"The Ten Commandments" is an incredible epic tale based on the book of Exodus of the Old Testament. The acting is superb, as are the special effects for the time the movie was made (1956). Though this is a very long movie, it's quite mesmerizing, keeping you glued to the screen to the end. I'm not at all religious, but I still love this movie, both for its entertainment value and for its message of the value of freedom as well as the price necessary to maintain it.

Moses Becomes Prince of Egypt

The Ten Commandments is an expanded version of Exodus which also includes the early part of Moses' life, namely before he visits God on Mt. Sinai. After Moses is born, he is delivered in a basket across the Nile to Egypt, where he is found and adopted by Pharoah Seti I and his wife and sister Bithiah. He grows up to become a mighty figurehead alongside his stepbrother Rameses I (Yul Brynner), who competes with him for the glory of the kingdom. Moses (Charlton Heston) proves his worth to the Pharoah by building a great city in his honor, which Rameses fails to complete. Moses is lenient on his slaves, allowing them a day of rest and feeding them the city's surplus grain. As a result, they become much stronger and more willing to work, which allows them to succeed. The Pharoah becomes quite impressed with Moses and decides to promote him to prince, while Rameses is given the task of finding the alleged Deliverer of the Hebrews from slavery, either in a bottle if a myth or in chains if real.

Moses Discovers His True Identity

Once Moses becomes prince, Nefertiri, the beautiful daughter of the Pharoah, plans to marry him, but her handmaiden Memnet reveals his true identity as a Hebrew to her, known only to her and kept secret by her, by showing Nefertiri the Levite cloth he was wrapped in as a baby. Out of love for Moses, Nefertiri kills Memnet, but she still tells Moses what she had told her about him. Now Moses becomes eager to learn his true identity, so he decides to go back home to see for himself. He crosses the Nile and meets his real family, who cannot deny telling him the truth. Upon returning to Egypt, he now decides to live among his own people, the Hebrew slaves of Egypt, and learn of their hardships. Nefertiri rescues him howevever. Joshua, another Hebrew slave, is about to be killed by the Egyptian Master Builder Baka, but Moses rescues Joshua by killing Baka. Dathan, the deceitful Hebrew overseer, witnesses this and informs Rameses that Moses is the Deliverer and in fact a Hebrew himself, whence Rameses rewards Dathan with Baka's house and imprisons Moses in chains, taking him back to the royal court to present before the Pharoah.

Moses' Exile

Back in court, Pharoah Seti I is heartbroken to learn that his stepson is in fact the Deliverer. He tries to get Moses to confess of his wrongdoings, but Moses holds strong to his conviction that the Hebrews must be freed from slavery. Not wishing to make Moses a martyr by killing him, the Pharoah orders him exiled through the desert with just one day's supplies and to have his name removed from all documents and monuments and never spoken. Moses is then sent forth into the vast desert with a long robe and wooden staff and his one day's supplies. Wandering aimlessly across the desert and nearly dying of hunger and thirst, Moses finally arrives in Midian, a small village, where he is rescued by a family with seven sisters. Six of the sisters compete over him by performing a belly dance, wishing for Moses to choose one of them as his wife, but Moses rejects each of them and marries Sephora, the oldest one, who did not compete.

Moses Talks to God on Mt. Sinai

Back in Egypt, Pharoah Seti I dies and Rameses becomes the new Pharoah (Rameses II) in his place. Meanwhile, Joshua manages to escape from slavery and wander into Midian, where he meets Moses and tells him that he must go back to Egypt to rescue the slaves. Moses tells Joshua that he saw a burning bush atop Mt. Sinai, which he takes to be a sign from God. He climbs the mountain and finds the burning bush. God then speaks to Moses, telling him to remove his shoes. Moses asks God what he must do to try to free the slaves. God then tells Moses that he must return to Egypt and tell the Pharoah to let the Hebrews go, using the name "I am that I am" for God. Once Moses returns from the mountain, he has a long beard and Joshua and Sephora know from looking at him that he has spoken to God and that he is more than an ordinary man.

