Written by James M. Tate / 12/26/2019 / No comments / dudley moore , eighties , james coco , john ritter , laraine newman , parody , paul sand , religion , richard pryor , road movie , satire
JUDGEMENT UPON THE BIBLICAL SATIRE OF 'WHOLLY MOSES!'
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Title: WHOLLY MOSES! Year: 1980 AD Rating: *** |
Similar to the following years' Mel Brooks Old Testament spoof, HISTORY OF THE WORLD, Gary Weis's underrated WHOLLY MOSES! has more likable, involving characters led by Dudley Moore as a regular guy on a modern day Israeli tour bus that breaks down long enough for the alternative Biblical backstory to be revealed...
He and Laraine Newman (the director's SNL alumni) discover a cave with a lost, unknown scroll, and Moore reads about an orphan who, floating downstream, is pushed aside by the legendary basket-floating infant (much like Graham Chapman's title character in this film's muse/inspiration, MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN, fatefully born in the manger next-door to Christ)...
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Laraine Newman, John Ritter, Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor and Dom Deluise in WHOLLY MOSES! |
This craftier, more resilient child reaches his destiny first, and it's Moses... while the other is raised by a poor family further downstream, and, as an adult, Moore's Herschel chisels pagan idols with his adoptive father, played by the always-energetic James Coco, posing as his son's personal slave...
As the story continues, Herschel's anti-Moses (trying to free his people while being constantly last-minute thwarted by the genuine article, and never receiving credit) is thrust into various Biblical situations...
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Collage of the cast from the underrated and unfairly maligned WHOLLY MOSES |
These include Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's salty wife, David and Goliath, and, as Newman's sheep-herding husband trying his best to work along a mountainous region, the Burning Bush...
Meanwhile, special guests include Richard Pryor as a funky Pharaoh, Paul Sand as a boozing Avenging Angel, and affable man-child actor John Ritter cast-against-type as Satan himself, all making for a watchable, time-passing satire/parody that's a better semi-humorous road movie/adventure than an outright joke-a-minute comedy.
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Greenlit for the success of Life of Brian, even the artwork is Monty Pythonesque |
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