"Oh Moses, You Stubborn, Splendid, Adorable Fool!"
I like to watchThe
Ten Commandmentsevery year as I get ready for Passover. Is it dangerous to
base my understanding of Jewish history on the work of an anti-Semitic film
director?
By Danny
Miller, Contributor
Writer and book
editor in Los Angeles
Apr 4, 2007, 09:38 AM EDT |Updated May 25, 2011
This post
was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors
control their own work and posted freely to our site.
That insanely
anachronistic bit of dialogue was uttered by Anne Baxter's Nefretiri to
Charlton Heston in the 1956 version of The Ten Commandments. Cecil
B. DeMille's second retelling of the Passover story (he first filmed the
Biblical tale in 1923) is the campy benchmark against which all other cinematic
depictions of the Exodus will forever be compared, including the new ABC
mini-series that debuted last year. For some, DeMille's film eclipses even the
Bible. "I don't need to read the Haggadah," I remember telling my
horrified grandfather as a kid at our seder table. "I already saw the
movie!"
The Haggadah is the book that Jews read every year at their Passover seders to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Did you know that the name of Moses never appears once in a traditional Haggadah? Moses was said to have omitted his name from the story out of sheer humility. He wanted God to get all of the credit for the deliverance of the Jewish people. Charlton Heston's Moses, however, was about as humble as Benito Mussolini.
His performance as the Hebrew leader was larger
than life and I can barely think of a scene in which Heston did not appear. And
just in case there was any doubt about the true savior of the story, Charlton
Heston reportedly also supplied the voice of God in the film. DeMille was no
shrinking violet either. The tagline for his film was a modest "The
Greatest Event in Motion Picture History!"
I like to watch The Ten Commandments every year as I get ready for the Passover holiday which began Monday night. I would even say that for many Jews, this annual viewing is a tradition on par with eating gefilte fish and removing chametz from the home.
And yet, in spite of its
important role in the pre-holiday frenzy, The Ten Commandments is
the most goyishe Jewish film ever created. Charlton Heston may
be playing the liberator of the Hebrews, but this Evanston, Illinois native is
the quintessential Goy Boy. True, he won an Oscar for his post-Moses role as
the Jewish Ben-Hur, but his decidedly non-Jewish looks and persona were used to
great advantage in roles ranging from John the Baptist and Michelangelo to
Brigham Young and Nazi butcher Josef Mengele.
As a matter of fact, despite the prevalence of Jews in
Hollywood, you'd be hard pressed to find a single Jewish actor in DeMille's
film. Moses' right-hand man Joshua was played by über-Goy heartthrob John Derek
who is best known for his series of successively younger wives (Ursula Andress,
Linda Evans, and Bo Derek) who looked so much alike they could have passed for
grandmother, mother, and daughter. Moses' sister Miriam was played by shiksa
Olive Deering, the first wife of Leo Penn (father of Sean) who also played a
catty anti-Semite in Gentleman's Agreement. Moses' mother Jochelbel
was played by the very Gentile Martha Scott (the original Emily in Our
Town) who repeated her role as Heston's Jewish mama in Ben-Hur.
Jewish slave girl Lilia was played by 50s starlet Debra Paget who usually
appeared as Indian squaws, harem girls, or South Sea maidens.
The great John Carradine played the role of Moses' older
brother Aaron. Carradine was the ex-preacher in The Grapes of Wrath and
played Gestapo henchmen in no less than four different films. The late Yvonne
DeCarlo took on the role of Moses' loyal wife Sephora. DeCarlo would play Mary
Magdelene a few years later before hitting the big time as Lily Munster.
Indeed, the
only bona fide Jew I could find in The Ten Commandments was
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg) who was deliciously evil as
Dathan, the self-serving Israelite who betrays his own people.
Is it dangerous to base my understanding of Jewish history
on the work of an anti-Semitic film director? Okay, that slanderous label may
be unfair but DeMille was unable to shake it following the release of his
controversial 1927 film King of Kings. That silent blockbuster was
the first film to leave viewers with the impression that the Jews, not the
Romans, were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus and it was thought to
have ignited a new spate of pre-war anti-Semitism in this country.
Under pressure
from Jewish groups, DeMille added a title card that exonerated the biblical
Jews but the prickly director didn't help his case when he angrily responded to
charges by Jewish critics by stating, "If Jesus were alive today, these
Jews might crucify him again!"
