The Ten Commandments (1956): 10 Incredible Lines/Scenes From The Classic Movie

Commentary, Top 10 List 2 comments

It’s Easter season, also known to many as Feast of Feasts, Resurrection (of Jesus Christ) Sunday, Great and Holy Pascha, Wielka Niedziela, and Solemnity of Solemnities, among other terms.

For many, it is a chance to wear their best and most colorful Sunday suits and dresses, while for others, it’s their annual (and possibly, only) visit to their local and/or favorite church. School is out, people are off work on the Friday or the Monday after. Great dinners are prepared, and children are going over their lines one last time for the annual Easter program, if they haven’t already done it the week prior. Lord knows, I remember MY classic, embarrassing performance.

In addition to the capacity-filled worship services around the world, many enjoy the television programming leading up to the sacred day. Among these are all of the wonderful cartoons, in addition to The Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and religious holiday classics like Ben-Hur (another Heston movie) and my personal favorite, Barabbas (starring Anthony Quinn – the story of the thief freed in place of Jesus at the request of the people).

But the most popular of them all is Cecil B. DeMille’s timeless 1956 masterpiece, The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston (Moses), Yul Brynner (Rameses), Anne Baxter (Nefretiri), Edward G. Robinson (Dathan), Yvonne De Carlo (Sephora), John Derek (Joshua) and a strong cast of others.

We all love The Ten Commandments, laden with dramatic scenes, majestic sets, strong direction & cinematography, and memorable lines that some quote with the same energy as some of the over-acting performers who originally delivered them. In fact, some of the melodramatic scenes/poses are straight-up laughable. It used at least 14,000 extras and 15,000 animals and contained 70 different speaking parts.

Yes, yes, I know that the movie deviates greatly from the contents of the Book of Exodus, but ya gotta give it to DeMille for putting together an awesome flick!

Anyway, Year after year, I keep meaning to post this, but this time, I finally committed to sitting down and watching it, just to collect my favorite moments (and I didn’t even have to include the famous line, “Let my people go!” or the parting of the Red Sea). So, without further ado and in no particular order, let’s get to it, shall we? Here they are:

The Ten Commandments (1956): 10 Incredible Lines/Scenes From The Classic Movie

1. Rameses: [to Nefretiri] You are going to be mine, all mine, like my dog or my horse or my falcon. Only I will love you more and trust you less.

2. Sephora: Which of my sisters did you choose?
Moses: I made no choice, Sephora.
Sephora: She was very beautiful, wasn’t she? This woman of Egypt, who left her scar upon your heart. Her skin was white as curd, her eyes green as the cedars of Lebanon, her lips, tamarisk honey. Like the breast of a dove, her arms were soft… and the wine of desire was in her veins.
Moses: Yes. She was beautiful… as a jewel.
Sephora: A jewel has brilliant fire, but it gives no warmth. Our hands are not so soft, but they can serve. Our bodies not so white, but they are strong. Our lips are not perfumed, but they speak the truth. Love is not an art to us. It’s life to us. We are not dressed in gold and fine linen. Strength and honor are our clothing. Our tents are not the columned halls of Egypt, but our children play happily before them. We can offer you little… but we offer all we have.
Moses: I have not little, Sephora. I have nothing.
Sephora: Nothing from some… is more than gold from others.
Moses: You would fill the emptiness of my heart?
Sephora: I could never fill all of it, Moses, but I shall not be jealous of a memory.

3. Rameses supposedly refutes Moses’ ability to bring about the plagues that Egypt has recently suffered and dismisses him. Moses warns of another plague of hail from the clear skies that will “burn as fire” on the ground, and darkness in broad daylight for 3 days. Rameses returns to his reading with scoffs of disbelief and personal victory.

No sooner than Moses leaves, Rameses begins to hear the roll of thunder in the distance, soon followed by the hail and fire on the ground. It’s not the scene, but the look of confidence on Rameses’ face before and during the thunder’s roar. One of the movie’s funniest WTH moments.

4. Nefretiri: You need have no fear of me.
Sephora: I feared only his memory of you.
Nefretiri: You have been able to erase it.
Sephora: He has forgotten both of us. You lost him when he went to seek his God. I lost him when he found his God.

5. Nefretiri: But I have saved your son, Moses.
Moses: It is not my son who will die. It is… it is the firstborn of Egypt. It is your son, Nefretiri!
Nefretiri: No. You would not dare strike Pharaoh’s son!
Moses: In the hardness of his heart, Pharaoh has mocked God and brings death to his own son!
Nefretiri: But he is my son, Moses. You would not harm my son.
Moses: By myself, I am nothing. It is the power of God which uses me to work His will.
Nefretiri: You would not let Him do this to me. I saved your son!
Moses: I cannot save yours.

6. In this scene, Joshua opens the door to Moses and his family as the curse of the death of the firstborn passes through the streets in the form of a mist.

Joshua: If it is not forbidden to look upon the breath of pestilence, then see, for it is here.
Moses: …Close the door, Joshua… …and let death pass.

7. Dathan gets expelled from his home by soldiers after learning that Joshua has placed lamb’s blood on his door to protect Lilia.

Egyptian soldier: Out! Out, all of you!
Dathan: Why do soldiers come here? I put no blood on my door!
Egyptian soldier: Then stone bleeds!
Dathan (to Lilia): Your stonecutter did this to me!
Lilia: All your gold cannot wipe that mark from your door, Dathan, or from my heart.
Dathan: Just for that, you’ll walk all the way to…
Dathan (to soldier): …Where are we going? Do you know where we’re going?
Egyptian soldier: To hell, I hope!

8. Rameses: …I cannot fight the power of his god.
Nefretiri [to Rameses]: HIS God? The priests say that PHARAOH is a god, but you are not a god. You are even less than a man. Listen to me, Rameses. You thought I was evil when I went to Moses, and you were right. Shall I tell you what happened, Rameses? He spurned me like a strumpet in the street. I, Nefretiri, Queen of Egypt. All that you wanted from me, he would not even take!

(Ok, that was cold. I don’t know many women who could get away with even THINKING that, let alone SAY it.)

9. Nefretiri: [Handing Rameses a sword as he is preparing to battle the freed Israelites] Bring it back to me, stained with his blood!
Rameses: I will… to mingle with your own!

10. General: He opens the water before them, and He bars our way with fire. Let us go from this place. Men cannot fight against a god.
Rameses: Better to die in battle with a god than to live in shame.

Bonus: Rameses returns after all of his troops drown from Moses’ parting and closing the Red Sea.

Nefretiri (after seeing that Rameses has failed, unaware of God’s miracle): You couldn’t even kill him.
Rameses throws down his sword and sits on his throne next to her.
Rameses: His god, IS God.

Bonus: Moses: Blasphemers! Idolaters! For this, you shall drink bitter waters… God has set before you this day his laws of life, and good, and death, and evil… Those who will not live by the law, shall die by the law!

And that’s it! My favorite lines and scenes from The Ten Commandments! Hopefully, you remember them all. You might even have been inspired to go back and watch it again.

Do you have a favorite scene or line? Leave it in the Comments section below. And be sure to sign up at the bottom to receive email notifications of future posts from Kenny’s Camera, Cooking & Crazy Confessions at ZootsBlogSpot!

No matter how you’re spending the holiday season or what you watch, be it Peter Cottontail or The Ten Commandments or whatever, be safe, be blessed, and Happy Easter / Resurrection Day!

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