I thought that it succeeded....and I recommend it....the film....released just today....Daniel....and the Fiery Furnace. The unfortunate part of it is that it took a lot of poetic license....storylines that are not in God's Word....but in the essentials....it is a powerful film.
It was a superb portrayal of Nebuchadnezzar! Everyone else was just good. Jeremiah had more than a cameo appearance....and the portrayal of the weeping prophet....was not that of a prophet weeping for his people and Jerusalem. The graphics....from a distance....of the walled city of Jerusalem....and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon....were alone worth the price of the ticket. The fiery furnace was done very well....and the idolatry....even of child sacrifices....to the Babylonian god....was effective....while the statue that Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego would not bow down to....although probably not accurate at all....proved to be very effective filmmaking. The musical score was also good....I thought anyway.
To see the film without being solidly grounded in the books of Jeremiah....and Daniel....is somewhat problematic. So if you are planning to possibly see the movie....I would recommend that you first watch this 1998 movie....Jeremiah....that starred Patrick Dempsey as Jeremiah....and Oliver Reed as a fictional general of King Zedekiah. This film also took a lot of poetic license....but at least it presented the weeping prophet in a more accurate light. Daniel and the Fiery Furnace....had....and missed....an opportunity to show what a false prophet was....when Jeremiah appeared before the king with a wooden yoke on his shoulders. The Jeremiah film did a very good job with this vital passage of the book of Jeremiah....because we have the very same false prophets today....telling us how great and glorious times are just ahead!
