Lugal

The Ten Commandments (1956)

Actors: Abdullah Abbas (actor), Gorgen Raymond Aghayan (actor), Ahmed Salah Sayed Ahmed (actor), Luis Alberni (actor), Eric Alden (actor), Eric Alden (actor), Eric Alden (actor), Eric Alden (actor), Ted Allan (actor), Herb Alpert (actor), E.J. André (actor), Michael Ansara (actor), Bart Antinora (actor), Alan Aric (actor), Rushdy Abaza (actor),

Plot: To escape the edict of Egypt's Pharoah, Rameses I, condemning all newborn Hebrew males, the infant Moses is set adrift on the Nile in a reed basket. Saved by the pharaoh's daughter Bithiah, he is adopted by her and brought up in the court of her brother, Pharaoh Seti. Moses gains Seti's favor and the love of the throne princess Nefertiri, as well as the hatred of Seti's son, Rameses. When his Hebrew heritage is revealed, Moses is cast out of Egypt, and makes his way across the desert where he marries, has a son and is commanded by God to return to Egypt to free the Hebrews from slavery. In Egypt, Moses' fiercest enemy proves to be not Rameses, but someone near to him who can 'harden his heart'.

Keywords: 13th-century-b.c., act-of-god, adoption, afi, ancient-egypt, armor, arranged-marriage, barefoot, based-on-novel, based-on-the-bible
Genres: Adventure, Drama,
Taglines: The Greatest Event in Motion Picture History It would take more than a man to lead the slaves from bondage. It would take a God. Paramount Pictures is proud to announce the return of the greatest motion picture of all time! (1966 re-release)

Quotes:

Moses: No son could have more love for you than I.::Sethi: Then why are you forcing me to destroy you? What evil has done this to you?::Moses: The evil that men should turn their brothers into beasts of burden, to be stripped of spirit, and hope, and strength - only because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a god, he did not mean this to be so.

Sethi: Harden yourself against subordinates. Have no friend. Trust no woman.

Moses: You know it is death to strike an Egyptian?::Joshua: I know it.::Moses: Yet you struck him. Why?::Joshua: To save the old woman.::Moses: What is she to you?::Joshua: An old woman.::[Joshua was defending his Hebrew race]::Egyptian guard: Lord Prince, send him to his death!::Moses: The man has courage. You do not speak like a slave.::Joshua: God made men. Men made slaves.::Moses: Which god?::Joshua: The God of Abraham. The Almighty God!::Moses: If your God is Almighty, why does He leave you in bondage?::Joshua: He will choose the hour of our freedom and the man who will deliver us!

Nefretiri: [approaches Rameses as he is praying to an idol, over their dead son] How many more days and nights will you pray? Does he hear you?::Rameses: [praying] Dread Lord of Darkness, I have raised my voice to you, yet life has not come to the body of my son. Hear me!::Nefretiri: He cannot hear you. He's nothing but a piece of stone with the head of a bird.::Rameses: He will hear me. For I am Egypt.::Nefretiri: Egypt? You are nothing. You let Moses kill my son. No god can bring him back. What have you done to Moses? How did he die? Did he cry for mercy when you tortured him? Bring me to his body! I want to see it, Rameses! I want to see it!::Rameses: This is my son. He would have been Pharaoh. He would have ruled the world. Who mourns him now? Not even you. All you can think of is Moses. You will not see his body. I drove him out of Egypt. I cannot fight the power of his God.::Nefretiri: 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. Do you hear laughter, Pharaoh? Not the laughter of kings, but the laughter of slaves on the desert!::Rameses: [after hearing the word "laughter," he immediately became irate] Laughter? Laughter? My son I shall build your tomb upon their crushed bodies. If any escape me, their seed shall be scattered and accursed forever. My armor! The war crown! Laughter? I will turn the laughter of these slaves into wails of torment! They shall remember the name of Moses, only that he died under my chariot wheels!::Nefretiri: [Rameses then threw Nefretiri down and clanged the gong, Nefreteri still lying on ground] Kill him with your own hands.

Bithiah: A conquerer, already conquered?::Moses: The first face I look for and the last I find.::[as Moses saw Bithiah, he knelt to her, to honor her]::Moses: Mother!::Bithiah: I was thanking the gods for your safe return. But I find you in grave danger here.::Moses: An intoxicating danger, mother.::Bithiah: Marry her if you can, my son, but never fall in love with her.::Nefretiri: Oh, I'll be less trouble to him than the Hebrew slaves of Goshen.::Bithiah: Goshen?

Sethi: With so many slaves, you could build an army.::Moses: But I have built a city. These lions of Pharaoh will guard its gates, and it shall be the city of Sethi's glory.::Sethi: Are the slaves loyal to Sethi's glory or to you, Moses?::Moses: The slaves worship their God. And I serve only you.

Yochabel: Why have you come here?::Bithiah: Because Moses will come here.::Yochabel: My son?::Bithiah: No, my son! That's all he must know.::Yochabel: My lips might deny him, Great One, but my eyes never could.::Bithiah: You will leave Goshen, you and your family, tonight.::Yochabel: We are Levites, appointed shepherds of Israel. We cannot leave our people.::Bithiah: Would you take from Moses all that I have given him? Would you undo all that I have done for him? I have put the throne of Egypt within his reach! What can you give him in return?::Yochabel: I gave him life.::Bithiah: I gave him love!

Bithiah: They're going away, Moses, and the secret's going with them. No one need ever know the shame I brought upon you.::Moses: Shame? What change is there in me? Egyptian or Hebrew, I am still Moses. These are the same hands, the same arms, the same face that was mine a moment ago.::Yochabel: A moment ago you were her son, the strength of Egypt. Now you are my son, a slave of Egypt. You find no shame in this?::Moses: If there is no shame in me, how can I feel shame for the woman who bore me, or the race that bred me?

Yochabel: [Yochabel's last line, were said in deep joy] God of our fathers, who has appointed an end to the bondage of Israel, blessed am I among all mothers in the land, for my eyes have beheld Thy deliverer.

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.