The Ten Commandments (1956)

Thou shalt not ogle at Moses

1. Thou shalt welcome your readers back to ILTBTA

2. Thou shalt make an introductory joke relevant to the movie, even though most people haven’t actually watched it so they won’t understand it

3. Thou shalt write something clever for the Intro

4. Thou shalt not forget to write the Intro until the last minute

5. Thou shalt not use all of thine best jokes in the Intro

6. Honor thy Author and Author

7. Thou shalt remind your readers of the name of the movie and when it came out

8. Thou shalt abide by the Rule of Three when listing references to the movie

9. Thou shalt not commit joke plagiarism, except against thyself

10. Thou shalt remind the Reader to make it to the joke at end

🎵 And right there where they stood … was holy ground 🎵  (Source)

Previews

What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?

Ellen: I don’t think I can improve on my original Spreadsheet comment for my previous knowledge: A Sunday school classic with lots of cartoon fire and shouting.

Tyler: Before doing research for our Summer of Sweat series, I don’t think I fully realized this movie existed. Hopefully it’s better than whatever I watched in CCD.

Plots & Feelings

This one’s pretty self-explanatory.

Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): Moses, raised as a prince of Egypt in the Pharaoh's household, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people from slavery.

Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):

• We open on our usual overture, resolving the chord before we’re off to the races … to see Cecil B. DeMille on a stage for some reason, introducing the movie. We also start for some reason at the Beginning, as in, “Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”¹ kind of Beginning. Sure!

  • Tyler: As CBD (hehe) even notes, this was certainly an “unusual procedure” and to me came across as a bit self-aggrandizing. Between the comparatively brief overture, this weird intro where he’s gripping the mic stand for dear life, and the actual opening credits, it takes eight-and-a-half minutes to actually start the movie.

• After hearing the prophecy of a Hebrew deliverer, Pharaoh Rameses I of Egypt orders the death of all newborn Hebrew males. Yochabel saves her infant son by setting him adrift in a basket on the Nile. Bithiah, the Pharaoh Rameses's recently widowed daughter (and sister of the future Pharaoh Seti I), finds the basket and decides to adopt the boy, even though her servant, Memnet, recognizes that the child is Hebrew. Bithiah names the baby Moses.

  • Ellen: Rameses and his advisors are in, like community theater-level costumes, looking like they’ve been shoved into the broom closet of a soundstage. I was worried it wouldn’t bode well for the rest of the production value, but thankfully my fears were unfounded.

  • Tyler: On the costume front (and possibly on that front), this may have suffered from coming after Cleopatra, which definitely didn’t skimp on the costumes. Except the length of Mark Antony’s skirt/toga-thing.

  • Ellen: This is also our intro to the all-purpose Pharaoh catchphrase, “So let it be written. So let it be done.” All I could think of was Recess.

King Bob we have just the movie newsletter for you! (Source)

• Prince Moses grows up to become a successful general, winning a war with Ethiopia and establishing an alliance. Moses and Nefretiri fall in love, but she must marry the next Pharaoh to preserve the royal line. 

  • Tyler: It was at this point that I became confused about who was who and how everyone was related (literally and figuratively). Absent a family tree, it also does not help that Moses falls for someone who looks just like his mother (Oedipus alert!) and the Seti’s and Rameses’ running around.

• While working on the building of a city for Pharaoh Seti I's jubilee, projected on what look like the world’s first green screens², Moses meets the stonecutter Joshua, who tells him of the Hebrew God. Moses saves an elderly woman from being crushed, not knowing that she is his biological mother, Yochabel, and he reprimands the taskmaster and overseer Baka. We also meet Baka’s Hebrew stooge, Dathan, who is obsessed with Lilia, who in turn is in love with Joshua.

  • Tyler: I understand that (light spoiler) Joshua in particular plays a role at the very end, but I found this little love triangle to be generally unnecessary and something that could’ve been removed from the script to cut down on the runtime.

