The Ten Commandments (1956 film)
The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic religious drama film produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille,[5] shot in VistaVision (color by Technicolor), and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on the 1949 novel Prince of Egypt by Dorothy Clarke Wilson,[6] the 1859 novel Pillar of Fire by J. H. Ingraham,[7] the 1937 novel On Eagle's Wings by A. E. Southon,[8] and the Book of Exodus, found in the Bible. The Ten Commandments dramatizes the biblical story of the life of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the deliverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrews, and thereafter leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments. The film stars Charlton Heston in the lead role, Yul Brynner as Rameses, Anne Baxter as Nefretiri, Edward G. Robinson as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Zipporah, Debra Paget as Lilia, and John Derek as Joshua; and features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Seti I, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yochabel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka, among others.[5]
For the 1923 film, also directed by Cecil B. DeMille, see The Ten Commandments (1923 film).The Ten Commandments
Prince of Egypt
by Dorothy Clarke Wilson
Pillar of Fire
by J. H. Ingraham
On Eagle's Wings
by A. E. Southon
Book of Exodus
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
- November 8, 1956
220 minutes[2]
(with intermission)
United States
English
$13 million[3]
$122.7 million[4]
(initial release)
Filmed on location in Egypt, Mount Sinai, and the Sinai Peninsula, The Ten Commandments was DeMille's most successful work, his first widescreen film, his fourth biblical production, and his final directorial effort before his death in 1959.[9] It is a remake of the prologue of his 1923 silent film of the same title, and features one of the largest exterior sets ever created for a motion picture.[9] Four screenwriters, three art directors, and five costume designers worked on the film. The interior sets were constructed on Paramount's Hollywood soundstages. The original roadshow version included an onscreen introduction by DeMille and was released to cinemas in the United States on November 8, 1956, and, at the time of its release, was the most expensive film ever made.[9]
In 1957, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (John P. Fulton, A.S.C.).[10] DeMille won the Foreign Language Press Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director.[11] Charlton Heston was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama).[10] Yul Brynner won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for this film, as well as for Anastasia and The King and I.[10] Heston, Anne Baxter, and Yvonne De Carlo won Laurel Awards for Best Dramatic Actor, 5th Best Dramatic Actress, and 3rd Best Supporting Actress, respectively.[12] It is also one of the most financially successful films ever made, grossing approximately $122.7 million at the box office during its initial release; it was the most successful film of 1956 and the second-highest-grossing film of the decade. According to Guinness World Records, in terms of theatrical exhibition, it is the eighth most successful film of all-time when the box office gross is adjusted for inflation.
In 1999, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the best ten films in ten American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. The film was listed as the tenth best film in the epic genre.[13][14] The film has aired annually on U.S. network television in prime time during the Passover/Easter season since 1973.
Plot[edit]
After hearing the prophecy of a Hebrew deliverer, Pharaoh Rameses I of Egypt orders the death of all newborn Hebrew males. Yochabel saves her infant son by setting him adrift in a basket on the Nile. Bithiah, the Pharaoh Rameses's recently widowed daughter (and sister of the future Pharaoh Seti I), finds the basket and decides to adopt the boy, even though her servant, Memnet, recognizes that the child is Hebrew. Bithiah names the baby Moses.
Prince Moses grows up to become a successful general, winning a war with Ethiopia and establishing an alliance. Moses falls in love with the princess Nefretiri. But, she is betrothed to whomever Seti chooses to become the next Pharaoh. While working on the building of a city for Pharaoh Seti I's jubilee, Moses meets the stonecutter Joshua, who tells him of the Hebrew God. Moses saves an elderly woman from being crushed, not knowing that she is his biological mother, Yochabel, and he reprimands the taskmaster and overseer Baka.
Moses reforms the treatment of slaves on the project, but Prince Rameses, Moses's adoptive brother and Seti's son, charges him with planning an insurrection. Moses says he is making his workers more productive, making Rameses wonder if Moses is the man the Hebrews are calling the Deliverer.
Nefretiri learns from Memnet that Moses is the son of Hebrew slaves. She kills Memnet, but reveals the story to Moses after he finds the piece of Levite cloth he was wrapped in as a baby, which Memnet had kept. Moses follows Bithiah to Yochabel's house, where he meets his biological mother, brother Aaron, and sister Miriam.
Moses learns more about the slaves by working with them. Nefretiri urges him to return to the palace, so that he may help his people when he becomes pharaoh, to which he agrees after he completes a final task. Moses saves Joshua from death by killing Baka, telling Joshua that he, too, is Hebrew. The confession is witnessed by the Hebrew overseer Dathan, who then reports to Prince Rameses. After being arrested, Moses explains that he is not the Deliverer, but would free the slaves if he could. Seti I declares Prince Rameses his sole heir, and Rameses banishes Moses to the desert. At this time, Moses learns of the death of his mother.
Moses makes his way across the desert to a well in Midian. After defending seven sisters from Amalekites, Moses is housed with the girls' father Jethro, a Bedouin sheik, who worships the God of Abraham. Moses marries Jethro's eldest daughter Zipporah (called Sephora in the film). Later, he finds Joshua, who has escaped from the hard labor imposed on the Hebrews in Egypt. While herding, Moses sees the burning bush on the summit of Mount Sinai and hears the voice of God. At God's command, Moses returns to Egypt to free the Hebrews.
