One Night with the King

Plot synopsis:
The movie is set in Susa, Persia (now Iran). King Xerxes holds a great feast for all the people to attend. Hadassah (the main protagonist) longs to go to Jerusalem to see the Holy Land and prepares to leave with the caravan along with her friend, Jesse. They stop by the King's feast before he goes marching to war to avenge his father’s death. Hadassah and Jesse witness the King summoning Queen Vashti. Queen Vashti was opposed to the war, desiring King Xerxes to enhance his kingdom instead. She holds her own feast in protest to the war. When the king summons her to his own feast, she refuses to come stating, "I am queen, and I will not lower my dignity. Or shame my crown by wearing it before your drunk, and thinly veiled war council". Because of this, King Xerxes is advised to banish her and select a more worthy queen.
All beautiful virgin women in the stronghold of Susa are brought in so Xerxes could leave behind a queen to keep the kingdom unified. Under the command of her foster-father, "Uncle Mordecai" (who was one of the king’s scribes and worked in the palace), Hadassah does not reveal her nationality or family and changes her name to "Esther" (after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar). She is taken in with the rest of the selected women and given cosmetics, perfumes, and treatments under the care of Hegai, the king’s royal eunuch. Through her quick wit, intelligence, and integrity, she becomes Hegai's favorite contestant.
On their night with the king, each contestant is allowed to bring along whatever she wishes from the harem. She goes in the evening and returns in the morning to a second harem to another royal eunuch who is custodian to the concubines. She will not be able to return to the king unless she pleases him and he summons her by name. During their preparation, Hegai discovers Esther can read and listens to her reading to the other contestants. He admires her bravery. Late into the night, he brings her to King Xerxes to read to him. She starts reading from the assigned scroll and then begins telling the love story of Jacob and Rachel (from the Old Testament). He is amused and intrigued and dismisses her, saying she would read to him again. From this interaction, Esther falls in love with the King. When it is Esther's turn for her 'one night with the king', she only wears what Hegai advises. She wins the king's favor by revealing her heart to him. He chooses her and crowns her queen.
Simultaneously, Haman the Agagite is promoted to the highest-ranking official. He has all the king’s servants at the royal gate to kneel before him. Mordecai refuses, declaring he will only kneel before God and the king. He announces himself before Haman to be a son of Abraham, a Jew. Haman, filled with vengeance and hatred, seeks to destroy Mordecai and all his people because centuries earlier, Jews persecuted his forefathers.
Esther discovers the plot and breaks protocol by going before the king unsummoned, risking her life to plead for her people. The king lowers his scepter to her and spares her life out of his love for her. She invites the king and Haman to a banquet and there reveals her nationality and Haman’s plot to kill the Jews. The king, overwhelmed by her revelation, leaves the banquet. Haman then assaults Esther. The king saves her and, in his fury, commands Haman be hanged on the gallows he had erected to hang Mordecai for revenge. After Haman is taken away, the king goes to Esther's side. Esther asks, "What made you come back"? And the king responds with, "I saw the stars". Then King Xerxes kisses Esther, with the camera pulling away from the small temple.
The ending shows Mordecai being made a Prince of Persia, and issuing a royal decree in his own name, with flashbacks of Esther being made Queen, and the crowd of Jews cheering in the streets. The last scenes show the small temple and Mordecai saying, "Thus dictated, I order this decree sent out under the great seal of Mordecai, Prince of Persia, a Jew".

Tags: violence, romantic

Review:
She definitely matured and grew gracefully into the role of Queen Esther as the movie progressed -- and fortunately her dialog improved as well.I was very drawn into scenes that featured other actors from the beginning however.
It has everything...a beautiful love story, humor, intrigue, great acting, noble characters, dastardly villains.
Despite this, the movie had plot weaknesses, was confusing, pacing was too slow at times, the language was often flowery, and Luke Goss as Xerxes was just awful, his king dithering and weak.
It only added insult to the historic lack of recognition this great man of stage and screen has received from the film industry.Omar Sharif, at least had a role with scenes throughout this boring spectacle.
The story of Esther has great potential, but this film limps along with mediocre acting (especially from Luke Goss as Xerxes) and a sub-par screenplay.
