The Red Tent

I was asked by a church member to watch The Red Tent. I did not take notes while I watched it, so these thoughts are not exhaustive or comprehensive. Instead, I hope they serve as a good overview of the movie and will guide you as you engage with other biblical movies.

First off, I am traumatized by the number of births and birthing shots in the movie. I physically cringed in one part. Katie and I have adopted and I am sure, if I am ever around for a real birth I will pass out, at least that is my prayer!

The naming of the movie was a definite marketing scheme. I did not read the book and I suspect, the book had more workings of the tent than the movie. With multiple wives and segregation I saw nothing that did not agree with what I have read about such a thing during the given time period. I must note though, that such details are not included in the Bible so it based off of secondary sources.

My main point of disagreement with the story is the inaccuracy to the biblical text. There were two glaring areas. The first is in Dinah falling in love with the Shechem and the slaughter of the town. In the biblical account (Gen 34) she did not fall in love but was “seized” and “humiliated” by Shechem. He did fall in love with Dinah but this was after he raped her. The movie did not show this and the glaring omission left it hollow. The movie did not include Simeon and Levi plundering the city and taking wives which is significant.

The second area which was significantly off from the biblical text is the meeting between Jacob and Esau (Gen 33). Esau came with 400 men in the biblical account not 100 like what the movie said. Also, there was distance between the two groups Jacob made when Esau came. Jacob’s approach to Esau was much different than the movie. While these changes in the story are minor, they are changes nonetheless and serve no purpose.

When watching biblical movies, I am perfectly fine with creative license if it is not in the Bible. To change the story when a detail is clearly listed is pointless to me. However, this is the reason, I liked the grouping together of Dinah and Joseph in Egypt. After Genesis 34, there is no mention of Dinah so I do not believe the truthfulness of her and Joseph meeting in Egypt. But, to think about it and see it in a movie was a rather creative idea.

I liked the movie with the exception of the traumatic birthing scenes. I wish they would have stuck closer to the biblical text. If they would have done so, they could have retained the main storyline. Even though the movie has me scarred for life, I found it entertaining and moderately enjoyable. In fact, Katie and I paused the movie several times to read the biblical accounts and talk about the movie as it went along.

We also talked about the take away from the movie and biblical storyline. The movie had a main takeaway to follow your heart and marry for love. This however, is not the point of the passage in the Bible. The story in the Bible is quite tragic. The story is part of the larger unfolding of God’s plan to redeem mankind through the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The actions of Jacob’s sons is horrid. However, God works through such sultry people to bring about his plans and glory. He humbled them by sending them to Egypt and had them face Joseph. Through these wicked brothers line comes Jesus. The plans of God cannot be stopped by the wickedness of man because God is greater than the wickedness.

The story also shows us how much better Jesus is by way of contrast. Simeon and Levi killed all the men in an entire city because their sister was raped. I do not want to downplay the rape but murdering, plundering, and then taking the remaining women as wives is not a just recompense. Personally, I was challenged to let God enact justice because I am prone to overdo it! However, Jesus who was sinless, hung on a cross and pleaded for the forgiveness of the men who were killing him. So while the movie The Red Tent was not completely biblical, let it encourage us to love Jesus more.