Awesome / The Ten Commandments (1956)

"BEHOLD, HIS MIGHTY HAND!!!"

• Nefretiri gets a minor one on Ramses. With a kiss, no less, she did it to show how much she loves Moses and hates Ramses in an impressive Take That!.
  Nefretiri: Did you think my kiss was a promise of what you will have? (laughs) No, my pompous one. It was to let you know what you will not have. I could never love you.
• Charlton Heston shows us just how much of a badass Moses probably was in his time.
  • When Rameses wants the Ethiopians to bow before Pharaoh Sethi, Moses puts him in his place.
    "Command what you have conquered, my brother."
  • Even before becoming the prophet and savior of the Hebrews, Moses pwns Rameses with plain logic and reason as to why he gave the grain belonging to the temple and one day's rest to the slaves:
    Seti: You raided the temple granaries?
    Moses: Yes. (Rameses adds a weight to the scale on "his" side)
    Seti: You gave the grain to the slaves?
    Moses: Yes. (Rameses adds another weight)
    Rameses: You gave them one day in seven to rest.
    Moses: Yes. (Rameses adds another weight, making it seem impossible that Moses can win)
    Seti: Did you do all this to gain their favor?
    Moses: A city is built of brick, Pharaoh. The strong make many. The starving make few. (drops a brick on his side of the scale, tipping it in HIS favor) The dead make none. So much for accusations.
  • And then Moses proves that the above isn't just talk by pulling back the curtain to reveal that Sethi's Jubilee City is nearly completed, and very awe-inspiring. Sethi is pleased enough to guarantee that Moses will inherit the throne (or would have, had God not had other plans...)
    Moses: Let your own image proclaim my loyalty for a thousand years.
    Sethi: (outright pleased) Superb!
• Seti's way of ending the argument over whether Moses or Rameses will succeed him:
  Seti: The man best able to rule Egypt will follow me. I owe that to my fathers, not to my sons.
• The bit where Moses saves Jethro's daughters from marauders, showing just how skilled he is as a warrior.
• Moses reannounces himself to Rameses, coming alongside other kingdoms for petitions. When the guard asks what kingdom sent him, Moses goes right for the truth: "The Kingdom of the Most High!"
• Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt; the music is an epic trumpet piece throughout the entire scene as it starts with this lone man leading such a large crowd of people, the various views of different people in states of happiness in leaving and ending with a long distance shot of the literal thousands of people leaving their bondage once and for all.
• Nefertiri has a tendency to be a full-blown bitch in this movie, which allows us to give a nod to Ramses; when he prepares to go hunt down Moses and the others, she, who had been rejected by Moses earlier, has the audacity to order Ramses to come back with his sword "stained with his blood!" Ramses gives her a Death Glare and shuts her up with this gem of a comeback; "I will... to mingle with your own."
  • She gives it right back to him when he returns. As he prepares to strike, she coolly and calmly asks to see the "blood on his sword", then disgustedly notes, "You couldn't even kill him."
  • "His god... is God."
• One for the bad guys. In a moment of Villainous Valor and Rage Against the Heavens, Rameses disdains his general's urgings to quit the field upon seeing the divine pillar of fire and the parting of the sea, and says:
  "Better to die in battle with a god than live in shame!"
• The parting of the Red Sea, so beautiful that it still stuns audiences today, is the scene people think of when they read of the event in the Bible and is a masterpiece of special effects.
• The iconic scene where God delivers The Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai.
  • Later on, Moses' awe-inspiring threat:
    Moses: Those who will not live by the law...shall DIE by the law!
• You gotta give Dathan cred: after stumbling upon the identity of "The Deliverer", he approaches Prince Rameses and engages him in bargaining, knowing that the information he has is valuable beyond price. He nevertheless keeps his cool, even with an ever-agitated Rameses threatening him, even putting a sword to Dathan's neck. But the treacherous Hebrew remains calm (even smug), and makes sure that he gets everything he's after before the big reveal and the bargain is done. For all his scumbag tendencies, successfully facing down the ruthless prince (and future King) of Egypt and gaining everything he's after takes balls and serious savvy.