Cecil B. DeMille's biblical epic is something I watched every Easter as I grew up, now older I usually just watch it when another special edition gets released. Now on Blu-ray it looks better than ever, sadly the content of the story has lessened a tad over the years. The first half of the movie is still fantastic with Prince Moses (Charlton Heston) and Rameses (Yul Brynner) going head to head over who will rule Egypt and win the heart of Nefretiri (Anne Baxter), then the discovery that Moses is in fact a the son of Hebrew slaves and is sent into exile. In the land of Midian he falls in love with Sephora (Yvonne De Carlo), has a son and all is good until he gets a call from God. This Moses is a man of passion, he honors the Pharoah who raised him as a son, worships Nefretiri, and his relationship with Rameses is rife with great conflict. When he discovers the truth about himself his world view is shattered and he puts himself in the mud pits to find out just what it's like to be a beast of burden. At every turn Moses is given a chance to remain in power but he cannot turn his back on his people. Heston is pretty much perfect in this role.

It's in the second part where things become less fun and decidedly more dodgy (I'm guessing much can be blamed on the source material), but this new Moses who comes to demand his people to be freed is a bit of a stick in the mud, just blaring out declaration and scriptures with barely any feeling (his wife and kid all but forgotten), then he starts unleashing God's wrath and things get a little more interesting, ten plagues descend on Egypt and the Pharaoh eventually frees the Hebrew slaves (this is after his heart is hardened so many times I became worried he'd have a stroke). During the exodus Dathan (Edward G. Robinson) spends every moment proclaiming that Moses has doomed them all and at almost every turn the Hebrews eat it up with a spoon. You'd think a guy with the backing of god capable of plagues, fiery columns, partings of large bodies of water would have earned a little bit of slack, but no, Moses disappears up a mountain for forty days and Dathan has them worshiping idols and performing human sacrifices. Talk about your fickle people. Moses of course returns and brings explosive wrath on the orgy and then everybody sheepishly follows him for next forty years while God tries to get over being ignored.

I do enjoy this movie and this presentation is simply stunning, but there are certainly enough cringe inducing moments to not make it for everyone. Though none can deny the awesome scope of the picture when you look at the crowds of thousands that aren't computer generated.

Note: You'd think one of those ten laws God passed onto Moses would have mention something along the lines of "Though shall not enslave another person."

"Where's your Messiah now, Flanders?"

While it isn't the best film ever made of the Moses story--The Prince of Egypt may be the most underrated American animated film of the last 20 years--it's a darned fine epic. Wish everything wasn't so black & white and was Vincent Price really needed? But a fun movie.

It's a beautifully animated film (I own the art book) and I love their take on Rameses where he is more saddened at the betrayal of a brother more than that of rival for a girl's affections that you get in the Heston version. It is kind of funny that the movie ends at the parting of the Red Sea. I guess they were a bit uncomfortable with the thought of an animated orgy sequence.
I can't believe you could even ask that question?

Well, back then all the other gods could do most of that too.

That's what always intrigued me about the Old Testament the alluding to the existence of other gods. Even in the movie we get that scene where Moses turns his staff into a snake and then the Pharaoh's priests turn their staffs into snakes which then get eaten by Moses's snake. His god was the more kick ass god but the Egyptian priests were certainly tapping into something else. Hell, the first commandment states "You shall have no other gods before Me." Abraham's god being a very jealous god.

I think it would have been cool if the writers of the Bible had put in some crossovers. Say Thor and Moses have a night on the town and get so drunk they have to crash at Kali's place and then hi-jinks ensue.

I always thought that if there was any movie that would benefit from a little digital remastering of old effects, this movie would be it. Just make the mattes and animations more seamless.

This is the plot of nearly every Season 5 episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

The Blu-ray transfer is simply gorgeous but sadly they did nothing to clean up the matte lines, so whenever someone stands in front of a great vista you get those nasty bluish outlines. Luckily it's only really bad in a couple of shots.

Another issue is that sometimes the color balance doesn't match between the foreground and background of the matted shots.

The final plague sequence, done in silence except for the wind rushing of the angel of death, is just amazing.

Liek you I watched this "Religiously" every Easter as a child. I ate it up, until Moses leaves Egypt, then after that it kind of goes down hill.

I always thought the idea that other Gods were around doing their thing was cool too. Makes me wonder why we don;t ha vea 700 Club special, Baal: Where is He Now?

In which case, here's your Word of the Day...

Monolatry (accent on second syllable): A religious conception in which multiple deities exist, but it is permissible to worship only one of them.

Modern Judaism and Islam (arguably Christianity, too, but the doctrine of the Trinity muddies the issue a bit) are monotheistic religions, but Judaism in the era of the Pentateuch was merely monolatrous.

I like that so much more than the current "my God is real and yours isn't, neener neener" model. Sure, "my God can beat up your God" is pretty childish, too, but it's at least awesome to contemplate.

Though I still think a single deity going up against a pantheon is gonna come out on the bottom. I mean, come on, even if they're all weaker than the single deity alone, together they'd have to be more powerful.

Monotheism isn't the first to do that though. Even pantheons used to overtake pantheons, calling the previous pantheon evil (Greek) or demoting the prior one from gods to different creatures like sprites and trolls (western Europe).

Especially if it's New Testament vs North Mythology. Turning the other cheek if Thor is in the fight will just get your face caved in.