![](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/715\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-yhY7f6TijX4\/UWCyZOPrZLI\/AAAAAAAAFAw\/pH5HHAlUcpk\/s1600\/170px-DeMilleTenCommandmentsDVDcover.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nNot just the ones from the Bible, brought to us in various forms (depending on your faith tradition) throughout the centuries and the bedrock upon which Western morality was imagined in the Christian era. \u00a0Nope, I mean The Ten Commandments<\/i>, the one, the only, the version that sticks in your mind despite all the knowledge you have indicating that Moses would not look like Charlton Heston. \u00a0Fact is, once you see this film, he will forever look like Charlton Heston, no matter how many Middle Eastern, Arabic, Palestinian, Egyptian or African\u00a0portrayals\u00a0Hollywood can muster.<\/p>\n
The biggest blockbuster of the 1950s, and the first movie to give Gone With the Wind<\/i> a run for the money, DeMille\u2019s TTC is Hollywood splendor at its best. \u00a0I know, we tend to chuckle at the acting style, the dialogue, the pomp and\u00a0pageantry, as we do to anything produced before 1998. \u00a0We lament and mourn the bloated love story and interpolations that are added to\u00a0appease\u00a0a post-war WASP audience\u00a0increasingly\u00a0glued to the one eyed monster of the modern living room.<\/p>\n
And yet, I\u2019m not so sure those criticisms are fair, or even true. \u00a0Yes, DeMille\u2019s\u00a0farewell masterpiece was a product of the era, as are our films. \u00a0As are any films or artistic endeavors. \u00a0But let\u2019s take a longer look, and see why I get as much of a spiritual jolt from this product of Hollywood dream manufacturing as I did from The Passion \u00a0of the Christ<\/i>, Jesus of\u00a0Nazareth<\/i>\u00a0 or any other attempt by Hollywood to show me what the real Ten Commandments or any other biblical story really would have looked like.<\/p>\n First, the criticisms. \u00a0The\u00a0main one for anyone schooled in the biblical narrative is that there are plenty of additions that have nothing to do with the history. \u00a0Careful now, some \u2013 such as Moses and his Ethiopian campaign \u2013 come to us from ancient sources and traditions, not unlike those traditions we Christians have (such as the three wise men versus just a bunch of Magi as it\u2019s written in the Scriptures). \u00a0DeMille says he consulted other ancient texts than \u2018The Holy Scriptures\u2019, and he appears to have done just that.<\/p>\n Of course not all of the characters or\u00a0story lines\u00a0are from anything other than the screenplay writer\u2019s mind. \u00a0The love story, the relational\u00a0embellishments, the added fictional characters are a bit like the\u00a0love story\u00a0of Cameron\u2019s Titanic<\/i>. \u00a0But here\u2019s a big difference. \u00a0To me, there is actually a point to be made from all of the Commandment\u2019s additions. \u00a0Cameron uses his\u00a0fictional\u00a0characters to drive home the point of \u2018bad evil rich people\/good\u00a0beautiful\u00a0not-rich non-conformists\u2019. \u00a0DeMille uses it to gradually bring into the\u00a0story line\u00a0the idea of God\u2019s working in history,\u00a0despite\u00a0everything going on in the world. \u00a0Despite our day to day living, our going to the fields and coming from them, or grand and selfish plans, God Himself has a plan long before we realize it. \u00a0When we\u2019re out there, seeing life being what happens while we\u2019re busy making other plans, God is ahead of the pack, ahead of the game. <\/p>\n And so first off, one of the reasons I like TTC is\u00a0precisely\u00a0because of the buildup, the love story, the\u00a0embellished\u00a0relationships. \u00a0It wouldn\u2019t take much to make this a non-biblical fictional narrative set in ancient Egypt. \u00a0And yet, add the biblical narrative, and the entire theme of the movie goes right, and can\u2019t be imagined without it. \u00a0I\u2019d like to think that\u2019s what happens in our lives when we\u00a0behave\u00a0and actually listen to God: the narrative of our lives is suddenly altered, and no longer can we imagine it without\u00a0God, even though we may have imagined it that way earlier.