The Ten Commandments (1956 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The Ten Commandments is a 1956 motion picture that dramatized the story of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince-turned deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. It was released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5, 1956. It was directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starred Charlton Heston in the lead role. Co-stars included Yul Brynner as his adoptive brother, Pharaoh Ramesses II, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, John Derek as Joshua, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Cedric Hardwicke as Pharaoh Seti I, Vincent Price as Baka, and John Carradine as Aaron.
This was the last film that Cecil DeMille directed. He was set to direct his own remake of The Buccaneer, but his final illness forced him to relinquish the directing chores for that one to his then-son-in-law, Anthony Quinn. He had also planned to film the life of Lord Baden Powell, the founder of the Scout movement, with David Niven; this project was never realized.
The Ten Commandments is partially a remake of DeMille's 1923 silent film. Some of the cast and crew of the 1956 version worked on the original. It has since been remade again as a television miniseries broadcast in April 2006.
Adjusted for inflation, it is the fifth-highest grossing movie of all time domestically, with collections of $838,400,000. In non-adjusted dollars, it held the record as the highest-grossing film with a religious theme until the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.
In 1999, The Ten Commandments was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "epics" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. The Ten Commandments was acknowledged as the tenth best film in the epic genre.
Contents |
Plot summary
The film covers the life of Moses from his birth to his prohibition from entering the land of Israel after his disobedience at the waters of Meribah. The film focuses on the the early adulthood of Moses as a beloved foster son of Pharaoh Seti I (brother of Bithiah) and general of his armies, his romance with Throne Princess Nefretiri and rivalry with the Pharaoh's own son, Prince Rameses II.
Shortly after Moses' birth, Rameses I responded to an astrological forecast indicating the birth of a Hebrew "Deliverer by ordering the slaying of all firstborn male Hebrews. Moses' mother Yoshebel sets him adrift in a basket on the Nile. Egyptian princess Bithiah, a childless widow, discovers the basket on the banks of the Nile, showing her servant Memnet the baby wrapped in blankets with a Levite design. Memnet objects, but Bithiah insists on adopting the child, swearing Memnet to silence. Memnet agrees, but hides the cloth.
As a young general, Moses is victorious in a war with the Nubian people of ancient Ethiopia, and is then charged with building a treasure city (probably the Biblical treasure cities of Pithom and Ramases (Avaris)) for Seti's Jubilee. Rameses has failed to complete this work and blames the Hebrew slaves.
Moses and Nefretiri are deeply in love; she is the "throne princess", who must marry the next Pharaoh. Rameses has ambitions for the throne, but Nefretiri hates him.
When Moses assumes control of the project, he meets stonecutter Joshua who tells him about the nameless God of Abraham worshipped by the slaves. Criticizing master builder Baka (Vincent Price) about the slaves' mistreatment, Moses institutes numerous reforms. Rameses, meanwhile, has been charged by his father to discover out if there really is a Hebrew fitting the description of the Deliverer, and is having no luck.
Nefretiri joyously prepares for marriage, but Memnet informs her of Moses' true parentage, showing her the Levite cloth. Furious and terrified, Nefretiri kills Memnet. Moses learns of this and tracks down Yoshebel, who tells him the truth.
Declaring he is not ashamed ("Egyptian or Hebrew, I'm still Moses"), but curious, he spends time working among the slaves to learn of their hardship. He discovers Baka about to whip Joshua to death, and kills him. Dathan, the devious and ambitious Hebrew overseer who's been charged by Rameses to help him find the Deliverer, watches from hiding. Moses confesses to Joshua that he himself is Hebrew; Joshua excitedly proclaims Moses the Deliverer, and although Moses denies it, Dathan has all the proof he needs.
Moses is arrested and brought in chains before Seti, who begs him to say he is not the Deliverer. Moses does so, but avows that he would free the slaves if he could. In a short, impassioned speech, Moses says that it is evil to enslave or oppress people, "to be stripped of spirit, and hope and faith, all because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a God, He did not mean this to be so!" Heartbroken, Seti imprisons him and orders his name erased from records, from speech, and from memory -- which in Egypt, amounted not only to death, but to have no life in the hereafter. Rameses banishes Moses to the desert, fearing to execute him lest he create a martyr.
Moses makes his way across the desert, nearly dying of hunger and thirst. At a well in the land of Midian, he passes out and is discovered by seven sisters watering their flocks. He finds a home in Midian with the girls' father Jethro, a Bedouin sheik, who reveals that he is a follower of "He who has no name", the same God worshipped by the Hebrews. Jethro later offers Moses one of his daughters as a wife. Moses chooses the eldest daughter, Sephora.
