![]() The film’s diminishment of biblical figures goes far beyond women, unfortunately. The filmmakers’ need to add sexuality to the story is also a bit off-putting, since it gives the movie that classic Hollywood appeal at the cost of distracting viewers from the core storyline. While extending the role of women in this story may add some important layers to it, boxing them into two narrow categories diminishes the impact that they can possibly have. I’ve grappled with the film’s takes on femininity for a while. ![]() And of course, Zipporah (Yvonne De Carlo) strikes a balance between these two categories of womanhood, increasing her status as the ideal woman for the epic’s protagonist. Meanwhile, Lilia’s and Nefertiri’s sexual appeal serves as their defining characteristic. Motherhood is represented by Bithia and Yochabel, whose love for Moses spills out in powerful but often melodramatic scenes. Why does this Jewish story, already filled with so many heart-wrenching and dramatic twists and turns, need exaggerating? And which of its aspects did the filmmakers think were lacking?Īs I progressed into adolescence, I began to notice that the movie incorporated many of its own additions of femininity into the story, found in two principal forms: the mother and the temptress. While I understand that art often necessitates originality, these deviations made me curious. There is no mention of Nefertiri in the original biblical story, Lilia is purely fictional and the circumstances behind the harrowing reunion between Moses and his mother were just the writers’ imagination.Īs I looked further into the film and compared it with what I knew to be biblically accurate, I found that its departures from the text were endless. So imagine my disappointment when, at 8 years old, I found out in Hebrew school that none of these events are true to the Exodus story in the Bible, with some of these characters not in there at all. All of these storylines were, to me, just as much the heart of the movie as Moses standing atop Mount Sinai. I cried as Moses finally reunited with his mother, Yochabel (Martha Scott). I teetered at the edge of my seat when Lilia (Debra Paget) falls into Dathan’s (Edward G. ![]() I obsessed over Anne Baxter’s Nefertiri’s elaborate gowns and ever-charming demeanor. The first time, my eyes lit up in wonder as I watched Charlton-Heston-as-Moses perform miracles on the screen - it seemed like this man could do anything, from turning water into blood to parting the sea to speaking to God through a burning bush.Īs a couple of years passed by and watching the film became an annual tradition, I began to find similar wonder in the movie’s more tangential storylines. It was my first real introduction to the story of the Exodus. Since I was 5 years old, I remember gathering with my family every year before the beginning of Passover and watching “The Ten Commandments” on cable television. ![]()
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