Samson (2018 film)

Last updated
Samson
SamsonPoster.jpeg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBruce Macdonald
Written by
  • Jason Baumgardner
  • Zach Smith
  • Timothy Ratajczak
  • Galen Gilbert
Produced by
  • Bruce Macdonald
  • David A. R. White
  • Vlokkie Gordon
  • Elizabeth Hatcher-Travis
  • Craig Jones
  • Michael Scott
  • Brittany Yost
  • Alysoun Wolfe
Starring
Cinematography
  • Trevor Michael Brown
  • Brian Shanley
Edited by
  • Vance Null
  • Tim Goodwin
  • Gabriel Sabloff
Music byWill Musser
Production
companies
Distributed byPure Flix Entertainment
Release date
  • February 16, 2018 (2018-02-16)
Running time
109 minutes [4]
Countries
  • United States
  • South Africa
LanguageEnglish
Box office$4.9 million [5] [6]

Samson is a 2018 South African-American Biblical drama film directed by Bruce Macdonald and inspired by the story of Samson in the Book of Judges. The film stars Taylor James as Samson, along with Jackson Rathbone, Billy Zane, Caitlin Leahy, Rutger Hauer, and Lindsay Wagner. The film was released in the United States on February 16, 2018. [7] It was negatively reviewed by film critics and was a box office bomb.

Contents

Plot

Samson is under a Nazirite covenant with God to deliver the Israelites from oppression. The Philistine king, Balek, commands his son Rallah to investigate. Rallah bribes a Philistine lord to hold a fight in hopes of drawing Samson out. Samson arrives and bests the strongman, while noticing the lord's daughter, Taren. Samson and Taren fall in love and desire marriage. Rallah's concubine Delilah convinces Rallah to allow the marriage to better control Samson.

At the wedding feast, Rallah tricks Samson into drinking wine, which is against his Nazirite vows. In response, Samson offers a riddle to Rallah and his guests. Unable to solve it, Rallah threatens Taren to find out the answer. Taren gets Samson to reveal it, but Delilah overhears, telling Rallah the answer. When Rallah declares the answer, Samson assumes Taren told him and storms off.

Samson arrives at a Philistine garrison, killing them all in self-defense. In order to take their tunics, he is forced to touch their dead bodies, breaking his second Nazirite vow. Upon returning, he finds that Rallah has married Taren in his place. Enraged, Samson destroys the Philistine grain fields. Rallah throws Taren and her father into the burning fields, killing them. Defeated, Samson flees to a cave.

The Philistines arrive at Samson's village and capture his father Manoah, demanding that Samson be surrendered to them. Despite Samson's surrender, Rallah promises to burn the village anyway and has Manoah executed. As he gives the order to kill Samson, Samson prays to God for strength. Samson slays 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, while Rallah barely survives.

Samson is anointed Judge. Samson goes to the Philistine capital to offer terms of peace with Balek. When Balek rejects the offer, Rallah decides to use Delilah to discover Samson's weakness. Delilah helps Samson escape and the two fall in love. Delilah asks what could bind Samson to her. Samson reveals that by cutting his hair, he would break his last Nazirite vow and lose his strength. Delilah drugs Samson to be able to cut his hair. As Delilah cuts Samson's hair, Rallah and his forces arrive to capture the now-powerless Samson and his brother Caleb. King Balek urges Rallah to kill Samson, but Rallah wants to use him as an object lesson to their enemies. In their shouting match, Rallah kills Balek and seizes the crown. Delilah comes to the dungeon with bail money to free Samson as penance, but he tells her to use it to free Caleb. Samson declares he is done following his own desires instead of God's and tells Caleb to prepare the Hebrews to capture the city.

Samson is taken to the temple of Dagon and abused by the Philistines. He prays once more for God's strength and pushes the two main pillars of the temple. As the building and Dagon's statue collapses, Samson, Rallah and Delilah are killed, but Caleb escapes and rallies the Hebrews.

Cast

Release

Prior to its release, Pure Flix Entertainment sold Samson to various distributors around the globe such as California Films in Latin America, Pioneer in the Philippines, Scene Poong in South Korea, Sahamongkolfilm in Thailand, Özen in Turkey and others throughout Indonesia and Malaysia. [8]

It was released in the United States on February 16, 2018, and made $1.9 million from 1,249 theaters in its opening weekend (an average of $1,556 per venue). [9]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 25% based on 16 reviews, and an average rating of 5.1/10. [10] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 17 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike." [11]

Inkoo Kang of TheWrap criticized the acting and direction, writing "the film is just plain bad, with an amateur cast (led by Taylor James), cut-rate special effects, who-cares storylines, and confusing details shoehorned in from the Bible." [12] Writing for RogerEbert.com, Peter Sobczynski gave the film 1.5/4 stars, stating, "The problem with Samson is that while it cannot be faulted for its sincerity, it can be faulted for its sluggish pacing, inconsistent performances and lack of cinematic style". [13]

Forbes contributor Luke Y. Thompson, while knocking the cheap-looking special effects and props, noted that Samson was "rarely boring" and that he did applaud Pure Flix "for actually trying to go big and stretch into biblical epics". [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>Samson and Delilah</i> (opera) Opera by Camille Saint-Saëns and Ferdinand Lemaire

Samson and Delilah, Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. It was first performed in Weimar at the Grossherzogliches Theater on 2 December 1877 in a German translation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samson</span> Character mentioned in the Book of Judges

Samson was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution of the monarchy. He is sometimes considered as an Israelite version of the popular Near Eastern folk hero also embodied by the Sumerian Gilgamesh and Enkidu and the Greek Heracles.

