THE ICONOGRAPHY OF RA
 When one watches the movie "Stargate," it eventually becomes apparent that the producers borrowed more from Egyptian iconography than mythology to make this film. There is nothing accurate about it when it is compared to known Egyptian images. For example, the jackal-headed soldiers, the Anubis, and the hawk-headed warriors, the Horus, serve Ra by being his protector, a far cry from their original roles in legend.
For the former, he is supposed to be a single entity, rather than a group of soldiers, and lord of the underworld. With the latter, Horus should be either a fellow sun-god or helmsmen.
However, for the most recognized god in the pantheon, Ra, he is appropriately portrayed in the director's cut (special edition) of the film, in terms of the images that are typically associated with him.
While this sun god does not make his appearance until halfway into the film, his entrance is cinematically "world-shaking." He arrives in his pyramid-ship, which is presumably Devlin and Emmerich's interpretation of the Solar Barque in which, according to legend, the god daily sails. According to the Stargate SG-1 FAQ, Bill McCay's novels are more faithful to the original vision of the movie producer and director's vision1; it names Ra's ship, "Boat of a Million Years," and stays closer to the myth about his daily journey through the sky2.
However, a stretch of the imagination is required to reinterpret Ra's daily journey. Instead having the god's ship orbit one world, he moves in the vast darkness of space (the night) from one planet (the day) to another, eventually to the sun-baked world of Abydos. Even then, the boat he rides in is nothing like the imagery used in the Egyptian art, where he is riding a barque with his company of gods3.
In the movie, however, these fellow gods are children. Appropriate in the sense that Ra is one of the oldest gods in the pantheon, the problem is that none of these young deities are identified. They do not appear to be either Thoth or Matt, other Egyptian deities, who help plot the course of the boat. Their role is similar to the warriors who protect him because they surround Ra when O'Neil tries to shoot him. One has to wonder if they would grow up to become new Horuses or Anubis soldiers?
In the regular version of the movie, one of these children is seen holding a cat and then it cuts to the next scene. Perhaps to identify the goddess Bast, a cat-goddess, this role goes unaccredited in the film credits. But in the special edition this scene is completely changed.
In the director's cut of the film, Daniel Jackson leaves the sarcophagus room, explores his surroundings and finds a cat sitting on Ra's throne. This shot is important because it draws on the myths of the cat being a personification of the sun. In the Egyptian "Book of the Dead," a cat is the one who cuts off Apophis' head4. Here, this cat is believed to be another form of Ra5.
In a later scene, Ra appears before his people wearing a helmet-mask. This mask is more reminiscent of a pharaoh's death mask (i.e. a human) than a hawk, making this iconography debatable. An early egyptologist suggested that there were times where Ra is depicted with a human head instead of a hawk's6. But the latter is seen more often than the former image, making the former questionable. Perhaps as a pharaoh taking on the name of Ra, this association is possible.
Historically, during the height of Ra's popularity, kings added Ra into their name as a scheme to insure their prestige and ascension to the heavens7. One such king was Amun-Ra8. In the movie, Jackson interprets the hieroglyphs and proves, "Inhabiting this human form, he appointed himself ruler. He used the Stargate to bring thousands of people here to this planet as workers for the mines."9
 Much like the hieroglyphs used to describe the story of Ra, iconography is part of the director's tools in conveying the story. They are staples and prerequisites of the trade to make any movie memorable. In the depiction of Ra, he is wholly accurate in iconic portrayal than mythic. From the costumes he wears (the signet with the red disk with horns, for example, is important in identifying this alien to the legendary god) to the cat (a personification of the sun) he is what the Abydan people believe him to be. When he appointed himself ruler, the sun-god Ra was born into the physical world.
His portrayal is as more of a pharaoh, a king taking on the name of Ra. That is what the art in caves depicted him to be, since he ruled more like a king instead of being a true divine figure. There were no references in the movie to the other myths that included Ra, so this must be the case.
The only time when he becomes the mythic Ra is when declares, "I have created your civilization ... and now I will destroy it!"10 with the nuclear bomb that O'Neil brought with him. As "the Great One Who both creates and destroys,"11 this quotation defines Ra for who he is and what his purpose is in both the movie and the old Egyptian (Kemetic) religion. He is a force of nature -- a representative of the sun -- that the early Egyptians respected and revered because of the sun's life giving and death dealing properties.
FOOTNOTES
1. http://www.gateworld.net/faq.shtml#5.1
2. Shoerter, Alan W., The Egyptian Gods, a Handbook, 4-7
3. Spence, Lewis, Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt, 131
4. Ibid. 293
5. Armour, Robert, Gods and the Myths of Ancient Egypt, 60-61
6. Budge, E.A. Wallis, The Egyptian Book of the Deasd, cxi
7. http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/articles/r/re.html
8. http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/articles/a/amun-re.html
9. Stargate, side b, chapter 3
10. Ibid, side b, chapter 4
11. http://www.kemet.org/nfrnames/ra.html
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