If the casting
of the Jews in DeMille's epic raised the hackles of the Anti-Defamation League,
the actors playing the Egyptian characters in DeMille's movie suffered no less
of a genetic mismatch. Sir Cedric Hardwicke's Sethi was clearly the whitest
Pharaoh ever to grace the screen. With tall, blonde Nina Foch as Egyptian
Princess Bithiah and Anne "Eve Harrington" Baxter as Queen Nefretiri,
DeMille presented an Egyptian royal family that could have passed for the court
of King Gustaf of Sweden. At least Yul Brynner's Rameses II had a more
authentic look, despite the fact that Brynner was born in Vladivostok, Russia,
quite a trek from the North African Kingdom of the Pharaohs. Most historians
claim they had the wrong Pharaoh anyway. The Egyptian leader who reigned during
the time of the Exodus was more likely Menephtah, the fourteenth and eldest
surviving son of Rameses II.
But who cares
about authenticity when you're watching one of the most gloriously absurd epics
ever filmed? How could anyone resist such dialogue as the following?
Rameses
(to Nefretiri): You will be mine, like my dog, or my horse, or
my falcon, except that I shall love you more--and trust you less.
Nefretiri: Oh,
Moses, Moses! Why of all men did I fall in love with the Prince of Fools? Why
must you deny me and yourself?
Moses: Because I am bound to a God, and to a people, and to a
shepherd girl.
Nefretiri: A shepherd girl? What can she be to you unless the
desert sun has dulled your senses? Does she grate garlic on her skin or is it
soft as mine? Are her lips chafed and dry as the desert sand or are they moist
and red like a pomegranate? Is it the fragrance of myrrh that scents her hair
or is it the odor of sheep?
Moses: There is a beauty beyond the senses, Nefretiri.
Baka: Will
you lose a throne because Moses builds a city?
Rameses: The city that he builds shall bear my name, the woman that
he loves shall bear my child. So let it be written, so let it be done.
That last
brilliant line rivals Brynner's own "et cetera, et cetera, et cetera"
he made famous four months earlier when the movie version of The King
and I opened. I wouldn't be surprised if many people confused
Brynner's two most famous roles and believed that 19th century King Mongkut of
Siam was wandering around Ancient Egypt 3000 years in the past. Though both
rulers were despotic egomaniacs, I felt sorry for them by the end of the films.
Charlton Heston and Deborah Kerr both succeeded in emasculating poor Yul. I'm
no scholar of Ancient Egypt but I strongly doubt that any Pharaoh ever stated,
as Brynner's Rameses did in utter defeat, "His God...IS...God!" Oy.
When he
filmed The Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston was a liberal Democrat
and was even considering a Democratic run for the Senate. Like his Democrat pal
Ronald Reagan, Heston would make a whiplash-inducing turn to the right,
eventually becoming the President of the National Rifle Association and working
for pro-life groups. These later leanings of Heston's were probably more in
line with Moses' political affiliations. Though socially liberal (Moses' fight
against slavery mirrored Heston's support for civil rights), both had a
religious zeal that could rival any fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist preacher.
When I watched the new 21st century version of The Ten Commandments, I was even more struck by Moses' blind fanaticism. In this take on the story, God appeared as a voice inside Moses' head. If that voice had told him to murder his closest loved ones, would Moses have dutifully obeyed? Is that holiness or a case of paranoid schizophrenia? Dougray Scott's Moses, looking like a cross between Jesus of Nazareth and magician Doug Henning, seemed far more psychotic than Heston's self-assured Hebrew leader.
This version of the Exodus was supposed to
have been more authentic but I'm not so sure. It was definitely more violent.
The constant savagery and bloodletting made DeMille's epic look like a Shirley
Temple movie. No one was spared the wrath of this tortured, neurotic Moses. If
his own people acted out in some way against their Lord, there was only one
answer: Death! And I'll take DeMille's low-tech parting of the Red Sea any day,
accomplished by flooding two huge "dump tanks" in the Paramount
parking lot and then showing the film in reverse.
I never thought
I'd find myself longing for Charlton Heston. Where's that stubborn, splendid,
adorable fool when we need him?
Kosher Foxtrot
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The Definitive Guide to Jewish Miscellany and Trivia
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