Back in Egypt, Seti dies heartbroken, with Moses' name on his lips, and Rameses succeeds him as Pharaoh (becoming Rameses II). Moses finds Joshua, who has escaped from hard labour in the copper mines. Moses sees the Burning Bush on the summit of Mount Sinai; climbing up to investigate, he hears the voice of God. Naming himself "I am that I am", God charges Moses to return to Egypt and free His chosen people.
At Pharaoh's court, Moses comes before Rameses to win the slaves' freedom, turning his staff into a snake, but Pharaoh responds with the famous decree that the Hebrews must make bricks without straw. Nefretiri attempts to resume their relationship, but when he reminds her he is not only on a mission from God, but is married, she becomes bitter and vindictive, saying she can soften Pharoah's heart or harden it. Moses says God will work His purpose through Nefretiri (Exodus 7:3).
Egypt is beset by divine plagues. Rameses believes there are natural explanations for all of them, but his advisors as well as the Egyptian people are terrified and beg him to free the slaves. Several times he is on the verge of doing so, but Nefretiri talks him out of it, telling him the kings of other nations are laughing at him.
Rameses orders all first-born Hebrews to die, but Moses says this will unleash the final plague. He confides to Nefretiri that it is her own son who will die. In an eerily quiet scene, the Angel of Death creeps into Egyptian streets in a glowing green cloud, killing all the firstborn of Egypt. The Hebrews, having marked their doorposts and lintels with lamb's blood, are eating a late supper and are prepared to go. Bithiah is released to Moses.
Broken and despondent, Pharaoh orders Moses to take "your people, your cattle, your God and your pestilence" and go. The Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt begins.
Again goaded into rage by Nefretiri, the Pharaoh gathers his armies to chase the former slaves to the shore of the Red Sea. Moses parts the waters ("Behold His mighty hand!") and the Hebrews make it to the far shore just in time to witness God's closing of the waters on the Egyptian army, drowning every man and horse. Rameses returns to Nefretiri, confessing to her, "His god is God."
The former slaves camp at the foot of Sinai and wait as Moses again ascends the mountain. The Hebrews lose faith and, urged on by the evil Dathan, build a golden calf as an idol to bear before them back to Egypt, hoping to win Rameses' forgiveness. Many of the people proceed to indulge their most wanton desires in an orgy of sinfulness, while others stand apart insisting that Moses will return.
Meanwhile, high atop the mountain, Moses witnesses God's creation of the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. When he finally climbs down, Moses beholds his people's iniquity and hurls the tablets at the idol in a rage. The idol explodes, and Dathan and his followers are killed. God forces them to endure forty years' exile in the desert wandering lost to prove their loyalty. Finally as the Hebrews are on the eve of arriving in the land of Canaan, an elderly Moses appoints Joshua to succeed him as leader, says a final goodbye to Sephora, and goes forth to his destiny.
Production and art design
The screenplay was the creation of a committee of writers, headed by J. H. Ingraham (actually a novelist who wrote Pillar of Fire) and A. E. Southon (author of the novel On Eagle's Wings), who were listed as reverends to add credibility to the script. Dorothy Clarke Wilson (writer of Prince of Egypt), Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse Lasky, Jr., Jack Gariss, and Fredric M. Frank also contributed to the adaptation of the three books.
In the commentary for the DVD edition, Katherine Orrison (a protege and biographer of Henry Wilcoxon), describes the historical research that DeMille and associates did at the time. Orrison says that many details of Moses' life which were left out of the Bible are present in the Koran, which was sometimes used as a source. She also describes some coincidences in production; the man who designed Moses' distinctive rust-white-black striped robe used those colors because they looked impressive, and only later discovered that these are the actual colors of the Tribe of Levi. Arnold Friberg would later state that he was the one who designed Moses' costume. As a gift, after the production, DeMille gave Moses' robe to Mr. Friberg who still has it in his possession.
Charlton Heston's newborn son Fraser appeared as the infant Moses. According to Orrison in the DVD commentary, DeMille deliberately timed the filming of his scenes for when Fraser Heston was about three months old. This, and other stories about the making of the film, were related to her by producer/actor Henry Wilcoxon and his wife, Joan Woodbury. Orrison later wrote the book Written in Stone: Making Cecil B. DeMille's Epic, The Ten Commandments.
Jesse Lasky Jr., a co-writer on The Ten Commandments, described how DeMille would customarily spread out prints of Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) paintings to indicate to his set designers the look he wanted to achieve. Artist Arnold Friberg, in addition to designing sets and costumes, also contributed the manner of Moses ordaining Joshua to his mission at the end of the film: hands on Joshua's head. Friberg, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, demonstrated the LDS manner of performing such ordinations, and DeMille liked it.
Pharaoh is usually shown wearing the red-and-white crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. For his pursuit of the Israelites, however, he wears the blue Uraeus helmet-crown, which the Pharaohs wore for battle.
