History Film / TheTenCommandments1956

** Nefertiri is portrayed as outliving her firstborn son. Historically, Nefertiri died a year before Amun-her-khepeshef.

** Nefertiri is portrayed as outliving her firstborn son. Historically, Nefertiri died the year before Amun-her-khepeshef.

** Today we know that Queen Nefertari died one year before Rameses' first born, Amun-her-khepeshef, which makes all of her scenes during and after The Plague of the Firstborn impossible at worst and AnachronismStew at best.

** Most modern estimates put the Exodus in the reign of Thutmose III [[note]] more specifically, he's the most supported. Scholars agree that if it happened, it must've been somewhere in-between Pharaohs Dudimose and Rameses II, with both extremes being actually the least supported theories. [[/note]], not Rameses II. Though to be fair, there isn't clear consensus among scholars and reconciling Old Testament timelines with historical dates is tricky at best. Also, while Rameses II ''did'' lose his first-born son, Amun-her-khepeshef, Amun passed away at age 25. It doesn't help however that historical records show that Rameses II was actually one of the most successful pharaohs of Egyptian history, which he couldn't have been had his workforce left overnight. That would've definitely plunged Egypt into chaos for generations.

** Most modern estimates put the Exodus in the reign of Thutmose III [[note]] more specifically, he's the most supported. Scholars agree that if it happened, it must've been somewhere in-between Pharaohs Dudimose and Rameses II, with both extremes being actually the least supported theories. [[/note]], not Rameses II. Though to be fair, there isn't clear consensus among scholars and reconciling Old Testament timelines with historical dates is tricky at best. Also, Rameses II ''did'' lose his first-born son (the tomb was found). It doesn't help however that historical records show that Rameses II was actually one of the most successful pharaohs of Egyptian history, which he couldn't have been had his workforce left overnight. That would've definitely plunged Egypt into chaos for generations.

--->'''Dathan''': Where are we going?\\
'''Egyptian Soldier''': To Hell, I hope.

--->'''High Priest Jannes''': Because of Moses, there is no wheat in the temple granaries!\\

** As the Israelites are preparing to leave Egypt, a treasure wagon throws valuables to various people, including a blind old man with a pair of young children looking after him. The wagon master throws the boy a golden statue of a golden calf. When the boy describes it, the blind man wants nothing to do with it: ''"An idol... for idol worshippers!"'' If you look closely, the statue is indeed a golden calf - exactly the same as the idol Aaron fashions for the Israelites at the foot of Mt. Sinai, just smaller.

* HappilyMarried: Moses with Sephora - until he finds his God...

--->'''Sethi''': Let the name of Moses be stricken from every book and tablet, stricken from all pylons and obelisks, stricken from every monument of Egypt. Let the name of Moses be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of men for all time.

---> '''Sethi''': You are the only thing I regret leaving. You have been my joy.\\
'''Nefretiri''': And you my only love.\\
'''Sethi''': Aha, now you're cheating. There was another. I know. I loved him, too. With my last breath, I'll break my own law and speak the name of... Moses... [DramaticPause] Moses.

--->'''Moses''': I love you, my mother, but am I your son... [''Moses glances at Bithiah''] or yours?\\
'''Yochabel''': No, you are not my son. If you believe that men and women are cattle to be driven under the lash, if you can bow before idols of stone and golden images of beasts, you are not my son.

-->'''Ramses''': You have a rat's ears and a ferret's nose.\\
'''Dathan''': [[TheQuisling To use in your service]], [[ProfessionalButtKisser son of Pharaoh]].

* MamaBear: Bithiah, although not Moses's birth mother, certainly is the trope. She cautions Memnet that if she ever speaks of Moses's true heritage, she will die. And Bithiah is more than willing to follow through on this threat, [[spoiler: Nefritiri just beats her to the punch.]]

-->'''Narrator''': And the people rose up to play, and did eat and drink. They were as the children of fools and cast off their clothes. The wicked were like a troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. They sank from evil to evil and were viler than the earth. And there was rioting and drunkenness, for they had become servants of sin. There was manifest all manner of ungodliness and works of the flesh. Even adultery and lasciviousness, uncleanness, idolatry and rioting, vanity and wrath. And they were filled with iniquity and vile affections, and Aaron knew that he had brought them to shame.

--->'''Moses''': A city is made of brick, Pharaoh. The strong make many. The weak make few. The dead make none.