Moses comes before Rameses, now Pharaoh Rameses II, to win the slaves' freedom, turning his staff into a cobra. Jannes performs the same trick with his staves, but Moses's snake swallows his. Rameses prohibits straw from being provided to the Hebrews to make their bricks. Nefretiri rescues Moses from being stoned to death by the Hebrews wherein he reveals that he is married.
Egypt is visited by plagues. Moses turns the river Nile to blood at a festival of Khnum, and brings burning hail down upon Pharaoh's palace. Moses warns him that the next plague to fall upon Egypt will be summoned by Pharaoh himself. Enraged at the plagues, Rameses orders that all first-born sons of Hebrews will die, but a cloud of death instead kills all the first-born sons of Egypt, including the child of Rameses and Nefretiri. Despairing at the loss of his heir, Pharaoh exiles the Hebrews, who begin the Exodus from Egypt.
After being taunted by Nefretiri, Rameses takes his chariots and pursues the Hebrews to the Red Sea. Moses uses God's help to stop the Egyptians with a pillar of fire, and parts the Red Sea. After the Hebrews make it to safety, Moses releases the walls of water, drowning the Egyptian army. A devastated Rameses returns empty-handed to Nefretiri, stating that he now acknowledges Moses's god as God.
Moses again ascends the mountain with Joshua. He sees the Ten Commandments created by God in two stone tablets. Meanwhile, an impatient Dathan tells the people that Moses is dead and urges a reluctant Aaron to construct a golden calf idol. A wild saturnalia occurs and a decadent orgy is held by most of the Hebrews.
After God informs him of the Hebrews' fall into debauchery, Moses descends from the mountain with Joshua. Enraged at the sight of decadence, he deems the Hebrews unworthy and smashes the tablets at the golden calf. The calf explodes, killing Dathan and the wicked revelers. The remaining Hebrews are forced to wander in the wilderness for forty years. An elderly Moses later leads the Hebrews towards Canaan. However, he cannot enter the Promised Land because of a previous disobedience to the Lord (angering God at the Water of Strife). He instead names Joshua as leader, and bids farewell to the Hebrews at Mount Nebo.
Production[edit]
Writing[edit]
The final shooting script was written by Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse L. Lasky Jr., Jack Gariss, and Fredric M. Frank.[17] It also contained material from the books Prince of Egypt by Dorothy Clarke Wilson, Pillar of Fire by Joseph Holt Ingraham, and On Eagle's Wings by Arthur Eustace Southon.[18] Henry Noerdlinger, the film's researcher, consulted ancient historical texts such as the Midrash Rabbah, Philo's Life of Moses, and the writings of Josephus and Eusebius, in order to "fill in" the missing years of Moses' life,[18] and, as the film's last opening title card states, "the Holy Scriptures".
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The Ten Commandments was the highest-grossing film of 1956, and the second most successful film of the decade. By April 1957, the film had earned an unprecedented $10 million from engagements at just eighty theaters, averaging about $1 million per week, with more than seven million people paying to watch it.[64] It played for 70 weeks at the Criterion Theatre in New York, grossing $2.7 million.[68] During its initial release, it earned theater rentals (the distributor's share of the box office gross) of $31.3 million in North America, and $23.9 million from the foreign markets, for a total of $55.2 million (equating to approximately $122.7 million in ticket sales).[4] It was hugely profitable for its era, earning a net profit of $18,500,000,[69] against a production budget of $13.27 million (the most a film had cost up to that point).[3]
By the time of its withdrawal from distribution at the end of 1960, The Ten Commandments had overtaken Gone with the Wind at the box office in the North American territory,[70][71] and mounted a serious challenge in the global market—the worldwide takings for Gone with the Wind were reported to stand at $59 million at the time.[72] Gone with the Wind would be re-released the following year as part of the American Civil War Centennial, and re-asserted its supremacy at the box office by reclaiming the US record.[71] Also at this time, Ben-Hur—another biblical epic starring Charlton Heston, released at the end of 1959—would go on to eclipse The Ten Commandments at the box office.[4][73] A 1966 re-issue earned $6 million,[74] and further re-releases brought the total American theater rentals to $43 million,[75][76] equivalent to gross ticket sales of $89 million at the box office.[65] Globally, it ultimately collected $90,066,230 in revenues up to 1979.[77]
It remains one of the most popular films ever made. Adjusted for inflation, it has earned a box office gross equivalent to $2 billion at 2011 prices, according to Guinness World Records; only Gone with the Wind (1939), Avatar (2009), Star Wars (1977), Titanic (1997), The Sound of Music (1965), and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) have generated higher grosses in constant dollars. The Ten Commandments is estimated to have sold 262 million tickets at the worldwide box office.[78]
Home media[edit]
The Ten Commandments has been released on DVD in the United States on four occasions: the first edition (Widescreen Collection) was released on March 30, 1999, as a two-disc set,[102] the second edition (Special Collector's Edition) was released on March 9, 2004, as a two-disc set with commentary by Katherine Orrison,[103] the third edition (50th Anniversary Collection) was released on March 21, 2006, as a three-disc set with the 1923 version and special features,[104] and the fourth edition (55th Anniversary Edition) was released on DVD again in a two-disc set on March 29, 2011, and for the first time on Blu-ray in a two-disc set and a six-disc limited edition gift set with the 1923 version and DVD copies.[105] In 2012, the limited edition gift set won the Home Media Award for Best Packaging (Paramount Pictures and Johns Byrne).[106] In March 2021, a UHD Blu-ray was released. Using the 2010 6K scans, Paramount spent over 150 hours on new color work and clean-up.[107]