For the original theatrical release of the film, DeMille filmed an onscreen introduction, which was included in home video editions of the film but not the telecasts. In some of his earlier films, DeMille had provided narration, especially at the beginning of the film. This was the only time he was seen as well as heard. He also narrated portions of this film, to provide some continuity between scenes.
Academy Award win and nominations
The parting of the Red Sea won the film its Oscar for Special Effects. DeMille was reluctant to discuss technical details of how the film was made, especially the optical tricks used in the parting. It was eventually revealed that footage of the Red Sea was spliced with film footage (run in reverse) of water pouring from large U-shaped trip-tanks set up in the studio back lot. In the 1923 version of the Ten Commandments by Cecil B. DeMille keeping the walls of water apart while the Israelites walked through was accomplished with a slab of JELL-O(tm) that was sliced in two and filmed close up as it jiggled. This shot was then combined with live-action footage of Israelites walking into the distance, creating a near-perfect illusion.
Aside from winning the Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects, it was also nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color (Hal Pereira, Walter H. Tyler, Albert Nozaki, Samuel M. Comer, Ray Moyer), Best Cinematography, Color, Best Costume Design, Color (Edith Head, Ralph Jester, John Jensen, Dorothy Jeakins and Arnold Friberg), Best Film Editing, Best Picture and Best Sound, Recording.
Popularity
Critics have argued that considerable liberties were taken with the Biblical story, affecting the film's claim to authenticity, but this has had little effect on its popularity. In fact, many of the supposed "inaccuracies" were actually adopted by DeMille from extrabiblical but ancient sources, such as Josephus, the Sepher ha-Yashar, and the Chronicle of Moses. Moses's career in Ethiopia, for instance, is based on ancient midrashim. L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, Philadelphia 1967; A. Shinan, "Moses and the Ethiopian Woman: Sources of a Story in The Chronicle of Moses", Scripta Hierosolymitana 27 (1978). For decades, a showing of The Ten Commandments was a popular fund-raiser among revivalist Christian churches, while the film was equally treasured among film buffs for DeMille's "cast of thousands" approach and the heroic but antiquated silent-screen-type acting. In the United States, the movie has traditionally been shown on television annually since 1973 on ABC around Palm Sunday, Easter, or Passover.
Due to its fame and popularity the film has been parodied quite some times. Heston's version of Moses was spoofed in History of the World, Part I (1982), in which Mel Brooks, playing Moses, brings fifteen commandments, with the extra five written on a third tablet. He drops and breaks the third tablet and hastily says, "Fifteen, er, ten commandments!"
In The Simpsons the film's setting was spoofed at the beginning of the episode Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment. And obviously in the second segment of The Simpsons Bible Stories wherein Millhouse plays the part of Moses, but also briefly in the third segment where Bart Simpson plays David. When Bart is imprisoned, Chief Wiggum mockingly says: "Where's your Messiah now?", a famous line from the Ten Commandments, said by Edward G. Robinson, on whose voice Chief Wiggum's voice is based. In both segments Wiggum has the same outfit as Robinson in the film.
Cast
- Charlton Heston as Moses
- Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Ramesses II
- Anne Baxter as Nefretiri
- Edward G. Robinson as Dathan
- Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora
- Debra Paget as Lilia
- John Derek as Joshua
- Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Pharaoh Seti I
- Nina Foch as Bithiah
- Martha Scott as Yochabel
- Judith Anderson as Memnet
- Vincent Price as Baka
- John Carradine as Aaron
- Douglass Dumbrille as Jannes
- Olive Deering as Miriam
- Mike Connors as Amalekite Herder (under the name Touch Connors)
Other well-known talent in the film's "cast of thousands" included Herb Alpert as a Hebrew drummer, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as a slave, Michael Ansara as an Egyptian taskmaster, Robert Vaughn as a spearman and a Hebrew, Clint Walker as a Sardinian captain and DeMille himself as the film's narrator, all uncredited. In the film's release to theaters (and its subsequent release on home video), DeMille also appeared on screen to introduce the film.
Sets, costumes and props from the film The Egyptian were bought and re-used for this. As the events in The Egyptian take place 70 years before the reign of Rameses II, an unintentional sense of continuity is created. DeMille did not want to cast anyone who had been in The Egyptian, but did accept Michael Ansara (who'd played the Hittite Commander), Mimi Gibson (who'd played Ankhsenpaaten) and John Carradine (who had a cameo as a tomb robber). In addition, the white-clad girl attendants in the court of Pharaoh are played by the same actresses who had these roles in The Egyptian.
An Egyptian wall painting was also the source for the lively dance performed by a circle of young women at Seti's birthday gala. Their movements and costumes are based on art from the Tomb of the Sixth Dynasty Grand Vizier Mehu. The expression "the son of your body" for a biological offspring is based on inscriptions found in Mehu's tomb.
