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These cases continue even now, pitting religious Americans and political conservatives who want them displayed as a symbol of morality against those who worry that their presence in public and legal arenas chips away at the separation of church and state.
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“After the film, because of its success, the monuments were left there, and it became entrenched in our concept of public spaces and the public consciousness that the Ten Commandments are part of the American psyche.” That the statues were located in public venues throughout America sparked decades of lawsuits, which by 1980 had wound their way up to the Supreme Court. The publicity stunt had a lasting legal legacy, says Baybrook. It was great publicity for the film, which grossed around $80 million and remains the fifth-highest grossing film of all time in inflation-adjusted terms. Ruegemer, DeMille, Heston and Brynner attended dedications for many of the 150 granite Ten Commandment monoliths that were constructed in 34 states and Canada. Starting in 1951, Ruegemer had spearheaded a movement to distribute copies of the Ten Commandments for public placement in courtrooms and schools, believing that “if mankind would heed those Ten, it would be a better world in which to live.” At least 10,000 prints had already been distributed when DeMille joined the cause, helping dozens of local FOE groups raise money to erect statues of the Ten Commandments. Ruegemer, a member of a Christian service organization called the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE).
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To promote the film, DeMille-who served on the board of the anti-Communist National Committee for a Free Europe-teamed up with a Minnesota judge named E.J. DeMille, whose German-Jewish mother converted before marrying his Episcopalian father, cleverly used the term “Hebrews” instead of “Jews” in order to appeal to his largely Christian audience. The movie was “a declaration from Hollywood that American values, as opposed to Soviet values, were part of the longest history of moral principle,” says Baybrook, noting that its success was due, in no small part, to the way it artfully Christianized the film’s religious content. Baybrook, editor-in-chief of Film & History. The Ten Commandments is “one of the most significant epic films ever made,” in part because it tapped into America’s Cold War self-perceptions, according to Loren P.Q.
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Robinson, John Carradine, Vincent Price and many other top actors of the time. With the Cold War shifting into high gear and a fervent anti-communist patriotism sweeping the nation, the film burst onto the scene at a time when religion-Christianity in particular-became a central rallying point, pitting America’s “divine purpose” against “godless Communists.” Enter DeMille, a director with a penchant for the spectacular, who released the nearly four-hour remake of his 1923 silent film of the same name, this one starring Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharoah Ramses II, not to mention Anne Baxter, Edward G.
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At least the spectacular scenes filmed on location in Egypt and Sinai, with thousands of extras, lend the whole thing a sense of authenticity.Few films have packed as much punch for American political culture as Cecil B. DeMille can just about be forgiven the makeup, because ancient Egyptians did indeed paint their eyelids, lips and nails, but he is pushing it by dressing dancing girls in fluorescent green bikinis. It's amazing how much the fashions of New Kingdom Egypt seem to resemble those of 1956. Bad luck, Josephus and Philo: DeMille also filled the gaps in Moses's life from a stack of imaginative pulp novels. As for the love triangle between Moses, Nefretiri and Rameses, that doesn't appear in scriptures or history. The film plumps for the traditional choice of Seti I as Moses's adoptive father and Rameses II as his brother, though there's a slip-up when Moses congratulates Seti on his victory at Kadesh, a battle actually fought by Rameses. One of the reasons that putting a date to Moses's life is so difficult is that the Book of Exodus isn't specific about which pharaohs it describes.