-->'''Dathan''': Where are we going? Do you know where we're going?\\
'''Egyptian soldier''': [[LampshadeHanging To Hell, I hope!]]

-->'''Dathan''': Joshua's strength didn't kill the master builder.\\
'''Rameses''': Now speaks the rat that would be my ears.\\
'''Dathan''': Too many ears tie a rat's tongue.

-->'''Joshua''': Four hundred years in bondage and today he won't move!

-->'''Rameses''': His god... ''is'' God.

* CruelMercy: After becoming Pharaoh, Rameses chooses to banish Moses to the desert rather than have him killed.

* TheAtoner: Bithia, after she joins her adopted son Moses and his people in the Exodus. We see her offering an ailing Hebrew slave her seat on her litter, then agreeing to take a sapling fig tree from him to plant in the Holy Land as he tells her he knows he's dying and will be unable to travel there, and he can at least be assured he can leave a legacy there. We also see her offering to stop her nephew's charging army (which would be futile), and guiding Hebrew children through the Red Sea.

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: An unseen Hebrew woman gives birth as the group leaves Egypt, the morning after massive deaths among Egypt's firstborn (and any Hebrews foolish enough to ignore the warnings). This is also immediately after Mr. Fig Tree entrusts his precious cargo to Bithiah, saying he knows he's about to die.[[note]]Mr. Fig Tree (Amminadab) was played by English veteran stage/screen actor H.B. Warner who'd played Jesus in De Mille's 1927 ''Film/TheKingOfKings''. He's most recognizable today as Mr. Gower in ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''. He was living in a nursing home by the time he did this in '56, and was carried on the set on a stretcher.

** Bithiah's real Egyptian name was Renenutet[[note]]the name of a fertility goddess watching over plant life and providing abundance, a protector of children[[/note]]. Bithiah, "Daughter of God," was her Hebrew name.

--->'''Memnet:''' You fools! Talk of empty hearts before the Pharaoh's daughter.

* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: An unseen Hebrew woman gives birth as the group leaves Egypt, the morning after massive deaths among Egypt's firstborn (and any Hebrews foolish enough to ignore the warnings). This is also immediately after Mr. Fig Tree entrusts his precious cargo to Bithiah, saying he knows he's about to die.

** Bithiah's real Egyptian name was Renenutet. Bithiah, "Daughter of God," was her Hebrew name.

* AgeLift: As a horrified Rameses watches his son Prince Amun succumbing to the final plague, he comments that the boy is his only son. Historically, however, Rameses' thirteenth son and successor Merneptah was nineteen when death claimed Rameses' first Amun-her-khepeshef, and this boy hardly looked twelve or thirteen.[[note]]Eugene Mazzola, who played the little prince, was ten.[[/note]]

** The term "Pharaoh" was not used until 1200 BC, thirteen years after the death of Rameses II.

''The Ten Commandments'' is the last and most famous of the great Creator/CecilBDeMille {{epic|movie}}s, and a [[SelfRemake remake]] of [[Film/TheTenCommandments1923 his own 1923 silent film of the same name]], this 1956 film from Creator/{{Paramount}} tells the [[Literature/TheBible biblical]] story of [[Literature/BookOfExodus Moses and the Exodus]].

The last and most famous of the great Creator/CecilBDeMille {{epic|movie}}s, and a [[SelfRemake remake]] of [[Film/TheTenCommandments1923 his own 1923 silent film of the same name]], this 1956 film from Creator/{{Paramount}} tells the [[Literature/TheBible biblical]] story of [[Literature/BookOfExodus Moses and the Exodus]].

The last of the great Creator/CecilBDeMille {{epic|movie}}s, and a [[SelfRemake remake]] of [[Film/TheTenCommandments1923 his own 1923 silent film of the same name]], this 1956 film from Creator/{{Paramount}} tells the [[Literature/TheBible biblical]] story of [[Literature/BookOfExodus Moses and the Exodus]].

-->-- '''Rameses '''

* SettingUpdate: A minor example. Rabbinical Judaism tells us that Moses' lifespan corresponds to 1391-1271 BC, telling us the Exodus happened in 1311 BC and thus that the Pharaoh of the Exodus would have been Horemheb, the predecessor of Ramesses I whom we see early in this film. Jerome, on the other hand, gives Moses' year of birth as 1592 meaning the Exodus would have been in 1512 with Thutmose I as the Pharaoh and Ussher gives Moses' year of birth as 1571 meaning the Exodus would have been in 1491 with the Pharaoh being Thutmose II. Most curent scholars think that if the Exodus did happen, the Pharaoh was Thutmose III, not II.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Moses is instructed by God from the Burning Bush to remove his sandals as he now standing on hallowed ground.

