{"id":6460,"date":"1999-01-03T08:43:22","date_gmt":"1999-01-03T16:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=6460"},"modified":"2013-11-28T09:55:39","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T17:55:39","slug":"moses-movies-have-their-own-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/1999\/01\/moses-movies-have-their-own-history.html","title":{"rendered":"Moses movies have their own history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>THEY\u2019VE BEEN making films about Moses since at least 1907, when the Path\u00e9 studio in France released Moses et l\u2019Exode de l\u2019Egypte<\/a><\/i>. The Vitagraph company in America followed suit with J. Stuart Blackton\u2019s five-part The Life of Moses<\/a><\/i>, released between 1909 and 1910. Moses has popped up in movies ever since, from the all-black cast of The Green Pastures<\/a><\/i> (1936), starring Rex Ingram as \u2018de Lawd,\u2019 to Mel Brooks\u2019 randy satire History of the World Part I<\/a><\/i> (1981).<\/p>\n

And then there are the feature-length films:<\/p>\n

\u0095 The Ten Commandments<\/a><\/b> (1923). The Exodus takes up only the first half of Cecil B. DeMille\u2019s silent flick, but it\u2019s worth seeing just for that. Inspired by the 1922 discovery of King Tut\u2019s tomb, it also boasts some of the earliest Technicolor photography and special effects that are impressive even today for their low-tech ingenuity. The film\u2019s second half is a laughably heavy-handed morality tale meant to show the relevance of God\u2019s laws to the Jazz Age: if you tell a lie, your mother may die in a freak construction accident, that sort of thing. \u201cLaugh at the Ten Commandments all you want, Danny \u2014 but they pack an awful wallop!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u0095 The Ten Commandments<\/a><\/b> (1956). DeMille\u2019s last film as director is more concerned with American political ideals during the Cold War than with anything particularly biblical. Still, it\u2019s got a great cast, a superb score, spectacular cinematography and award-winning special effects. Even though it packs its nearly four-hour length with some of the most overwrought dialogue in film history, it never gets boring; in fact, it\u2019s quite fun, in a campy sort of way. Charlton Heston was cast in the lead because his profile resembled that of Michelangelo\u2019s Moses; all things considered, he plays the part of a statue rather well.<\/p>\n

\u0095 Moses<\/a><\/b> (1975). Easily the worst of the bunch, as far as production values go, but director Gianfranco DeBosio does stick closer to the Bible than DeMille ever did, and he makes a point of highlighting some of the more troubling aspects of Moses\u2019 career, such as the death sentence he gave to a man caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Condensed from the TV mini-series Moses: The Lawgiver<\/i>, it was produced by Vincenzo Labella and co-written by Anthony Burgess, who later collaborated on the more successful Jesus of Nazareth<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u0095 Wholly Moses<\/a><\/b> (1980). In the wake of Monty Python\u2019s Life of Brian<\/a><\/i> came this American spoof of that other biblical narrative. By all accounts a lacklustre effort, it stars Dudley Moore as a Hebrew prophet named Herschel, Richard Pryor as the Pharaoh and John Ritter as Satan. Hard to find on video, but why bother trying?<\/p>\n

\u0095 Moses<\/a><\/b> (1996). The most human and compelling portrayal of Moses to date. Ben Kingsley delivers a wonderfully warm, complex, and ultimately ecstatic performance in the title role, wrestling with his doubts when God\u2019s plans seem to fail and laughing with joy when they succeed, as when God parts the Red Sea and appears before the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. One of the best films yet from the producers of \u2018The Bible Collection<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 A version of this article was first published in <\/i>BC Christian News.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THEY\u2019VE BEEN making films about Moses since at least 1907, when the Path\u00e9 studio in France released Moses et l\u2019Exode de l\u2019Egypte. The Vitagraph company in America followed suit with J. Stuart Blackton\u2019s five-part The Life of Moses, released between 1909 and 1910. Moses has popped up in movies ever since, from the all-black cast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,1650],"tags":[795,227,420,906,786,787,877,790,342,502,874,792,425,421,794,796],"class_list":["post-6460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bcchristiannews","category-bible-movies","tag-anthony-burgess","tag-ben-kingsley","tag-cecil-b-demille","tag-gianfranco-debosio","tag-green-pastures","tag-history-of-the-world-part-i","tag-life-of-moses","tag-mel-brooks","tag-moses","tag-moses-1995","tag-moses-et-lexode-de-legypte","tag-moses-the-lawgiver","tag-ten-commandments-1923","tag-ten-commandments-1956","tag-vincenzo-labella","tag-wholly-moses"],"yoast_head":"\nMoses movies have their own history<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THEY'VE BEEN making films about Moses since at least 1907, when the Path\u00e9 studio in France released Moses et l'Exode de l'Egypte. 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