The Bible, The Ten Commandments and Moses

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on John Huston's auto-biography "An Open Book" and his discussion of his 1966 film "The Bible: In the Beginning," which is an Old Testament film. The paper discusses issues that relate to a vast area of theological discourse that are raised by a close reading of the film. It describes Huston's characterization in the film and criticizes the director's interpretation and manipulation of the Biblical text.

Table of Contents:
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
The Ten Commandments
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6

From the Paper:

"In the Biblical text Moses appeals to God and begs that he not destroy the Israelite people. He in fact argues with Goes and appeals to God's vanity, as it were. "Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people." (Exodus 32: 12) This would, in my reading of the film, certainly be an aspect that DeMille would not include in his version of the Biblical events as it would, at the very least, compromise the message of freedom from tyranny that the Ten Commandments is meant to portray and represent."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bible Gateway. 22 Dec. 2006. < http://www.biblegateway.com/>
• Forshey, Gerald E. American Religious and Biblical Spectaculars. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1992. Questia. 22 Dec. 2006 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27421854>.
• Huston on making The Bible. 22 December, 2006. <http://biblefilms.blogspot.com/2006/07/huston-on-making-bible.html>
• Lecture notes and comments ( as provided)
• Madsen, A., John Huston: A Biography, Doubleday and Company: Garden City, New York (1978), p. 212

More papers on The Bible, The Ten Commandments and Moses:

• Research Paper # 91762 : "An Examination of the Ten Commandments"
• Comparison Essay # 9398 : "Judaism, Islam and Christianity"
• Analytical Essay # 117 : "Defining Israelite Tradition"

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