Story
The Ten Commandments is an animated retelling of the Biblical story of Exodus. In this story, the Hebrew prophet Moses (brought up as an Egyptian) is chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Here they can live in freedom. It features the voices of Ben Kingsley (narrator), Christian Slater (Moses), Alfred Molina (Ramses) and Elliot Gould (God).
Themes
Slavery; natural disasters (plagues); death and threatened killing
Violence
There is some violence in this movie. For example:
- The Hebrew slaves are often whipped by the Egyptians to force them to work harder.
- Moses and a relative, Ramses, engage in aggressive rough-housing that destroys several nearby garden statues.
- A guard draws a knife on Moses. They engage in battle, which results in Moses stabbing the guard. The knife is shown in close-up with blood on it.
- Moses is pursued through the streets by guards and eventually knocked from his donkey by a blow to his face by a guard’s staff.
- Men physically harass women in the desert around a communal well. Moses threatens them with violence if they don’t leave the women alone.
- Moses’ snake consumes the snakes of the Egyptian magicians.
- Pharaoh repeatedly verbally threatens violence and death on Moses and the Hebrew slaves.
Sexual references
None of concern
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
None of concern
Nudity and sexual activity
There is very mild sexual activity in this movie. In one scene, two women dance together wearing less than their culturally-approved attire. One of the women attempts to cover her chest with her hands when Moses returns from the mountain and sees what they are doing.
Product placement
None of concern
Coarse language
None of concern
Ideas to discuss with your children
The Ten Commandments is a computer-generated animation depicting the historical and Biblical account of Moses’ exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. It provides a chance for you to talk with your children about values such as perseverance, loyalty, justice, freedom (from slavery and oppression), courage, patience, faith, Judaic/Christian morality, and family/community unity.
This movie could also give you the chance to discuss with your children the importance of:
- reviewing historical texts first-hand
- the nature and intent of slavery, racism and infanticide
- idolatry, magic and supernatural events
- violence, rebellion, murder, deception, ungratefulness, anger and impatience.