h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Film Adaptations in which Moses supposes his toeses are roses but Moses supposes erroneously - A87932596
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

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I'm having fun reading this. Only comments so far:

"Following this the Israelites stop at Mount Sinai for a bit and the Israelites realise that they are unimpressed." was the repetition a rhetorical feature or unintentional? I'm not sure it works if it was intentional.

You don't mention that Aaron is Moses brother - he suddenly appears in the story. Maybe that would put things in context at that point.

That's a fair cop so I've tweaked it a bit now. I hadn't intended that bit to stay in the entry, to be honest. When writing the entry I thought 'I'd better write a summary of the story here, I'll put a general gist there for now and re-write it later' and as it was just a temporary placeholder, I was free to be daft knowing it'd all get deleted.

Only after re-reading the daft version I thought it had turned out surprisingly well and so I kept it after all.

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I was watching the 2006 TV miniseries 'The Ten Commandments: Age of Exodus' yesterday (as a TV miniseries it doesn't count as something to add to the entry but is an interesting comparison) and it was quite different in places. Moses' Egyptian brother is Menerith who is a member of the royal family but not Pharaoh, with Ramesses II apparently inheriting directly from Ramesses I (missing out Sethi I). Parts of the story zoom by – in the first 25 minutes Moses has been born, raised as a prince, met his real parents, killed an Egyptian rapist, been banished, met and married and had his own son – while other, less-important scenes seem to drag forever.

My favourite bit is when after Moses has repeated 'Let me people go' a fair few times but still before the final plague, Pharaoh replies 'I'm willing to negotiate – all the men, women and children can go free'. Moses then changes his demands and orders livestock and enough gold and silver to make a gigantic gold cow out of too. When Pharaoh questions this complete change of the terms and conditions on Moses' behalf, Moses replies he is not prepared to bargain and all the first born kids will die.

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This is very, very funny, though it goes on a bit - not, however, as long as those films go on, so that's fine. I remember watching the 1956 version from the back seat of a car in the drive-in movie as a small kid - and falling asleep at some point after the crossing of the Red Sea, which frankly I thought was hokey. I woke up again around the 'gainsaying of Koreh' with its attendant landslide. I also remember thinking, 'That man [Charlton Heston] looks nothing like Moses,' though I have no idea how I arrived at this conclusion.

I have one quibble, and it's not theological.

>>Hungarian Yul Brynner<<???

I understood Yuliy Borisovich Briner to have been born in Vladivostok, which makes him Russian, although he was dodgy about his ethnicity, sometimes claiming to be part Roma.

Otherwise, this is a fun way to talk about these sandal epics.

Thanks for the read-through, this did end up a tad longer than I initially expected, but I didn't think it was too repetitive and seemed to work. I've changed Yul Brynner's nationality now.

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