* AwfulWeddedLife: Rameses and Nefretiri. (it was an Arranged Marriage after all) The only thing keeping them going is their son. After their only son is taken by the plague on the firstborn sons, she mocks Rameses and the gods of Egypt, and Rameses threatens to add her blood to that of Moses and the Israelites, only to return in shameful defeat, and reluctantly acknowledge that the god of the Israelites is the true God.
* BadassBaritone:

* WhipItGood: Baka sadistically tells Joshua (who he's about to torture) that he can "flick a fly from my horse's ear without breaking its stride." [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Moses then strangles him with it.]]

*** Dathan actually does go to Hell.
** The representative from Troy being dressed as a Roman centurion is also wildly inaccurate, although it is a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheAeneid'', in which the Trojans founded Rome.
** Also according to Egyptian legend, on his way back to Troy after abducting Helen, Paris arrived in Egypt during the reign of Seti II, the grandson of Ramses II. They had chosen the wrong pharaoh for a Priam reference.
*** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-first_Dynasty_of_Egypt 21st Dynasty]] mummies have been found with silk ribbons in their hair. This scene is only 200 years off. Could silk have been sent to Egypt in Ramses' (19th Dynasty) time? Not likely, or archaeologists would see more of it from earlier than the 21st. The Egyptians would have been crazy about it.
*** Byssus, the "golden web spun from the beards of shellfish", is also an anachronism. True byssus or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_silk sea silk]] really does come from clams ''and'' becomes FridgeBrilliance with this bit of sacred folklore: it is said that Moses covered his first altar to God with this lovely fabric. [=DeMille=] would have known this, so included it by clothing Liliah in it. But the Egyptians did not have clam byssus at the time of Moses. They had a cloth with the same name -- it's even mentioned on the Rosetta Stone -- but it was really super-fine linen.
** Likewise, the Egyptian soldier's sword at the very beginning of the culling of the Hebrew boys looks more like a Roman sword than anything else. The real-life Egyptians favored the khopesh, a sword whose blade looks kind of like a lower-case b, adapted from the Assyrian sapper.
** That weapon, also seen at the end of the "Hounds and Jackals" scene as an aide comes in and salutes Seti, is the iron Hittite sword from ''Film/TheEgyptian'', one of many props from that film that were reused here. It's not very accurate for them, either. Hittite swords looked more like sickles.
** Moses is stated to be thirty the year of his exile, which also happens to be the year of Seti's death and the Pharaoh of the Oppression is portrayed as Rameses I. Due to Rameses I's reign only being two years long it would have been his predecessor Horemheb as the Pharaoh of the Oppression. It only gets worse because Ramses II was eleven when his grandfather Ramses I became Pharaoh and was twenty-four when he himself ascended the throne.
** The term "Pharaoh" was not used contemporaneously for a ruler until 1200 BC, thirteen years after the death of Rameses II.
** Pharaoh Rameses I is proclaimed by Jannes as "Pharaoh Rameses I." The numbering is a modern invention; it was never done by the Egyptian chroniclers of old. Even if it had been, he would not have been called "Rameses I" in his lifetime, but only after a successor with the same name (Rameses II) took the throne.
** The Battle of Kadesh is referred to as having been fought by Seti. It was actually been by Ramses II.
** A major event of the first act is Seti's jubilee. At the time, jubilees were significant dates in cycles of years observed by the Israelites. In ''modern'' times the word is also used to mean a celebration of a certain number of years that a monarch has ruled, but the historical Seti only ruled for eleven years and wouldn't have qualified for any of the types in existence today. In the film, he has supposedly been pharaoh thirty years or close to, which still doesn't line up; a silver jubilee is twenty-five years and a ruby jubilee is forty years, Moses' biblical age when he fled Egypt.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Dathan played a more minor role in the Exodus account, leading a revolt against Moses and getting swallowed up by the ground. Here, he becomes TheQuisling, is responsible for the Golden Calf incident, and was responsible for exposing Moses as a non-Egyptian and the Messiah to begin with. It's not purely an invention of the film either, as it was inspired by Jewish oral tradition about Dathan dating back hundreds if not thousands of years.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Dathan played a more minor role in the Exodus account, leading a revolt against Moses and getting swallowed up by the ground. Here, he becomes TheQuisling, is responsible for the Golden Calf incident, and was responsible for driving Moses out of Egypt to begin with. It's not purely an invention of the film either, as it was inspired by Jewish oral tradition about Dathan dating back hundreds if not thousands of years.

