Sign In / Sign Up

Moses the Lawgiver

Moses the Lawgiver
Release date: 1976-03-26
Rating: 5.8
Votes: 8
Genres: History
The epic story of Moses, who led the Israelites out of slavery, parted the Red Sea and received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. This is the edited-down version for theatrical release.

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

To be fair to this biopic of the man who led the Jews from Pharaonic rule in Egypt to the land of Milk and Honey, there has been some serious effort put into the writing. It is less archaic than much of the original biblical text, but it does still manage to convey something of the gravitas of that tome - especially when delivered by Burt Lancaster in the title role. Now true, at times he does over-egg it on the earnestness front, especially towards the end, but for the most part he holds this together remarkably well. He is helped along by the equally rousing oratory of Sir Anthony Quayle who takes on the role of high priest Aaron and by a solid effort from Ingrid Thulin as Miriam. Sadly, though, these three cannot really compensate for the sluggish pace of the whole thing, nor the really pretty lacklustre supporting cast. That’s probably best exemplified by Laurent Terzieff’s weak performance as the Pharoah, but Mariangela Melato doesn’t fare so very much better as Moses’s adopted mother Bithia. It doesn’t compare at all well with DeMille’s “Ten Commandments” (1956) on the lavishness front, but I think it might outdo it on the authenticity front when they travel through the desert eking out an existence from the scraps they can find amongst the brush. It also goes some way to illustrating that all was not always sweetness and light amongst the tribes; that temptation was never far from many a mind and that, as many people may have found from reading the book of Exodus, their lord God wasn’t always the easiest deity to keep sweet! This simply hadn’t the budget nor Gianfranco De Bosio the imagination or vision to create something compelling to watch. It does have it’s moments - thought the parting of the Red Sea maybe isn’t one of them - but it needed a more robust and characterful cast to support the leads and much more succinct and focussed direction.

Movie Recommendation

  • A Few Good Men
    A Few Good Men
    1992-12-11
    When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway, are assigned to a murder case, they uncover a hazing ritual that could implicate high-ranking officials such as shady Col. Nathan Jessep.
    More...
  • Oppenheimer
    Oppenheimer
    2023-07-19
    The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
    More...
  • Ex Machina
    Ex Machina
    2015-01-21
    Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.
    More...
  • Titanic
    Titanic
    1997-11-18
    101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.
    More...
  • Joker
    Joker
    2019-10-01
    During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
    More...
  • Zack Snyder's Justice League
    Zack Snyder's Justice League
    2021-03-18
    Determined to ensure Superman's ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.
    More...
  • Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
    Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
    2019-07-24
    Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate, who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski…
    More...
  • Green Book
    Green Book
    2018-11-16
    Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.
    More...
  • All Quiet on the Western Front
    All Quiet on the Western Front
    2022-10-07
    Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervour, the boys enthusiastically march into a war they believe in. But once on the Western Front, they discover the soul-destroying horror of World War I.
    More...
  • Top Gun: Maverick
    Top Gun: Maverick
    2022-05-21
    After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen.
    More...
  • PK
    PK
    2014-12-18
    A stranger in the city asks questions no one has asked before. Known only by his initials, the man's innocent questions and childlike curiosity take him on a journey of love, laughter and letting go.
    More...
  • Call Me by Your Name
    Call Me by Your Name
    2017-07-28
    In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.
    More...
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower
    The Perks of Being a Wallflower
    2012-09-20
    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.
    More...
  • Barbie
    Barbie
    2023-07-19
    Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.
    More...
  • Inside Out
    Inside Out
    2015-06-17
    When 11-year-old Riley moves to a new city, her Emotions team up to help her through the transition. Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness work together, but when Joy and Sadness get lost, they must journey through unfamiliar places to get back home.
    More...
  • Parasite
    Parasite
    2019-05-30
    All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
    More...
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
    Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
    2018-12-06
    Struggling to find his place in the world while juggling school and family, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales is unexpectedly bitten by a radioactive spider and develops unfathomable powers just like the one and only Spider-Man. While wrestling with the implications of his new abilities, Miles discovers a super collider created by the madman Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk, causing others from across the Spider-Verse to be inadvertently transported to his dimension.
    More...
  • Inception
    Inception
    2010-07-15
    Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
    More...
  • Baby Driver
    Baby Driver
    2017-06-28
    After being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.
    More...
  • Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
    Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
    2020-02-05
    Harley Quinn joins forces with a singer, an assassin and a police detective to help a young girl who had a hit placed on her after she stole a rare diamond from a crime lord.
    More...

Similar Movies