The Ten Commandments: Difference between revisions

{{quote|Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel: let my people go!|'''Moses'''}}

 

 

This 1956 film from [[Paramount]] tells [[The Bible]] story of Moses and the Exodus. Charlton Heston plays Moses. Yul Brynner plays Rameses. They are in a [[Love Triangle]] with Nefretiri (Anne Baxter), whom Moses might have won, had the matter of injustice to Hebrew slaves not come up. Other important characters are, naturally, Moses's brother Aaron (John Carradine); Sephora ([[The Munsters|Yvonne de Carlo]]), daughter of Jethro and Moses's eventual wife; Joshua (Jon Derek); and Liliah (Debra Paget), the woman Joshua loves -- who happens to be the sex slave of the overseer Dathan (Edward G. Robinson), see?

* [[Big No]]

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: The Hebrews eventually reach Israel... but for his Wrath, Moses cannot enter the Promised Land.

** To be fair, keeping in the original slaughter makes Moses a hell of a [[Dark Shepherd]].

* [[Bratty Half-Pint]]: Rameses' son.

* [[Demoted to Extra]]: Miriam and Aaron.

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: We are pretty sure that Egypt did ''not'' have straight, double-edged swords. They instead used khopeshes, a weapon best described as a scimitar that got a straight section between the hilt and arc, without the arc changing angle with respect to the hilt; this gave the sword a look not unlike a lower-case "b". ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'', by the way, ''did'' portray Egyptians as using khopeshes.

** Averted slightly in that many of the odd "speeches", where Cecil B. De Mille is heard narrating with emphatic strings, are from Jewish midrash or legends about Moses -- just as the episodes where he saves the "grease woman", meets his family for the first time, or as an Egyptian gives the Hebrews one out of seven day of rest.

** Women probably didn't have '50s make-up and hairdos back then either. And they wore a lot less clothing back in Ancient Egypt as well.

** Interestingly, it is a serious theory that the plagues and the parting of the sea, not to mention the pillar of smoke and flame, and for an encore a scene in ''[[Jason and the Argonauts]]'' where they get pelted with rocks, are all explicable somewhat by a truly MASSIVE eruption in the Aegean Sea - Antikythera or Santorini. Pretty good reference...

** The current most probable theory is that a climatic variation caused extremely heavy rainfall in the Ethiopian highlands, resulting in the Nile being choked with red, acidic mud. The river became as blood, fish died, frogs left the river, and so on. The same variation resulted in unusually dry weather in the locusts' spawning grounds, hence the plague of locusts, and the enormous sandstorm that hid the sun. The deaths of the firstborn of Egypt? All those dead fish sank, then the water became supersaturated with toxic gasses, and when they came out of solution, the firstborn sons, who alone among the inhabitants of Egypt slept inside, at ground level, smothered. Everyone else was fine because the custom was to sleep outside, on the roof. Imagine [[wikipedia:Lake Nyos#1986 disaster|this]] on a nation-wide scale. They say God works in mysterious ways...

** Although, in [[The Movie]], since Rameses actually sees Moses turn the water into blood, without a volcano being involved, this comes across more as a [[What an Idiot!]] moment.

* [[The Dragon]]: Dathan to both Baka and Rameses.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The Angel of Death. Rather than being a human looking angel (or [[The Grim Reaper]],) it's portrayed as a cloud of bluish fog descending from the sky in the shape of a creepy hand. It makes sense for the Angel to take on this kind of form, given the nature of its job but still, it's incredibly creepy....

* [[Happily Adopted]]: After he finds his birth family, Moses still assures Bithia he's her son and will always love her. Awww.

* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: The Israelites were released from their bondage.

* [[Historical Villain Upgrade]]: Dathan played a much more minor role in the Exodus account, leading a revolt against Moses and getting swallowed up by the ground. Here, he becomes [[The Quisling]], is responsible for the Golden Calf incident, and was responsible for driving Moses out of Egypt to begin with.

* [[History Marches On]]: Most modern estimates put the Exodus in the reign of Thutmose III, not Rameses II. Though to be fair, there isn't clear consensus among scholars and reconciling Old Testament timelines with historical dates is tricky at best.

* [[I Just Knew]]: Miriam when she warns the women to stock up on water since there will be none for 7 days. It's implied she uses this gift often ("Miriam is always right.").

* [[Informed Attribute]]: Unless you really believe Charlton Heston is slow of speech and thick of tongue...

{{quote|'''Ramses''': "You have a rat's ears and a ferret's nose."

'''Dathan''': "[[The Quisling|To use in your service]], [[Professional Butt-Kisser|son of Pharaoh]]."}}

** "Better to die before a God than live in shame", according to Rameses. [[Revenge Before Reason|He knew there was a chance his army could die but he ordered them to charge anyway]].

*** Also, after ''seeing with their own eyes'' God part the waters of the sea, the Hebrews are quick to question the existence of Him while waiting for Moses to return from Mount Sinai. [[What an Idiot!|So they decided to forge a golden idol to worship instead]].

* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]: Played straight with Rameses succeeding the relatively [[Reasonable Authority Figure|reasonable]] Seti. Technically averted when Dathan is promoted to governor upon Baka's death -- while he is certainly a [[Bad Boss]], he's nowhere near as tyrannical as Baka.

* [[Unperson]]: Sethi proclaims that Moses' name be erased from every carving, and never be spoken again, after learning that he is the one destined to free the Israelites. So let it be written, so let it be done! Obviously, that didn't take.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Academy Award]]

[[Category:Epic Movie]]

[[Category:The Fifties]]

[[Category:Films of the 1950s]]