When the Engineering hits (Source)

• Moses reforms the treatment of slaves on the project, but Prince Rameses, Moses's adoptive brother and Seti's son, charges him with planning an insurrection. Moses says he is making his workers more productive, making Rameses wonder if Moses is the man the Hebrews are calling the Deliverer. Compounding his mistrust of Moses is Nefretiri’s very obvious preference for him over Rameses.

You better WORK! (Source)

• Nefretiri learns from Memnet that Moses is the son of Hebrew slaves. She kills Memnet, but reveals the story to Moses after he finds the piece of Levite cloth he was wrapped in as a baby, which Memnet had kept. Moses follows Bithiah to Yochabel's house, where he meets his biological mother, brother Aaron, and sister Miriam.

  • Tyler: Nefretiri is so hilariously thirsty for Moses that she admits she killed for him almost immediately.

  • Ellen: Truly under the pressure of just a single follow-up question.

• Moses learns more about the slaves by working with them. Nefretiri urges him to return to the palace, so that he may help his people when he becomes pharaoh, to which he agrees after he completes a final task. Moses saves Joshua from death by killing Baka, telling Joshua that he, too, is Hebrew. The confession is witnessed by the Hebrew overseer Dathan, who then reports to Prince Rameses. After being arrested, Moses explains that he is not the Deliverer, but would free the slaves if he could. Seti I declares Prince Rameses his sole heir, and Rameses banishes Moses to the desert.

  • Ellen: I first noticed this in Ben-Hur, but Charlton Heston, particularly in dramatic moments, says his lines through a really clenched jaw, and I’ve decided I hate it.

• Moses makes his way across the desert to a well in Midian. After defending seven sisters from Amalekites, Moses is housed with the girls' father Jethro, a Bedouin sheik, who worships the God of Abraham. Moses marries Jethro's eldest daughter Sephora. Later, he finds Joshua, who has escaped from the hard labor imposed on the Hebrews in Egypt. While herding, Moses sees the burning bush on the summit of Mount Sinai and hears the voice of God. Moses returns to Egypt to free the Hebrews.

  • Tyler: The level of boy craziness that these seven sisters show is comical and borderline annoying. Why is this movie trying so hard to convince us that Moses (Moses!) is hot?

  • Ellen: More people would watch the first half if they understood the quantity and quality of abs. Moses, Rameses, and Joshua: we salute you!

‘Sup, cutie, you exiled?? (Source)

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Intermission

Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”

This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … Exhaustion!

Are you trying to build a new city to celebrate the Pharaoh? Or fighting an unjust war in Vietnam? Perhaps the pressures of being the reincarnation of the goddess Isis and arriving in Rome are too much, your childhood friend is trying to take over your town, or the guy you rescued from certain death on The Sun’s Anvil just murdered a dude. Or, just maybe, you’ve been watching 3+ hour movies all summer long!

Running to the bathroom at intermission (Source)

Exhaustion may be the answer! Take a load off, lay down your sword, and call it a day!

You’ve been working hard, and let’s face it: you’re exhausted!

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• Moses comes before Rameses, now Pharaoh Rameses II, to win the slaves' freedom, turning his staff into a cobra. Jannes performs the same trick with his staves, but Moses's snake swallows his. Rameses prohibits straw from being provided to the Hebrews to make their bricks. Nefretiri rescues Moses from being stoned to death by the Hebrews wherein he reveals that he is married.

• Egypt is visited by plagues. Moses turns the river Nile to blood at a festival of Khnum, and brings burning hail down upon Pharaoh's palace.

  • Ellen: The time it took you to read that bullet is almost the full amount of time The Ten Commandments devotes to Plagues 2 - 8.

• Moses warns him that the next plague to fall upon Egypt will be summoned by Pharaoh himself. Enraged at the plagues, Rameses orders that all first-born male Hebrews will die, but a cloud of death instead kills all the first-born of Egypt, including the child of Rameses and Nefretiri. Despairing at the loss of his heir, Pharaoh exiles the Hebrews, who begin the Exodus from Egypt.

  • Ellen: The movie does a really good job of portraying how dang scary the first Passover must have been.

  • Tyler: Right?! This movie/story has no chill with killing both adults and children.

