The Ten Commandments (1956 movie)
This article is about the 1956 film. For the Biblical phenomenon, please see Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments is a 1956 epic film which tells the Bible Exodus story of Moses as he struggled to get Pharaoh Ramses to let the Israelites leave Egypt and the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.
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 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It held the record as the highest-grossing film with a religious storyline until the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.
The movie stars Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Paget, John Derek, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nina Foch, Martha Scott, Dame Judith Anderson, Vincent Price and John Carradine.
It was adapted by Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse Lasky Jr., Jack Gariss and Fredric M. Frank from the J.H. Ingraham novel Pillar of Fire, the A.E. Southon novel On Eagle's Wings and the Dorothy Clarke Wilson novel Prince of Egypt. It was directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
It won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects and was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color, 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.
DeMille had previously made the film in a silent 1923 version, starring Theodore Roberts, Charles de Rochefort, Estelle Taylor, Julia Faye, Terrence Moore and James Neill. It was adapted by Jeanie Macpherson.
One legacy of the movie are scores of public displays or monuments of the Ten Commandments that DeMille paid to be erected around the country as a publicity stunt. Known as decalogues, the displays were set up by the group Fraternal Order of Eagles, sometimes in or near government buildings, and several have been involved in court battles over whether they violate the US Constitution's 1st Amendment.
Famous quotes
The screenplay was the creation of a committee of writers, headed by "Rev." J. H. Ingraham (actually a novelist who wrote Pillar of Fire) and "Rev." A.E. Southon (actually the novelist of On Eagle's Wing), who were listed as Reverends to add to credibility for the heroic, sometimes fatally overblown, script, for which Dorothy Clarke Wilson, Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse Lasky Jr., Jack Gariss, Fredric M. Frank are also responsible.
- "Better to die in battle with a God than to live in shame".
- "So let it be written, So let it be done."
- "Oh Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!" (Anne Baxter as Princess Nefertiri to Yul Brynner as Moses)