<i>Samson and Delilah</i> (1949 film) Film by Cecil B. DeMille

Samson and Delilah is a 1949 American romantic biblical drama film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille and released by Paramount Pictures. It depicts the biblical story of Samson, a strongman whose secret lies in his uncut hair, and his love for Delilah, the woman who seduces him, discovers his secret, and then betrays him to the Philistines. It stars Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr in the title roles, George Sanders as the Saran, Angela Lansbury as Semadar, and Henry Wilcoxon as Prince Ahtur.

<i>Samson</i> (Handel) Oratorio by George Frideric Handel

Samson is a three-act oratorio by George Frideric Handel, considered one of his finest dramatic works. It is usually performed as an oratorio in concert form, but on occasions has also been staged as an opera. The well-known arias "Let the bright Seraphim", "Total eclipse" and "Let their celestial concerts" are often performed separately in concert.

In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or a nazarite is a man or woman who voluntarily took a vow which is described in Numbers 6:1–21. This vow required the nazirite to:

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Samson and Delilah is a 1984 television film adaptation of the biblical story of Samson and Delilah directed by Lee Philips and starring Max von Sydow, Belinda Bauer, Antony Hamilton, Daniel Stern and Victor Mature. Mature played Samson in the 1949 film and had a small cameo as the father of Antony Hamilton's Samson. This was his final acting role. Based on the 1962 novel Husband of Delilah by Eric Linklater, Samson and Delilah originally aired on ABC.

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Samson was a character in the Biblical Book of Judges. He is said to have been raised up by God to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. In the story, God grants him unusual strength, which is facilitated by a Nazirite vow prohibiting him from cutting his hair. His strength and violent temper are illustrated in several colorful stories portraying him as dominant over man and nature. He also succeeds in his charge to battle the Philistines, more through acts of personal vengeance than by any formal military strategy. Eventually the Philistines defeat him by bribing his new love interest, Delilah, into extracting from him the secret to his strength. Once learned, the Philistines cut his hair while he sleeps, at which point he is easily defeated. 

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<i>Hercules, Samson and Ulysses</i> 1963 film

Hercules, Samson and Ulysses, is a 1963 Italian Metrocolor peplum film directed by Pietro Francisci.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samson (opera)</span>

Samson was an opera by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Voltaire. The work was never staged due to censorship, although Voltaire later printed his text. Rameau intended the opera on the theme of Samson and Delilah as the successor to his debut Hippolyte et Aricie, which premiered in October 1733. Like Hippolyte, Samson was a tragédie en musique in five acts and a prologue. Voltaire had become a great admirer of Rameau's music after seeing Hippolyte and suggested a collaboration with the composer in November 1733. The opera was complete by late summer 1734 and went into rehearsal. However, a work on a religious subject with a libretto by such a notorious critic of the Church was bound to run into controversy and Samson was banned. An attempt to revive the project in a new version in 1736 also failed. The score is lost, although Rameau recycled some of the music from Samson in his later operas.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judges 13</span> Book of Judges, chapter 13

Judges 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans in the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter records the activities of judges Samson. belonging to a section comprising Judges 13 to 16 and Judges 6:1 to 16:31.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judges 16</span> Chapter of the Bible

Judges 16 is the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans in the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter records the activities of judges Samson. belonging to a section comprising Judges 13 to 16 and Judges 6:1 to 16:31.

References

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  2. "SAMSON | Now Playing | Official Movie Website". Samson: Official Movie Website. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  3. "Boomtown Films | Production Company | South Africa". boomtownfilms.co.za. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  4. "Samson DTDC Ingest_Letter (Projectionist letter)" (PDF). Deluxe Technicolor Digital Cinema (DTDC). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-05-17. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  5. "Samson (2018)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved October 30, 2019.
  6. "Samson (2018)". The Numbers . Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  7. "Pure Flix Announces 'Samson' Opening In Theaters February 16". Breathe Cast. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  8. "Pure Flix/Quality Flix arrives at AFM with 'Samson'". Screen Daily. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  9. D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 18, 2018). "'Black Panther' Rips Apart Box Office Records: 3-Day Opening Rises To $194M+; 4-Day At $223M+". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved February 18, 2018.
  10. "Samson (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  11. "Samson Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved February 18, 2018.
  12. Kang, Inkoo (February 16, 2018). "'Samson' Movie Review: Old Testament Tale Collapses Like a Philistine Temple Tale". TheWrap . Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  13. Sobczynski, Peter (February 16, 2018). "Samson review". Roger Ebert. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  14. Thompson, Luke Y. (February 16, 2018). "Review: Pure Flix's 'Samson' Is An Epic Cheesefest". Forbes. Retrieved February 16, 2018.