Turning water into wine blood (Source)

• After being taunted by Nefretiri, because she still doesn’t like him and, you know, her son is dead, Rameses takes his chariots and pursues the Hebrews to the Red Sea. Moses uses God's help to stop the Egyptians with a pillar of fire³, and parts the Red Sea. After the Hebrews make it to safety, Moses releases the walls of water, drowning the Egyptian army. A devastated Rameses returns empty-handed to Nefretiri, stating that he now acknowledges Moses's god as God.

  • Tyler: Rameses is a butthead but I do give him props for finally admitting defeat.

Commeth at me, bro (Source)

• Moses again ascends the mountain with Joshua. He sees the Ten Commandments created by God in two stone tablets. Meanwhile, an impatient Dathan tells the people that Moses is dead and urges a reluctant Aaron to construct a golden calf idol. A wild saturnalia occurs and a decadent orgy is held by most of the Hebrews.

  • Ellen: If you’ve read this story in the Bible a bunch of times and you’re like me, you’re perplexed as to what the Hebrews are doing. The movie again does a good job of showing the pressures and tribulations they’ve been through, and at that point, it’s not hard to believe Moses might be dead.

• After God informs Moses of the Hebrews fallen into debauchery, the latter descends from the mountain with Joshua. Enraged at the sight of decadence, he deems the Hebrews unworthy, and smashes the tablets at the golden calf, which explodes, killing Dathan and the wicked revelers, and causing the others to wander in the wilderness for forty years. An elderly Moses later leads the Hebrews towards Canaan. However, he cannot enter the Promised Land due to a mentioned previous disobedience to the Lord. He instead names Joshua as leader, and bids farewell to the Hebrews at Mount Nebo.

  • Tyler: With the brief reference of the Ark of the Covenant, we’ve officially come full circle from our first ILTBTA post!

Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?

Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.

The Ten Commandments’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:

• The Ten Commandments is based on several novels, various ancient historical texts, and, ya know, The Bible. It is also a remake of a 1923 silent movie of the same name also directed by Cecil B. DeMille. In the 1923 version (the entirety of which is available to watch for free), the story is split into two parts: The Prologue, which depicts the story of the Exodus, and The Story, which focuses on a modern story about two brothers. Some sets and props were later used in the 1956 version.

  • Ellen: Cecil was like “reduce, reuse, recycle, baby!”

• Charlton Heston won the role of Moses after impressing DeMille at his audition with his knowledge of ancient Egypt and his (apparent) resemblance to Michaelangelo’s sculpture of Moses. DeMille originally offered the part to Hopalong Cassidy star William Boyd, hoping for an older actor to play Moses, but Boyd thought his cowboy fame would distract from the role.

  • Tyler: I added the second sentence there solely so I could make a note that Wikipedia uses the very fun word “quinquagenarian” to describe William Boyd.

  • Ellen: We can’t let the octogenarians in the Senate have all the fun!

• Two other fun Heston casting tidbits: he provided the voice for God at the burning bush and his three-month-old son Fraser played Baby Moses.

• DeMille cast Russian actor Yul Brynner as Rameses II after seeing him in the Broadway musical The King and I. Brynner played King Mongkut in the play 4,625 times on stage, winning two Tonys and later an Oscar for the film adaptation. He also shaved his head for the role, a look that became his personal trademark thereafter.

When you realize you done messed up (Source)

• Edward G. Robinson, our friend from both The Racket and Double Indemnity, had been essentially blacklisted (Wikipedia calls it “greylisting” since he still starred in some smaller movies) due to some extremely tenuous Communist connections from the 30s and 40s. He credits DeMille’s casting of him as Dathan for returning him to films and restoring his self-respect.

• Several actresses were considered for the role of Memnet (including our Jezebel friend Bette Davis), but Judith Anderson was eventually given the part after Demille saw her performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca.

  • Tyler: My comment in The Spreadsheet for Rebecca mentions how creepy Anderson’s character was, so it’s nice to see her pop up again in a slightly less creepy role.

• Costume designer Arnold Friberg apparently designed Moses’ red-white-and-black robe because he thought it looked impressive, not realizing that they are the actual colors of the Tribe of Levi. Friberg was gifted the robe at the end of production.

