines that is named is none other than Rallah (Jackson Rathbone), the prince of the Philistines.
Rallah has an immediate hatred for Samson, and throughout the rest of the movie, he is determined to take his father’s, King Balek (Billy Zane), crown and Samson’s strength and life. Through this dangerous dance Rallah and Samson play, Samson meets Taren (Frances Sholto-Douglas), a young Philistine servant woman who he attempts to wed. Their wedding day is as it was in the original bible story, but instead of it spanning seven days, it only spanned one night.
Like the Bible, his marriage doesn’t bear fruit, and after some heartbreak, Samson is running from Rallah again. But this running leads him to Delilah (Caitlin Leahy). Like in the Bible, Delilah was the one to lead to Samson’s downfall, but before that, she was betrothed to Rallah, a concept not in the original story.
Also, in the original story, there was no rivalry between Samson and Rallah, as Rallah is never named in the chapters of Samson’s life. But this was a beneficial change as it seemed like Rallah helped keep the movie from becoming too repetitive and monotonous of Samson having to fight Philistine soldiers over and over.
The fighting that did occur was pretty well choreographed to look chaotic but graceful as Samson was blessed with God’s strength. The audience was able to see the strength of God especially through one battle where Samson slew thousands alone.
There were moments though when the script fell short and some moments came off a little too dramatically making it hard to believe that the characters were real people to whom the audience could
relate. Some scenes felt a little forced and messy as there were many moments when the camera would shake, and what could’ve been a still shot of the actors having a serious conversation, turned into continuously moving shots. There also were some moments where the special effects looked a little off, but other scenes throughout the movie were beautifully directed and made the movie worth watching.
Another aspect of the movie that could have been given a little more thought, but also did very well at the same time was costuming. The characters did appear to be wearing what would make sense for their class as the slaves wore cheap looking greys, while the king wore thicker whites and reds. The royal’s servants wore better clothing than the soldiers, and the royals themselves got rich colors that deemed them of a higher class. King Balek’s crown oppositely looked cheap, and like a cheap costume piece one would buy during the Halloween season. Also, a few of the character’s wig choices very much looked like the wigs they were instead of natural hair.
Samson is an hour and 50 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for violence and battles. There is blood and death, and very light romance. But for anyone who has heard of Samson and Delilah, this is a respectable account of the Bible story.