The dialogue can't decide if it's from the King James Bible (using the word "thou") or modern America (using the word "okay.") I know the story well, and I was often confused by pointless scenes about a Greek battle subplot.
Lovely Tiffany Dupont displays charm and fun as Esther, although the performance is uneven.I'm a Christian, and I'm disappointed in most films that deal with faith.
I rented this movie because I love Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole,and John Rhys-Davies so expected a DECENT movie.Instead it was utterly awful, terrible lines, wooden and over acting abounded.
we make it worse by having our leaders shout out to the world about how amazing the film is.Mixed race casting, student-level direction, differing accents on actors, inept acting in key roles and a disjointed story structure kept breaking the reality of the world this film was trying to create.
I enjoyed watching this movie but they took a lot of license with the biblical story.
John Rhys-Davies is always a joy to watch and he doesn't disappoint as Mordecai.Even with that, I would rather see a movie like this than 90% of the stuff put in theaters these days.
I took the movie from a video library seeing the names of some of the great legendary actors like Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif being highlighted on the DVD cover.
I don't feel that the King's deep love for Ester was really portrayed during any part of this movie.
The story line dragged out, accompanied by climatic musical overtures, bad acting, and side-conflicts the screenwriter presents, then leaves unanswered.Though this movie did have some strong aspects: the wonderful wardrobe and makeup of Queen Ester, the monkeys that were quite comical, and three inserted light humored lines, it lacked in everything else.I love the story of Ester, its up there with the story of Rehab.
Sound was OK, but there were many times when I, and others who saw it missed important dialogue because of strange wording and low volume.As a professional actress, and a believer, I have to say that I get very disappointed when we Christians promote a film as a great accomplishment, and then follow up with a project at this level.
You'll be tipsy in 10 minutes and mercifully passed out long before the end.The visual fx were incredible to watch, but thats due more to their design than execution; there's no effect here that wasn't seen in Star Wars years ago.Not to say there weren't some good moments in the film - there certainly were.
I can't blame the actors - Omar Sharif and John Rhys-Davies are hardly B-movie material - so it's rather clear that the fault lies with the director.Still, the acting was...
Just back from seeing "One Night with the King," allegedly the story of the Biblical character Esther.
I am a Bible believing Christian who loves the story of Esther and went into the theater with high expectations.
This movie is amazing for so many reasons, the cast, the scenery, the story-line and that it parallels what we see happening in the world today.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys history, wholesome entertainment, a great love story or compulsive movie goers.
I am glad to have clean, Christian-based movies available for seeing, but I don't want it to be so fictionalized that one almost does not recognize the story.
I was going to give this film just 1 but because of the scenery and the thought of people who had given their effort in this movie made me give it a 2.
The special effects are cheesy.It keeps in line with the book of Esther (with obvious artistic leeway for dramatic purposes), but without previous knowledge of the story it is confusing and hard to follow.The high point of the film, the visuals from the flowers, robes, etc., is severely downplayed and not fully realized..
What's worse, being of the Jewish faith, I had to sit by as the warped story-telling pandered to the small unknowing Jewish audience expecting a broadly Biblical, impartial perspective.Tiffany DuPont downplays Esther as a love-seeking, romantic archetype in the Disney fashion.
I also feel privileged to have co-written the song, "For Such A Time As This",(once again) following a sermon preached back in the mid-1980's.This story transcends the "Top 20" list and it goes beyond an "Inspirational Fad", because it continues to be reborn in anyone who will rise to embrace the Call that leads a person to their Destiny.The cinematography of this motion picture is lavish and the music is luscious.
I have always loved the story of Esther--it does indeed inspire me to live my religion and stand up for what I believe in.
On the up side, the costumes are gorgeous, as are the sets."One night with the king," however, is not how I want to visualize the magnificent story of Esther..
First of all, I am a Christian and was really looking forward to seeing a good movie adaption of one of my favorite stories in the Bible.
This was partly due to terrible directing and poor acting, but the biggest downfall was that it did not follow the true story at all.The movie felt extremely Hollywood-ized, and the many scenes that were added for dramatic affect felt stale, and entirely out of place.
"One Night with the King" showed the Old Testament story of the book of Esther as an epic movie.
