The Ten Commandments

Jewish and Christian children start hearing tales of Moses at an early age.  As they get older, they might be quizzed over naming the Ten Commandments.  Get them in the right order and there might be extra credit.  And every Easter or Passover they might be sat down to watch this film, but I hope their parents brought extra jelly beans or matzoh, cause thee hours is can really make these kids feel like they’ve been in bondage for four hundred years.

The story on film doesn’t deviate much from Exodus.  Because the Pharaoh has ordered all the male babies to be slain, Moses’ mother puts him in a basket and sets him floating down the Nile in hope that he will be saved.  He is found by Pharaoh’s sister, who hides the fact that he is Hebrew and proclaims that he is her child.  Skip forward to Moses (Charlton Heston) in adulthood, a proud Prince of Egypt who’s just returned from Ethiopia.  Ramses (Yul Brynner) and Moses kinda share the same girlfriend and Moses is in charge of building a city.

Anyway, it takes about an hour or so to get past the exposition and to where Moses learns that he’s actually Hebrew and is sent to the desert.  He miraculously survives, meets a family, becomes accepted by them and learns about the God of Abraham.  Years later, while tending his flock, Moses finds The Burning Bush where God tells him that he is the deliverer and must go back to Egypt.  Then you pop in disc two and wake your kids up for the more exciting half of the movie.

Honestly, all the most memorable parts of this film are in the second half: staff to snake, the plagues, parting of the Red Sea, golden calf party and angry Moses smashing the commandments, creating some crazy Hell’s crevice.  These scenes are your jelly bean popping/matzoh munching memory makers.

Of all the awards this film was nominated for, it only won for best special effects.  For 1956, these effects are pretty amazing.  The burning bush looks like it’s radiating like a sun within and out the bush.  The transition from staff to snake is pretty flawless.  And the clouds in the background always play a huge role, especially that sinister green ominous smokey hand in the sky coming down to take the first born.  The effects were so key to this film, that Cecil B. DeMille didn’t want to tell anyone his trick to parting the Red Sea.  Simply put, it’s two masses of water poured together into a basin, but the film is in reverse.  Today most of us can see that pretty easily, but it takes some real ingenuity to first figure that out.

I may rag on this film for being way too long and only being interesting in the second half, but it is done so well that I have to recommend it.  The story is in tact, it is visually engaging and the soundtrack is marvelous.  If you’re Jewish or not, the story of Passover is brought to life so well in a convicting and frightening way.  If you have surround-sound, crank it up and scare your kids with people randomly screaming in terror and agony.  Maybe this will bring a little more appreciation to their religion.

“Arise all Israel, behold the dawn of freedom!”

The King and I

Sometimes it is hard to tell people that I really don’t care for anything with the Rodgers and Hammerstein seal of approval.  I see their eyes light up and reminisce about how innocent, colorful and quaint those films are and I hold my tongue and nod.  Who am I to stomp on beautiful memories?  But I have finally found common ground, The King and I brought real smiles to my face and never once let my eyes roll.

The film is a musical tale about a widowed mother, Anna (Deborah Kerr), who has traveled to Siam with her son to be a teacher to the King’s children.  Right away there’s the anxiety that comes with being so far from home and culture clash around every corner.  When Anna first sees the King (Yul Brynner), he is being presented a young woman, Tuptim (Rita Moreno), as a gift.  Later we learn that Tuptim is still in love with a young man and they hope to escape.  Anna meets about half of the Kings children and wives and starts to build a loving relationship as their teacher.  But as the children learn, they bring new questions to their father, who doesn’t know how to answer them.  He becomes more curious and wants to learn as well, but is so deeply rooted in his old traditions and the culture he is the center of.

When the King is informed that people say he is a barbarian, he feels the need more than ever to learn Western culture.  Visitors are coming from England and the King plans on hosting a banquet to prove that he is very civilized.  All the wives wear European style dresses, dinner is served with forks and Tuptim translates Uncle Tom’s Cabin into a Siamese ballet.

The story about Tuptim mirrors that of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the King has a hard time realizing that he is the villain in that sense.  It becomes a culture shock revelation that the King can’t handle.

There are some hilarious scenes all through this film.  The King is always full of laughs and his little misunderstandings can leave Anna lost for words.  When they’re discussing the Civil War going on in America, the King wants to send elephants to “Mr. Lingcong” as aid.  The rule that no one’s head can be higher than the Kings spurs an odd game at times.  And there’s also an absolutely side-splitting moment when the wives first meet the British Ambassador in their new dresses.

The number one reason I enjoyed this film is the wonderful performance by Yul Brynner.  He’s so wonderfully odd and animated, yet royal and distinguished.  The way he conflicts between his kingly power trips and his natural curiosity is fun and engaging.  Somehow it’s naturally part of his personality how he always seems to be posing (hands on hips or sternly crossed over his chest and feet always shoulder width apart) and his face is always full of expression, if he had hair it would be too much.  I didn’t care too much for his singing, but that hardly seems to matter in this performance.  And to completely rock a new open shirt and hammer-pants in every scene takes some serious presence and Brynner brings it spectacularly.

It is absolutely brilliant to put the themes of such culture into a musical that can be loved by all ages.  There are scenes light and simple enough for children to understand and yet adults can realize how deep these themes can go.

It’s nice to know I can finally breathe easy when someone pulls the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s card in a conversation.

“I make mistake, the British not scientific enough to know how to use chopsticks.”