** The first half of the movie. As the director himself states in his introductory remarks at the start of the film, the Bible skips some 30 years of Moses' life. In Exodus, the narrative skips from when Pharoah's daughter retrieves Moses from the water to when Moses kills an Egyptian who is beating one of the Hebrew slaves. [[Creator/CecilBDeMille DeMille]] says that the screenwriters had to rely on other writings throughout history to flesh out this part of the story. Some of the details are in fact based on authentic extra-Biblical Jewish or Christian legends.

** On the historical side of things, Ramesses' lion Slayer of His Foes, who fought alongside him at Kadesh, is nowhere to be seen.

** Also according to Egyptian legend, on his way back to Troy after abducting Helen Paris arrived in Egypt during the reign of Seti II, the grandson of Ramses II. They had chosen the wrong pharaoh for a Priam reference.

** Jannes, the High Priest of Egypt and Court Mage, who in the Book of Exodus is an unnamed court magician among others who oppose Moses when he confronts Pharoah. He is referred to Jannes in outside sources, including one of the Pauline letters (2nd Timothy, 3:5).

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Nefertiti is completely unphased when Rameses prepares to kill her, asking only to see Moses' blood on his sword. When he can't do that, she disgustedly notes, "You couldn't even kill him."

* HarbingerOfImpendingDoom: Jannes, when he informs Pharaoh Rameses I of the prophecy of a Hebrew Deliver being born. His Pharaoh's attempt to prevent the prophecy results ironically in the baby Moses being discretely adopted by Rameses' daughter Bithia and growing up [[SelfFulfillingProphecy to actually make the prophecy come true]].

* IneptMage: Jannes, as he is repeatedly being humiliated in front of Rameses II and the Royal Court by Moses and God, first by Moses' rod turned serpent swallowing his and another priest's, then repeatedly discrediting him and the gods he serves through the plagues he is clearly unable to prevent.

** In the actual Bible Aaron REALLY isn't strong enough, he's pretty much a wimp. While in the movie Aaron outright refuses to make an Idol for the people and Dathan manages to convince them himself to do it, without Aaron putting up much of a fight, in the Bible when the people order Aaron to make them a new god, he just grabs the buckets, tells the women to give him their jewelry, and sets to work.

** Rameses II lays his dead son in the arms of an idol he addresses as "Dread Lord of Darkness". The lighting, background music and Brynner's attitude suggest he's praying to some evil guy. Actually, this is Sokar, better known as Seker, the guide of the dead, a kindly disposed deity who is also a form of the risen Osiris [[note]]i.e., an Ancient Egyptian equivalent of ''Jesus Christ''[[/note]] and patron of craftspeople, builders and agriculture. De Mille did the research on this too. Both Seti I and Rameses II had art depicting Seker in their private chambers. He is one of the oldest Egyptian deities.

* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Baka the Master Builder lusts after Liliah, leading the other Hebrews to comment about how beauty is a curse, with one saying, "Beauty is but a curse to our women."

* SubterfugeJudo: The slimy-in-personality master builder Baka (played by the classical Vincent Price, no less!) takes Lilia, one of the Hebrew slave servants, from the brick-producing mud pits of the Hebrew slaves, to be his courtesan. She tries to push away his advances, but being of lower class than the Egyptians, she is unable to convince him to let her be, as Baka stealthily counters her every reason why she should not go with him. Joshua, the protagontist master stonecutter, is in love with her too, but Lilia, thankfully, only has the heart for Joshua.

--->'''Memnet:''' You fools! Talk of empty hearts before the Pharoah's daughter.

* BefriendingTheEnemy: Despite his initial suspicion of her being from the Royal Family that oppressed his people, Moses' Hebrew slave friend Mered quickly becomes a loyal friend to Moses' adopted mother Bithia, to the point that he prevents her from her risking her life by attempting to halt her nephew's charging army. According to Jewish legend, Mered and Bithia [[TheyDo actually become a couple]], and had kids!