Book of Joshua: Walls of Jericho review by Bobby Blakey
For years there have been animated films bringing the stories of the bible to life. Most of the time the only people watching them are those that are fully immersed into the religious culture and not the main stream audiences. The latest film looking to bring something a little different to these stories is Book of Joshua: Walls of Jericho featuring the voice talents of Mac Rogers as Joshua; Merri Jamison as Rahab; Xander Bailey as Moses; Allen Marsh as Salmon; Alistair David Herz as Caleb; and Hannah Marie Lloyd as Sharon; and McKenzie Harms as Achsah. Could this film do justice to the lore while making it something worth seeing or will it fail to break down the walls of Jericho?
Book of Joshua: Walls of Jericho follows the Israelites who stand at the threshold of the Promised Land under Joshua's leadership after 40 years of wandering the desert. Facing the impenetrable walls and fierce soldiers of the fortress Jericho, the poorly armed followers enact God’s improbable plan, which commands their priests to lead a procession around the city for seven days, carrying the Ark of the Covenant. As doubt and anticipation build, the march culminates in a triumphant blast of horns and voices raised unto the Lord, bringing the mighty walls crashing down. One of history's greatest victories, an article of faith for Jews and Christians alike, and a powerful testament to the reward of unwavering faith in divine promise.
I want to be clear as I am approaching this film strictly based on the film itself and not biblical accuracy. I am a believer in God, but not going to tout that I know every passage to the Bible hence wouldn’t not be fair to judge it based on that. Instead, I am going in as if I knew nothing of the tales and see how it connects with me as a faith-based film as well as an animated action adventure as it seems to be promoted.
I was pleasantly surprised by the finished product here. The animation isn’t
anything groundbreaking, but for a smaller budget film and what they are doing with this story it works well and has its own look and feel that works. The story is exactly as expected given the source material but is crafted in a way that comes off more like something from history as opposed to being a preachy religion in our face message. Make no mistake it is fully engrained into the world of the Bible and God is mentioned often, but this is not the story of Jesus, so they kept it on track to something that has a broader reach in my opinion.
It's far from perfect and I have no doubt that there are elements left out in the set up to where we are that people not up to date on Moses and other aspects of this story of the Bible might not get it initially, but it’s not that hard to get caught up in the story. My biggest complaint came in the form of the voice cast. They did fine, but it honestly felt more like they were just straight reading the lines as if we were all sitting around reading the stories out loud as opposed to full acting performances. I am not saying they were bad, it just always lacks the punch I think some of the situations and words should have had had, especially given the subject matter.
This isn’t the kind of movie I would revisit but can see this being one that someone more engrained into the world of the Bible might enjoy and want to dive in again. It is filled with more action than I would have thought complete with blood I didn’t expect, but nothing overboard. A lot of work clearly went into bringing this film to life and knowing it’s not some big studio made it more impressive. If you are interested in the stories of the Bible or deep in your faith then this is a movie you will likely connect with, but if not you can still enjoy it for what it is.
Take a leap of faith and decide for yourself with Book of Joshua: Walls of Jericho available now on digital now from Parting Seas Productions.