• The parting of the Red Sea was considered one of the most difficult special effects ever performed at the time, taking about six months of filming. The scene involved combining shots from several different places, including the shores of the actual Red Sea in Egypt, a 360,000-gallon tank built in Paramount Studios in Hollywood, and a giant waterfall also built on the Paramount lot. To achieve the parting itself, release of water from the giant tank (which was split by a U-shaped trough) was filmed and run in reverse to give the appearance that the water was running upwards.

Following a tall person through a crowd (Source)

• To help promote the film, Demille devised a publicity stunt in which monuments showing the Ten Commandments would be placed in public places like parks and courthouses around the country. Decades later, though, some started to question their constitutionality.

Fill In The Blank

How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?

Ellen: I’d like to carve some suggestions for The Academy, but remind them they’re doing great, sweetie. While I thought I’d seen this several times, I think I’d really only seen the last 10 minutes. This movie managed to bring to life stories I’ve grown up with, and incorporated some really interesting characters to boot… in the first half. The latter part of the movie’s plot is much more rote by comparison, even though it incorporates a lot of the impressive effects that have made it stand the test of time. I’ve really come to be annoyed by Charlton Heston, but otherwise I thought the cast did a great job with a hefty story. This movie also suffered somewhat by being at the end of a parade of five very long movies, so I’m relieved to be done!

Tyler: I’d like to carefully swaddle The Academy and then send it gently down The Nile never to be seen again. I totally agree with you that the first half does a much better job of keeping things interesting, and the second half just slams on the brakes in terms of … everything. I know it’s technically true to the story, but Moses becomes a single-minded prophet and less of a three-dimensional character. Charlton Heston reflects this quite well, actually, since he becomes pretty dead-behind-the-eyes once he speaks to God. And, like, I get why, but it doesn’t necessarily make for good entertainment.

Now that we’re officially done with our Summer of Sweat epics, how would you rank them? I think I’d go:

1. Lawrence of Arabia

2. Born on the Fourth of July

3. The Ten Commandments

4. Ben-Hur

5. Cleopatra

Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur are kind of in their own “flawed and overstuffed Biblical epic” tier, with Lawrence of Arabia and Cleopatra as my clear top and lowest rated movies, respectively.

Ellen: This is boring, but I’m in agreement!

Tyler: #marriagegoals

Let The Credits Roll

Thanks for reading! Some quick housekeeping as you exit the theatre:

• If you have plots and feelings of your own (on the movie or ILTBTA in general), feel free to comment on the post or simply reply to the email. If you liked reading this: tell your friends! If you hated reading this: tell your friends how much you hated it by forwarding it to them!

• If you’re a weirdo like Tyler and use the social media site formerly known as Twitter, feel free to follow us there @BlankTheAcademy for ILTBTA updates, rejected jokes, and other random movie-related musings. Once we reach a million followers, we’ll offer to purchase the @ILTBTA handle from the butthead who snagged it before us.

• ILTBTA is also on Letterboxd, the social networking site for movie fans. Follow us there to read our Spreadsheet comments of our ILTBTA movies, plus our ratings of other movies we watch!

• If you’d like to start a wild Best Picture journey of your own, feel free to download a copy of The Spreadsheet. Bonus: checking off the boxes is oddly satisfying.

Post-Credits Scene

Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.

As we bid adieu to ILTBTA’s Summer of Sweat, we decided we’ve earned ourselves a break from epic movies (for now). So our next ILTBTA post will be the first in a three-part series on The Lord of the Rings franchise on the 1936 musical comedy Three Smart Girls. Did we Google “shortest Best Picture nominees” and just pick the first one we saw? Maybe, but we’re focusing more on the fact that Three Smart Girls, a movie about three sisters trying to prevent their father from remarrying, is fully one-third the length of Cleopatra. Three Smart Girls is available to rent from all the usual places (except Netflix).

Until then, so it was written … we are so done!

Ending the Summer of Sweat (Source)

1. From Genesis 1:2

2. Back then, they actually used blue screens.

3. Sounds like my ex-wife!