I am still Moses - The Ten Commandments (1956)

For the next few posts I'm going to attempt to travel through the decades, beginning with 1950s cinema. I felt it appropriate to begin with The Ten Commandments (1956) because many people watch this movie during Holy Week or the day before Easter, when it is on network TV. I've watched it almost every year at that time.  Here's the trailer, just in case you've forgotten one of the greatest (and longest) films of all time:

Moses: What change is there in me? Egyptian or Hebrew I am still Moses. These are the same hands, the same arms, the same face that were mine a moment ago. 







When we first meet Moses, he's a prince, someone that everybody loves and admires. He's the hero, set against his adopted brother, Rameses, the villain.  The movie, despite being marketed as the story of the Israelites and their escape from slavery and relationship to God, is essentially about Moses's growth and change, from Prince of Egypt to leader of God's chosen people. 




He goes from the kind of hot, talented, successful playboy...

To a slave...

To a man with a close relationship with God, leading the Israelites to the Promised Land...

I'll admit, I've watched The Ten Commandments almost every single year during Holy Week. It's tradition. But I've never thought of the movie as being a journey of identity, which essentially it is. I've always watched it from more of the historical and Biblical standpoint, not necessarily a psychological view.


Perhaps this is due to my current mindset, as I'm thinking about characters in my novel-writing class.  However, when trying to choose a moment from this movie, I came across this quote. I don't necessarily remember Moses saying this in the movie. It's not a defining moment in the plot, I guess, but it's an important moment on Moses's inner journey, a journey that parallels the journey of the Israelites.


I think everyone has this similar inner journey at one, or even multiple, point throughout their life. During those journeys, we question if we're the same person. We may look the same, feel the same, but something has changed.  Moses is still himself despite being defined differently. 


Perhaps this is a good example of those adjectives we put at the front or back of our names sometimes. Moses the Hebrew. Moses the Egyptian. Adjectives aren't necessarily definers, though they can be if want them to be. There are more things than just these "stereotypes" that make up who we are.