The Ten Commandments: Difference between revisions

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* [[Bowdlerise]]: In the movie, Moses angrily throwing down the tablets results in a chasm that many of the Jews fall into. In the Bible/Tanakh, Moses gets the Levites (priests) to grab some swords and get busy. Killing 3,000 total.

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

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

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

* [[Broad Strokes]]: The movie's approach to the source material in some areas, especially what happened to the Hebrews after the flight from Egypt.

* [[Captain Obvious]]: "Moses' serpent swallows up the others!"

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* [[Death Glare]]: several, but Nefretiri gives a ferocious one to the Ethiopian princess flirting with Moses.

* [[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.

** The inclusion of the straight, bronze sword was a [[Shout Out]] to ''[[The Egyptian]],'' and knowingly done.

** The inclusion of the straight, bronze sword was a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[The Egyptian]],'' and knowingly done.

** Numerous sets and costumes from ''The Egyptian'' had been bought from 20th Century Fox by Paramount and were used by De Mille along with a handful of actors, creating unintentional as well as intentional continuity. This is especially noticeable in the throne room scenes.

** 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.

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* [[Doing in The Wizard]]: After nine plagues, Rameses informs Moses that he'd learned of a volcano erupting that would explain all nine of those plagues.

** 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...

** It gets better. The Ten Plagues were actually recorded on the stele of Ahmose. 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 [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos~~#~~1986_disaster~~ this] on a nation-wide scale. They say God works in mysterious ways...

** It gets better. The Ten Plagues were actually recorded on the stele of Ahmose. 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.

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

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

* [[Hey It's That Guy]]: [[Ben Hur|Judah Ben-Hur]] is exiled to the desert by his brother, [[The King and I|The King of Siam]]. He also hooks up with [[The Munsters|Lily Munster]]. Oh, and [[Vincent Price]] (yes, '''that''' one) is the master builder.

* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: [[Ben Hur|Judah Ben-Hur]] is exiled to the desert by his brother, [[The King and I|The King of Siam]]. He also hooks up with [[The Munsters|Lily Munster]]. Oh, and [[Vincent Price]] (yes, '''that''' one) is the master builder.

* [[His Name Is]]: Seti on his deathbed breaks his own decree by saying Moses' name.

* [[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.

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* [[Insult Backfire]]:

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

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

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

* [[I Want Them Alive]]: When ordering his men to pursue the fleeing Hebrews, Rameses commands his troops to kill everyone else, but bring Moses to him alive.

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

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* [[Love Triangle]]

* [[Manipulative Bitch]]: Nefretiri.

* [[Mass Oh Crap]]: Seen on the side of those who worshipped the golden calf as Moses pass judgement.

* [[Mass "Oh Crap"]]: Seen on the side of those who worshipped the golden calf as Moses pass judgement.

{{quote| '''Moses:''' Those who shall not live by the law, shall die by the law! }}

* [[Moses in The Bulrushes]]: Of course!

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* [[So Beautiful It's a Curse]]: "Beauty is but a curse to our women." Poor Liliah.

* [[Something Only They Would Say]]: Baka realizes that the Hebrew slave is actually Moses when he (Moses) refers to him as the "Master Butcher" -- which Moses has called him before. A little too late, as he said this while he was strangling Baka to death.

* [[Take That Kiss]]: Nefretiri to Ramses and vice versa.

* [["Take That!" Kiss]]: Nefretiri to Ramses and vice versa.

* [[There Are No Coincidences]]: During production, he man who designed Moses' distinctive rust-white-and-black-striped robe used those colors because they looked impressive--he only later discovered that [[Genius Bonus|these are the actual colors of the Tribe of Levi]].

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: The Egyptian army following the fleeing Israelites into the parted sea. Did NOBODY realize that God could (and would) solve that little problem simply by letting things return to normal?