By Owen Pfaff · Contributing Writer
My criticism of the movie “David” stems from the disrespectful portrayal of David’s character.
To be clear, this is not to say that because “David” fails to portray its main character as strictly as in the Bible’s narrative, it is thus barren of goodness. I fully expected certain elements of David’s character to be emphasized over others, especially given the intended audience: children.
However, the movie fails to capture the key elements of its source material to the point that the movie is deceptive in nature. In addition, the movie suffers significant damage to its plot given the butchered nature of David’s character arc.
The primary issue is that the film completely defangs David. He is a non-threat. At no point does he become the kind of person who could slaughter thousands of Philistines, murder one of his lieutenants and rape his wife.
Instead, the director decided to focus on the musician side of David. We are promised the warrior king and delivered the pop star. Obviously, the creators were never going to portray the full gore and horror of ancient Israel, and they definitely were not going to delve into “the incident,” yet they left David nothing. He has no fierceness, no cunning and no real sense of leadership.
As an example, in one of the opening scenes, David courageously saves a sheep from a lion, causing the lion to become trapped under a large rock. In a moment of supposed magnanimity, David frees the lion from the rock and allows it to roam free once again. This isn’t mercy; it’s foolishness. The scene is designed to make David appear kind and merciful, but it is undercut by his stupidity. He is a shepherd, and it is a shepherd’s job to kill the lions and the bears. The movie relies heavily on these kinds of scene dynamics to make David appear as good as possible.
There’s nothing wrong with having a sympathetic main character. However, David is not just sympathetic. He is perfect to the point that the movie fails to have a character arc. In the most basic form of storytelling (this is a generalization), a good character must overcome a psychological flaw to become the grown character.
Unfortunately, the movie fails to clear this bar. At times, it is implied that David struggles to trust God, however, at no point in the movie does he ever choose to do anything except trust God.
In the final sequence, the director attempts to give the illusion of an arc. David (because he is so merciful and loving to the guy who tried to kill him twice) attempts to save Saul from his “destiny.” The director casts it in the light that this is in defiance of God’s wishes. While this might technically qualify as a complete arc (which takes place in the last 15 minutes of the movie), it’s not foreshadowed and is at odds with David’s previous characterization.
There’s a lot more that could be said. I have only scratched the surface of the film’s issues. I would not recommend this movie to any audience.
