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Ten commandments movie 192311/29/2022 ![]() ![]() Me on TV ( The Passion: Films Faith and Fury).Me on TV ( The Passion: Films and Religion).Me in Print ( The Bible in Motion (2016)).Me in Print ( Companion to the Bible and Film (2018)).Me in Print ( Bible Onscreen in the New Millennium (2020)).Me in Print ( Handbook to Jesus and Film (2021)).My 1st solo book ( 100 Bible Films (BFI) (2022)).A version of this article first appeared in ChristianCurrent. But in its own way, the mini-series affirms DeMille’s message, that the commandments are not lightly dismissed. It’s not exactly the most inspiring version of the story so far. One of Moses’ friends commits adultery, then murder, and then he lies to cover up his sin - and once he is exposed, he has to be punished, even though Moses is very aware of his own guilt in some of these areas. This time, the necessity of the moral law is communicated through characters who fail to live up to it. Since then, there have been a few other movies and TV shows about Moses and the Exodus, but it wasn’t until this year that Hallmark Entertainment and the ABC network produced another film bearing the title The Ten Commandments.īroadcast in mid-April, the two-part mini-series fleshes out some of the biblical material that DeMille left out, such as the Hebrews’ war against the Amalekites and while this movie depicts the miracles through which God delivered the Israelites, it also emphasizes the sorrow that Moses (Dougray Scott) feels over the deaths of his Egyptian friends and the violence through which the Israelites must defend and discipline themselves. Raised as an Egyptian prince, Moses is a just and virtuous leader who voluntarily gives the slaves under his command a day of rest but Rameses (Yul Brynner), his rival for the throne, is a selfish tyrant who brings ruin down on his nation. This time, DeMille communicates the universality of the Ten Commandments by showing how Moses (Charlton Heston) intuitively obeys them long before God spells them out from a pillar of fire. Moses’ relationship with Jethro is also tweaked in a way that comments on Arab-Israeli relations at that time. In a personal introduction to the film, DeMille alludes to the Cold War and says the theme of his film is the ongoing battle between freedom and dictatorship. The 1956 film is set entirely in the ancient world, but it still addressed contemporary issues. DeMille critiques modern atheism, but he also questions the mother’s harsh religious fundamentalism it is her other son, a carpenter, who strikes a better balance between truth and love. The second part of the film concerns a Christian woman and her two sons, one of whom is tired of her Bible stories he says all that stuff died with Queen Victoria, so he vows to break all ten commandments - and in the end, he suffers the consequences. The prologue is basically a spectactularly illustrated Sunday School lesson, with impressive special effects and some of the earliest Technicolor footage on record plus, at the time, it capitalized on the public’s thirst for all things Egyptian, following the recent discovery of King Tut’s tomb. The 1923 film is divided into two parts: a prologue which tells the story of the Exodus and the golden calf, and a morality play set in the “modern” era. DeMille, who, when signing autographs, reportedly told his fans, “If you break the Ten Commandments, they will break you.” DeMille believed that the Ten Commandments embodied a universal set of moral principles that people disobeyed at their peril, and both films transmit this belief in ways that reflect their times. ![]() The first two discs are identical to a “ special edition” of the 1956 version that was released two years ago but the third disc marks the first time that the 1923 version has ever been released on DVD.īoth movies were directed by Cecil B. Marking the remake’s 50th anniversary, both films have been combined in a three-disc package. ![]()
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