Prince of Egypt or Ten Commandments?
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Prince of Egypt or Ten Commandments?
I'll just say that this thread topic has nothing to do with my love of DW films... I'm just curious about how people feel about this religious-wise, and film-wise.
I'll come right out and say that between the two I prefer The Ten Commandments.
I prefer it for its length, rich dramatic content and for the fact that you DO see the Israelites get to Mount Sinai. (As a Jew, getting the Ten Commandments/Torah IS the most important part of this story. NOT that the slaves left Egypt.)
And the Golden Calf scene....I still can't believe they left this out.
I'm open to all views on this.
EDIT: I realise that at the end of POE you do see Moses come down the Sinai with the tablets, but it's at the VERY END, almost as an afterthought.
It should have been given a greater place in the film. (plus after forty years in the desert, Moses apparently hadn't aged a day.)
I'll come right out and say that between the two I prefer The Ten Commandments.
I prefer it for its length, rich dramatic content and for the fact that you DO see the Israelites get to Mount Sinai. (As a Jew, getting the Ten Commandments/Torah IS the most important part of this story. NOT that the slaves left Egypt.)
And the Golden Calf scene....I still can't believe they left this out.
I'm open to all views on this.
EDIT: I realise that at the end of POE you do see Moses come down the Sinai with the tablets, but it's at the VERY END, almost as an afterthought.
It should have been given a greater place in the film. (plus after forty years in the desert, Moses apparently hadn't aged a day.)
Last edited by ShyViolet on May 4th, 2006, 11:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!
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Prince/Egypt needed an extra reel...another 20 minutes on the film. I could'a put up with a two hour movie for that, to get better (ugh) "closure".
I thought it was a great way to make this kind of story accessible to wider audiences, but you can't compare POE with T10C (I believe you are meaning CB DeMille's 1956 epic).
T10C is an overblown film with its own problems, despite the fact that its hugely enjoyable in its own right.
Did you check out the original black and white silent version yet? Very different yet again.
I thought it was a great way to make this kind of story accessible to wider audiences, but you can't compare POE with T10C (I believe you are meaning CB DeMille's 1956 epic).
T10C is an overblown film with its own problems, despite the fact that its hugely enjoyable in its own right.
Did you check out the original black and white silent version yet? Very different yet again.
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I totally agree...I particularly think the Moses/Rameses relationship needed to be fleshed out a little more. (In the commentary the directors kept saying how there were more scenes between them originally...why'd they get cut out?? Why why why? )Prince/Egypt needed an extra reel...another 20 minutes on the film. I could'a put up with a two hour movie for that, to get better (ugh) "closure".
Or maybe at the end they could add a childhood flashback or something....that's my idea anyway. There's this whole sense of tradgedy when Moses says "Goodbye, Brother." but you don't feel it as strongly as you should.
Also, you're kind of left wondering just what the heck happened at the end of the film anyway? (even if you already "know".) It's like one minute they just crossed the Red Sea, the next minute it's forty years later, Moses got the two tablets, looks over the cliff like it's the end of the Lion King or something and everything's just hunky-dory.... That's NOT how the story goes...Moses doesn't even get to enter the Holy Land. Neither do a whole lot of the slaves.
The Israelites were a wild, undisciplined people when they left Egypt....they WERE slaves after all. Part of entering the Holy Land was learning to be a righteous people and learning to have faith in one G-d. Hence the Golden Calf scene. That's all left out of the movie of course...too "wrath of G-d" to be marketable I guess. But that's the BASIS of the whole story, NOT that Moses learns to "believe in himself" or something. That's my biggest problem with the film....even though it is a good film.
My other problems: Too much time with the Midianites and Tzipporah (ugh! can't stand her) and not enough with Miriam and Aaron, who were very developed and very under-used.
It is a good film though...VERY good...but short of being "great."
Yeah...I saw the whole thing when I was nine years old and have never forgotten it. Love Heston, love Yule Brenner, love every scene in that film.but you can't compare POE with T10C (I believe you are meaning CB DeMille's 1956 epic).
Heard of it, would like to see it.Did you check out the original black and white silent version yet? Very different yet again.
That's my whole problem though...with the holiday of Passover the desert stuff is HALF the story, not an epilogue. Even if you don't celebrate Passover, it's a big part of the book of Exodus.so it was used as more of an epilogue when he carried the tablets at the end.
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!
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It did seem tacked on...and to the general, non-religious public, the three big things are the Plagues, the parting of the sea and the tablets.
The instigation for the film was Spielberg saying "hey, howabout we make the Ten Commandments?" and then it was sidetracked to a 30 second tag on the end which meant nothing to anyone who didn't know the story (and therefore at least 50% of the kid audience the film was partially aimed at).
At least they didn't market it to death. JK joked that no-one wanted a "Burning Bush Light", though I thought that would have been pretty cool!
The instigation for the film was Spielberg saying "hey, howabout we make the Ten Commandments?" and then it was sidetracked to a 30 second tag on the end which meant nothing to anyone who didn't know the story (and therefore at least 50% of the kid audience the film was partially aimed at).
At least they didn't market it to death. JK joked that no-one wanted a "Burning Bush Light", though I thought that would have been pretty cool!