<\/p>\n If anything bothers me about the alterations, it\u2019s that DeMille lets God off the hook. \u00a0It isn\u2019t God who sends the worst plague, but it is\u00a0Pharaoh\u00a0who decrees the plague on the first born; God is seen almost childishly turning\u00a0Pharaoh\u2019s\u00a0words around, rather than being the source of the plague. \u00a0Likewise, it isn\u2019t God who hardens\u00a0Pharaoh\u2019s\u00a0heart, it\u2019s that rascally\u00a0and randy\u00a0Nefertiti.\u00a0 \u00a0She hardens it through her woman\u2019s ways. \u00a0Again, a slight but nonetheless important part of the Christian and Jewish narrative:\u00a0Pharaoh\u2019s\u00a0heart was hardened precisely because God hardened it. \u00a0Something Paul reflects on in his letter to the Romans. \u00a0Something that has caused believers to reflect on for eons. \u00a0But with everything else he was working through, I suppose it was just one extra thing DeMille\u00a0didn\u2019t\u2019 want to grapple with.<\/p>\n Another thing I love comes from DeMille\u2019s legendary Cast of Thousands. \u00a0With no CGI, he manages to build sets and assemble an army of extras that could invade a city and shame most modern productions. \u00a0And though he is overseeing it all, keeping it all from spiraling out of control, he makes sure we see the little things, the small stories. \u00a0In the high point of the movie for me, the day of the Hebrews\u2019 freedom, DeMille mixes the grand, sweeping, almost boastful view of endless thousands of extras and props, with periodic looks at the little things:\u00a0children\u00a0trying to move a stubborn mule, a camel\u00a0nibbling\u00a0on a bunch of straw, the birth of a baby, a couple suddenly clasping hands as they march to freedom, an old man turning his fig tree over to be planted in the promised land he will never see. \u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0beautiful,\u00a0 and a reminder for those of us who beat each other over our opinions on the grand movements of history, most of which we will never have any say over, just how important those small times are. \u00a0For it\u2019s our small times we tend to remember, and can control. \u00a0God will get us to the big finish line. \u00a0Let\u2019s not forget the small times along the way.<\/p>\n The\u00a0miracle scenes are, of course, cutting edge for their day. \u00a0And in fact, it wouldn\u2019t be until the recent era that we could hope to surpass them. \u00a0Listed among anyone\u2019s top ten scenes in cinematic history list is the splitting of the Red Sea. \u00a0Never one to mince with scholarly dispute, DeMille\u00a0delivers\u00a0it in the most\u00a0spectacular\u00a0way\u00a0imaginable. As he does with everything else: the burning bush,\u00a0the\u00a0various plagues, the visions of Mt. Sinai. \u00a0It\u2019s all straight out of Sunday School and\u00a0Renaissance\u00a0art. \u00a0Nothing scientific. \u00a0None of the minimalist bare nature approach that imagines later biblical writers rewrote the events to make a\u00a0spiritual\u00a0point. \u00a0This is straight from the belief that our religion is the result of revelation, not\u00a0inspiration\u00a0 \u00a0And the miracles are not some\u00a0subtle \u2018strain your eyes\u00a0with\u00a0faith and you might be able to see the divine.\u2019 \u00a0Nope, these are flat out \u2018here\u2019s a miracle people!\u2019 \u00a0And if we must grapple with the question of unbelief in the face of such awesome demonstrations of God\u2019s power, we need only remember the punchline to the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus: if they don\u2019t believe Moses and the Prophets, a man sent back from the dead won\u2019t convince them either. \u00a0Which is why the pitfall of \u2018prove God\u2019 is an exercise in futility. \u00a0Edward G. Robinson\u2019s\u00a0dutifully\u00a0sleazy Dathan could care less what he saw. \u00a0All the grand miracles were merely\u00a0obstacles\u00a0to his selfish agendas. \u00a0As they always are to those who refuse to believe.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n