The location, the cinematography, the costumes, the music and certainly the acting all worked together to get across this great story of the Jews in Persia who would have been annihilated except for the courageous stance of this Jewish girl - a girl who started out an orphan and became queen of Persia.
Great scenery and costumes in an all time classic story of a(Persian/Iranian) tyrant wanting to kill all the Jews (!) and a courageous woman who stands in the gap to save them.
with actors like Peter O'Toole & Omar Shariff you can't really go wrong and add to that the incredible location in India and a great plot and this movie might actually compete with such greats as Braveheart, Troy, Alexander and other historical dramas.
The movie does a great job of displaying the courage and willpower shown by the main character, Esther.
I don't know what dirt they have on Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, and John Rhys-Davies to make them be in such a horribly scripted movie, but it must be something pretty big.
The story of the biblical queen Esther has the potential to be something truly amazing, however watching the movie you begin to think, maybe it's a different Esther?
One night with the King is like watching jello harden.The cinematography and costumes are beautiful, but it doesn't change a droning plot.
The acting was horrible and the cinematography made me want to submit myself to a mental institution.Christian movies always end up really dumb.If you love TBN and China Cry and all those movies you'll probably like it but if you actually appreciate the arts or any such form it will leave you wishing to God you hadn't wasted your time.Please go watch a good movie.For the love of God..
this movie really captures the heart of Esther--her child-like faith saved her and her people!
Never doubt what TRUE faith can do--and true faith is only found in Jesus Christ---so the movie did an excellent job at displaying--what i believe--would have been Esther's true character--bold, but child-like!!
Also, in the film, Esther prays to "Father" meaning God, whereas Jesus was the first to pray to the "Father" and identify the "Father." The Jews looked to Abraham, their ancestor, as "father" of their people.This film is a highly embellished, dramatic portrayal of a small but important story from the Bible.
But as I watched I was entranced by the true love between King Xerxes and Esther.
I am very happy with the way the movie portrayed their love and Esther's commitment to God. She was a loyal woman, not only to the Lord but to her husband and her people.
Another feature I liked about the movie was the amount of history that it revealed so you understand why the characters acted the way they did.
Her "love" for Xerxes was awkward and unbelievable.More over, it did not come close to actually conveying the true depth and beauty of the biblical Ester story.
I will make this short and simple.This movie being Christian was bound to be bad,but this was exceedingly bad on every level.The acting was just cheesy,the editing leaves you thinking why was that done in that way,why was that slow-mo there and that part of the scene should have been deleted,and what was this film crew thinking,the script writer had no idea how to develop characters and plots,Casting:terrible,clothes:terrible.
I would encourage everyone to go see,this film.The quality was good,the the actors/actresses were wonderful.Also,this is a true story.The producers could not have picked,2 better people to play King & Queen.They looked absolutely wonderful together.This film, and Ester will surely give you HOPE.Please take everyone you know,to see this movie.I am still in AWE..It will BLESS you,and fill you with Humor.I would very much like to Thank the Tenney's and the Crouch family for this awesome Film.
The actor who portrayed the King did such a great job of appearing aloof and royal that he became flat and insipid, in fact it was the complete lack of dimensionality to the main characters that really hurt this film.
Haman could have displayed better adversity other than a mean look on his face and there isn't any of the cunning scheming delivery like the Emperor in Gladiator.Do not be deceived with the star billing of Peter O'Toole, his appearance in the film totals less than two minutes and his character as Samuel the Prophet does not have any significance in the Esther story other than to fill in the origin of Haman's motive for his genocide plans for the jews.
The scenery is awesome, the costumes beautiful, and the acting pretty good (considering the main characters were played by unfamiliar actors).
The story is not so far removed from the events unfolding today before our very eyes: the king of Persia (i.e. Iran/Iraq) and his closest advisers want to destroy the nation of Israel.The PG rating is fair and you can take your whole family to see the movie..
I thought the acting was well done, the costumes fabulous, the music well suited to the story, and the scenes were amazing - especially in the palace.
Or some character that isn't in the biblical account would have a major type role and I had a hard time placing him in the story.
It stayed pretty true to the main story though - nothing that really went against the biblical account.Anyhow, I think the movie is definitely worth seeing - and if you are very familiar with the story - remember that this movie was based on a historical fiction book, so it is one more step removed from the book of Esther in the Bible.
