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Is the movie "The Ten Commandments" a good movie if someone is looking for a basic idea of what happened to the Jews in Egypt and in their departure from Egypt. Is it based only on the Old Testament or does it rely on ideas in midrashim as well as the Talmud?

Mark A.
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    By a basic idea of what happened, do you then mean midrashim? – mevaqesh Feb 15 '17 at 11:11
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    the simple biblical text could not support a 220 minute film. – rosends Feb 15 '17 at 11:19
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    That's not true. The sentence that Moshe lifted his hands up during the battle with Amalek and Aaron and Hur supported him could easily have taken several hours. – Clint Eastwood Feb 15 '17 at 13:00
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    Is this on topic? – mevaqesh Feb 15 '17 at 13:55
  • @ClintEastwood but the text isn't the complete event -- "and he lifted his hands" is a single action which would take up almost no screen time. My point is that it is impossible for the movie to be limited just to the exact events and dialogue as recorded in sefer Shemot. – rosends Feb 15 '17 at 14:19
  • For example, they move the medrash of Moshe becoming a king in Ethiopea to him conquering it as a prince in Egypt. They change some of the names. They invent a "love interest" for Yehoshua and have him running out of the house to put blood on Edgar G. Robinson's house because his girl friend lives there. They make Korach part of the golden calf. They skip from the Golden Calf to the end of the forty years. I read that was because they just ran out of time for the movie. – sabbahillel Feb 15 '17 at 18:50
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the subject of the question is not Judaism, but a non-Jewish movie. Asking how similar it is to Judaism is no better than asking how accurate a passage in the Quran is in depicting a Biblical event. – mevaqesh Feb 15 '17 at 20:07
  • @sabbahillel The King of Ethiopia episode follows how it is found in Sefer Yashar. The details of how Moshe made the conquest by overcoming their natural defenses of venomous snakes by using a species of crane are incredible. But the biggest discrepancy is the splitting of the sea. One split in liquid water versus 13 splits in ice. Is the movie accurate? No. But when I was a kid, I loved it. My favorite part was the giving of the Torah. It helped me to see the giving of the Torah as real and awesome. The closing credits say several Rabbis were consulted for the storyline. – Yaacov Deane Feb 16 '17 at 14:44
  • @mevaqesh As I recall the medrash, Moshe conquered the capital city after he left Egypt and was asked to become the king. He did not conquer the city while he was still in Egypt and present his conquest to Par'o. One interesting result of the movie is that many people visualize Charlton Heston when they think of Moshe. – sabbahillel Feb 16 '17 at 14:56
  • the 10 commandments and the 2 tablets are different steps inTora. The fact that Moses was over the mount Sinai at the time of 10 commandments is a Machloket Tanayim in Gemara Yoma 4ab, the fact that the cloud was present on the mount Sinai at the time of the 10 commandments is also a Machloket – kouty Feb 17 '17 at 11:20
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    -1 because "Is it based only on the Old Testament or does it rely on ideas in midrashim as well as the Talmud?" omits the most obvious possibility: non-Jewish sources. I haven't seen the film, but would imagine that most of it is based on non-Jewish sources. This would include the clothing styles, the hairstyles, the style of speech (except direct quotes from Jewish sources), etc. – msh210 Feb 20 '17 at 04:51
  • @msh210 That omission was a stylistic choice by MarkA I think – SAH Sep 19 '17 at 21:54

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Wikipedia states

many of the supposed inaccuracies were actually adopted by DeMille from extra-biblical ancient sources, such as Josephus, the Sepher ha-Yashar, and the Chronicle of Moses. Moses's career in Ethiopia, for instance, is based on ancient midrashim.

I haven't read the midrashim to vouch for the full truth of the above statement. However, keep in mind that Hollywood films, esp. this one which was designed in a film era of huge glitz and production (look at the huge cast used in this movie!) tends to blur and exaggerate the truth. I question a number of the various love scenes and romances shown in the film. I'm not sure that Dotan was the constant curmudgeon sly person who was always against Moses about every little item. I don't know where the film gets the idea that he was an advisor to Pharoah. One thing, particularly, seems contradictory. Moses had a speech impediment. In the film, when he speaks to Pharoah, he seems like this clearly spoken ominous speaker with a deep voice. Where did they get that?

Overall, I think people can get SOME idea, but, I'm not convinced that it's an accurate depiction of things. It's Hollywood, doing its shtick, after all. The film was not meant to be a documentary.

DanF
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    tends to blur and exaggerate the truth Sounds like the perfect medium for Midrashim. – mevaqesh Feb 15 '17 at 20:06
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    @mevaqesh LOL ;-0 Someone told me that Biblical "films" are the "Rash"i on the Midrash" :-0. – DanF Feb 15 '17 at 20:46
  • Charlton Heston had to speak clearly. I don't think he/they would have made the movie if he had to do an Elmer Phudd impression the whole time. Accurate on that point, no - he was definitely not depicted as the extremely meek man described in Torah, when dealing with Pharoah or his people in the desert, either. They took artistic liberties to make a 1950's "spectacular" that still gets the story across. – Gary Feb 17 '17 at 06:01