THE TEN COMMANDMENTS & GLADIATOR: DECODING STORY-STRUCTURES,UNDERSTANDING STORY-TELLING!

Hi Friends,

Welcome to the New Year! 

Hope you bade a warm goodbye to the year gone by and ushered in the New Year with celebrations, splendor and a prayer!A prayer that everyone be blessed and the cup of life be overflowing with love,good cheer,good health and happiness to be shared with loved ones,friends, strangers and alike.I also believe that every new day is a new year...so let us hold on steadfastly to this thought as we celebrate and cherish every moment that our lives behold!

On this positive and assuring note,let's begin this month's post...

The best Moses & Rameses ever!

This Christmas when I watched Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments once again with my family,I was in awe of how they put together a mammoth production with minute attention and detail to the era they had to recreate,the costumes and casting.Charlton Heston was the best Moses* and Yul Brynner,the best Rameses ever. Period. Coming to the production,considering that technology was yet at it's nascent stage(no special effects nor VFX to boast of),I and my dad kept wondering on how they filmed the parting of the Red sea way back in 1956! Perhaps if  Cecil B. DeMille were alive he would have enlightened us with that priceless knowledge on how he used camera,editing and technology so convincingly to make that scene look powerful!That's the magic of cinema...you can never tell from the naked eye on how a feat was achieved until the magician himself i.e. the director comes forward to tell us how he did it!Truly a commendable job done!

What's your take on this?

And then recently we had yet another spin-off on the life of Moses,Exodus-Gods and Kings directed by Ridley Scott that has met with controversy and even banned in Egypt and in some parts of the Middle-East.So a story that was meant to inspire and awaken the spiritual consciousness of the people by bringing alive a chapter from the Exodus and highlight the doctrine of the ten commandments presents a distorted version where Moses is portrayed to be a social agitator and terrorist and God a petulant child! Sad!

And just as I was discussing the controversy surrounding ace director,Ridley Scott's Exodus-Gods and Kings,I was instantly reminded of his highly-acclaimed masterpiece, Gladiator. And then I came to realize that Gladiator had so much semblance to the story-structure of The Ten Commandments which is based on the life of Moses. Confused? 

Here are the parallels that I draw from the two films...

1. Before Moses could lead the children of Israel to the promised land,he was the son of Egypt where Sethi raises his sister,Bithiah's son as his own and wants him to take over as Pharoah after he transitions into the next life.Likewise Maximus Decimus Meridius,a Commander of the army and loyal servant of Rome may not have been Emperor Marcus Aurelius's biological or adopted son but he loves Maximus and treats him as one;a son he never had that so much so he wishes Maximus succeed him as the next regent. 

2. The point of conflict in both the dramas are legitimacy and jealousy - here's how...

Passing on the baton to the righteous...

When Rameses observes that his father,Sethi desires Moses to be his heir in the line of succession to the throne,he draws a wedge between his father and Moses when he uncovers the truth about Moses's true identity-that he was not the son of Egypt but in fact born to a poor Hebrew family and fears rebellion against Sethi on the prophecy of the prophets coming true about Moses being the chosen one who would liberate the children of Israel.And the final nail in the coffin is when Rameses shames Moses before Sethi's eyes when he kills an Egyptian taskmaster to save a Hebrew from the lashes. Likewise,Commodus on learning that his father had chosen Maximus to succeed him as the regent is driven mad with anger and jealousy that he smothers the Emperor. (Note:The treatment of the subject may be different but the structure essentially boils down to the same.)

The duo share so much in common...

Bottom line here is that both Rameses and Commodus are the legitimate heirs to the throne of their fathers namely,Sethi and Marcus Aurelius.However both Sethi and Marcus Aurelius want not their kin to take over their legacy but the one for whom they have great regard and affection, namely Moses and Maximus even though their desires are not realized under unforeseen circumstances.

3.While Rameses subjects the children of Israel into misery and bondage then Commodus with his misrule sends Rome into tyranny, conflict and oppression.

4. While Moses is banished from Egypt for going against the wishes of Sethi;Maximus on the other hand manages to escape the wrath of Commodus even as his family is massacred.

5. While Moses goes on to seek the word of God in the wilderness and is chosen to lead the children of Israel out of slavery then on the other hand Maximus's life takes a toll when he is sold to slavery and trained to be a gladiator.But what's interesting here is that Maximus is shown to be a God fearing man and religiously says his prayers holding the figurines of his loved ones with the hope of uniting with them in heaven.  

The final confrontation...

6. Finally,if Moses delivers the children of Israel from the shackles of slavery unto the promised land then Maximus also delivers the subjects of Rome from the clutches of misrule by Commodus,thus realizing the dream of Emperor Marcus Aurelius on turning Rome back into a Republic.

Note: I know many of you might be thinking that Moses had to journey on from Egypt,then part the Red Sea and lead the people to the promised land whereas Maximus did nothing as such. But the question here is that irrespective of the shift from one geographical location to another,who was the deliverer eventually?Yes,it was both Moses and Maximus.While for Moses the promised land was that which he had yet to seek as God led the way whereas for Maximus the promised land was Rome itself except that Commodus had to be defeated and eventually meet his bloody end.Of course,the trajectory of conquest might be different but structurally the essence of the plot remains the same with the exception that while Moses was backed by the power of God and led the people by his spiritual weapon-the staff as he went on to live with his people but Maximus on the other hand had to prove his gladiatorial combat skills on the battle-field in a do-or-die match where he succumbs to his wounds thus giving a supreme sacrifice of his life to protect the honor of Rome and set her people free.

Even the women love the righteous

7.Lastly,yet another similarity I observed which you may or may not agree with me is the connection between Nefretiri and Lucilla.While Rameses is in love with Nefretiri and Commodus has an incestual relationship with his sister,Lucilla (much against her wishes though) but both these beautiful princesses are in love with the righteous i.e. Moses and Maximus respectively even as Moses and Maximus go on to marry/are married to simple women from humble origins.

Perhaps if Exodus:Gods and Kings had not been touted as a film on the life of Moses then it'd have been as successful as Gladiator!The film could have alternately then been christened as Gladiator-II or Gladiator:And the legend lives on... 

(*Moses is a revered religious figure by Christians worldwide for it is he who by the staff of God led the children of Israel out of bondage to the promised land and was the lawgiver of The Ten Commandments.)

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Hope you enjoyed reading this month's post. Do share your thoughts on the same in the comments section of this post.

Take care and ciao.

Love,

Sonyaa