The Ten Plagues on Egypt

Moses returns to Egypt and demands that Rameses let the Hebrews go, but Rameses refuses. Moses then demonstrates some of his new power which God has granted him by turning his staff into a serpent. The Pharoah is not impressed, however, and four of his guards do the same thing, turning their staffs into four serpents, but Moses' serpent consumes the other four. Rameses is still not impressed, however, so he challenges Moses to perform a bigger miracle by ordering that the slaves must build their bricks without straw, but the tally must be the same or else they will be killed. Realizing that Moses cannot help the slaves, he tells them the situation. Once they learn of their predicament, they try to stone Moses to death, but Nefertiri saves him. Despite this, Moses remains unyielding in his devotion to freeing the slaves. He then uses God's power to send forth nine nasty plagues on Egypt, including blood on the Nile, hail of fire, and darkness for three days. After the ninth plague, the Egyptian court begs the Pharoah to let the Hebrews go, but he still refuses. Now Moses becomes very angry and tells the Pharoah that there will be but one more plague upon Egypt and Rameses will name it himself, and the result will be so terrible that he will surely let the Hebrew's go. The Pharoah doesn't take Moses' threat seriously, so he decides the last plague will be to kill the firstborn of all the Hebrews. Nefertiri hears this and sneaks back to Moses, telling him of this plague, but Moses realizes that the result will be that the firstborn of every Egyptian will die, but in order for the Hebrews to avoid this plague, they must cover their house with lamb's blood. He tells all the Hebrews to do so and to remain in their house while the plague passes. In what becomes the first Passover, the Hebrews, with blood on their houses, all eat unleavened bread inside while an eerie green fog engulfs Egypt, killing the firstborn of every Egyptian, resulting in periodic screams of horror. Once the plague kills the Pharoah's only son, he becomes mortified, so he finally agrees to let the slaves go.

Exodus

The next day is one of great joy for the Hebrews, who gather all their belongings and prepare for their long journey from Egypt. They leave in a huge flock, singing and carrying their belongings. Meanwhile, Rameses and Nefertiri are devastated back in Egypt. Rameses tries praying to the Egyptian falcon god for several days to restore life to his son, to no avail. Finally, out of anger, Nefertiri tells Rameses to find Moses and kill him, to which Rameses agrees, but also promises to kill her when he returns. Rameses then orders his army to kill the escaping Hebrews, whence they charge forth with their horses and chariots. Meanwhile, Moses ends up at the bank of the Red Sea with no retreat. In order to stop the Pharoah's army, with God's help he blocks their progress with a huge pillar of fire, then he parts the Red Sea, allowing the Hebrews to proceed across. Once they make it nearly all the way across, the pillar of fire goes away, allowing the army to charge across the parted sea. Moses then closes up the sea and the soldiers and their horses drown, which the Hebrews complete their journey to the other side. The Pharoah had refused to join his army, so he returns home. He must admit to his wife that he failed to kill Moses and spares her life as well, confessing to her "His god, is God".

The Ten Commandments

Finally safe from the Egyptians, the Hebrews camp at Midian and Moses climbs Mt. Sinai once again in order to get a new law from God to govern them. After Moses fails to return for several days, Dathan decides to lead the Hebrews himself. He tells them to build a golden calf to worship, which they do. Shortly thereafter, they commit all sorts of sins in the eyes of God. Meanwhile, God carves out His Ten Commandments with his finger, creating two tablets from the rock, and gives them to Moses to give to his people. Once Moses returns, he is horrified to see how the Hebrews are violating the commandments, so he loses his temper, throwing the commandments down from the mountain onto the golden calf, resulting in a conflagration which kills several of the Hebrews. Moses then makes the Hebrews wander around for 40 years until they are purged of their sin. Finally, as an old man, Moses gives his five books to Joshua to pass down to the Hebrews and become their new leader.