The the story line and the acting were all well done and I believe this movie deserves ten stars and beyond.
without a doubt this will be a movie that will be remembered, i believe that it is the best Christian epic film since the 10 commandments and that is saying something, i honestly wished they made the movie a bit longer though, i was so much drawn into it when it began, all of the actors met my expectations and then some, when i first heard this movie was coming out i wasn't expecting much, to my surprise i saw a work of art here, it is of my opion that it is even better than The Passion of The Christ and i mean that, i love the Passion but there's something about this film that just i dunno how to put it, its just so much more Grander is the word i am looking for, but yes i do believe that this is one that will be remembered for a long time to come..
I was already a big fan of the Bible version of the story (only 10 chapters long and packed with action, I suggest you read it in a modern-language translation...) and I loved the way this movie brought the story to life with details of daily living at that time in history.
The film is inspired by a biblical story in the Old Testament called the Book of Esther.
Tiffany Dupont played the role in the beginning as a bimbo on Ecstasy, but improved as much as the script would allow, but she seemed like she was transported to the period via time machine from the future with her contemporary acting that didn't fit the part.The movie opens at the end of a battle, but they were too cheap to film a battle or even use CGI to fake one.
This occurs throughout the movie where during battle there is no connection to it visually at all.CHEAP is the impression I was left with, not EPIC.The idea that this story is based on a Queen who didn't want to obey her King when beckoned and was replaced because of a break in PROTOCAL was not believable nor was it in the end when ....(won't spoil it).
Great Cinematography!The story of Esther is one of the most inspiring in the Bible, and not very well known; this movie keeps the spirit and truth of the scriptures alive, and yet makes it very appealing to the modern audience.
Having never seen Tiffany Dupont before (or since) I thought she was a great Cinderella-type and played her part very well, considering her character had to mature from teen to adult in a short time.The biggest surprise, however was Xerxes, an actor I had never heard of, Luke Goss - was exceptional in his kingly role.
The real biblical story of Esther was great, but they ruined the story in this movie.
It was excellent.My advice is to watch the movie and give your comment.p.s.For those who haven't read the story, you'll get pretty lost.
Years ago I read the whole Bible through; and when I finished the Old Testament book of Esther I said, 'That should be a movie'.
For "Christians" to create a supposedly Biblical film and then change the story to make it more Hollywood is reprehensible.
This movie added to and took away from the original Book of Esther and yet it did not help the story one iota and in actuality only serves to dilute the Truth and take away from GOD's true message.
Shame shame shame on those who would call lies truth.I recommend this movie as a good story but not as a Biblical one..
The book was fabulous...I didn't know that someone could do such an awesome job, transforming a story into a movie.Even though the book of Esther in the Bible doesn't mention God in it, you can surely see God's favor on Esther's life.
Esther, who becomes queen, needs to somehow find a way to protect her people from genocide, even if it means her life is sacrificed.It's quite the story.
I've read the biblical account several times and this movie does a decent job of fleshing out the characters using dramatic license to fill in the unknown details, without sacrificing the original tale.Michael Sajbel did a fine job directing the film.
I mean the sound, the cinematography, the special effects (what little where needed) didn't have that big studio feel, so the movie had to rely more on story and acting.
Basically, everything that should make a movie good was there  including the directing mentioned above.There were a lot of big name actors, including Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole who were both in Lawrence of Arabia.
I ran home and reread the entire book of Esther to see what they changed from the true story and they did a great job.
Hey, we all need a feel good movie that makes us think about life, responsibility, choices and love, don't we?
THe movie really is a great story-- the King was really amazing-- he's a great actor and I look to see more of him in the upcoming years.
Granted--there were some parts of the movie that could've been better-- and I loved the Esther character and at times she was very perfect--but othertimes, she was a little unbelievable.
I don't know what else I can say about this movie except that it is a shame that more people did not see this film-- I would look to turn it into a Broadway production.
But then, so does EVERY movie based on a true story.
I also thought Jyoti Dogra as Vashti was more beautiful and would have been better suited to play Esther.Luke Goss was awful and a total mismatch for a King of a world empire, he had no presence whatsoever.But the main problem was that the story as shown in this movie makes no sense.