Series / Moses the Lawgiver

Moses The Lawgiver is a 1974 Italian-British miniseries produced by Vincenzo Labella, directed by Gianfranco De Bosio and co-written by Anthony Burgess.

It tells the biblical story of Moses (played by Burt Lancaster) from the Book of Exodus, from his birth during the Israelites' enslavement in Ancient Egypt to his death when the emancipated Israelites return to the Promised Land.

Many of the film's crew (Like Labella and Burgess) would later go on to create Jesus of Nazareth.

---

Moses the Lawgiver contains examples of:

• Achilles in His Tent: The first meeting with Mernefta goes badly. The Pharoah has ordered the end of the Egyptians' contribution of straw to the brick-making (while forcing the quota of bricks to remain the same). The overworked Israelites rebuke Moses, seeing him as a figure of misfortune: people avoid him; children throw clay at him; A disappointed Aaron wants no more to be Moses' mouthpiece. Moses laments being God's deliverer.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • Bithia is portrayed as a Baby Be Mine woman, undergoing fertility rituals to become a mother, thus explaining why she would adopt Moses.
  • Mernefta sends out to Moses a pardon for killing the Egyptian (subtly demanding his return from exile); resolving the issue of why Moses doesn't get arrested once returning to the homeland.
  • Aaron's intention to have the Golden Calf be treated as a symbol of Israel instead of an idol of worship. True, that ends in failure, but it makes him less of an Extreme Doormat. (Overlaps with Fridge Brilliance as Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra posited this as being the case in his Biblical commentary as an explanation of why Aaron was not executed for idolatry).
• Adapted Out:
  • Moses' second son Eliezer.
  • The staff-snake duel between Moses and the Egyptian magicians.
  • Moses' last meeting with Pharaoh (where he finally gives his consent to free the Israelites).
  • Miriam temporarily contracting leprosy.
  • Moses striking the Rock.
  • Moses' retaliation against the Midianites.
• Age Lift:
  • The historical Merneptah was in around seventy when he ascended the throne. The Series de-ages him to a young man.
  • Considering Mernefta goes from child to Young Man, this shortens the time-span of Moses' exile, making Moses a lot younger than the Eighty-year-old portrayed in the Biblical text.
• All the Other Reindeer:
  • Yokebed gets called out for "selling" her infant son to an Egyptian (rather than allow it drowned). The Keneally novelization has kid!Aaron suffer this, with said rebukers prohibiting their children to play with him.
• Answer Cut: (Italian version) Two ministers converse about Moses' return and his endeavor to free the slaves. One of them contemplates a plan he has been interested in doing to the slaves, involving brick making. A cut later, the Israelites have discovered the Egyptians will no longer contribute straw in making the bricks, forcing them to labor on that addition themselves (while maintaining the standard quota of bricks).
• Artistic License – History:
  • The miniseries portrays Ramesses and Merneptah as grandfather and grandson. Historically, they were father and son. Ramesses' grandson would have been Seti II or Amenmesse, presuming the latter was not his son, and Merneptah's grandfather would have been Seti I.
  • The novelization refers to Merneptah as being ten at the time of Bithiah's passing. He is also referred to as Ramesses' son, when first introduced at least. Historically, Ramesses would have been around thirty when Merneptah was ten, making the portrayal of Ramesses having an adult grandson in Moses more than a little odd to those familiar with history.
• A Taste of the Lash:
  • Dathan gets whipped for attacking the Egyptian Overseer for raping his wife.
  • An Egyptian strikes Aaron with his reed for putting on airs as a skave.
  • The aftermath of an act is shown with Joshua tied to a post (as punishment for violent intentions over the new Straw Law).
• Attempted Rape:
  • (Italian version) Zipporrah gets attacked during the Golden Calf Orgy. Fortunately, she strikes her assailant dead with a rock.
• Away in a Manger: Amrim gets his pregnant wife Yokebed to an abandoned shed so she can deliver their son in secrecy.
• Baby Be Mine: The Princess Bithia, desiring a child despite being barren, undergoes a Fertility Ceremony at the Nile. She then spots a basket in the River, has it claimed, sees the baby within, and adopts the child, seeing it as an answer to her prayers.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Moses' birth is joined with scenes of the Egyptians drowning the male Israelite babies in the Nile River.
• Book Ends: (Italian version)
  • The prologue shows Moses walking up Mount Nebo to see the Promised Land. This is repeated near the end.
  • Series begins and ends with the Israelites migrating: to Egypt at the beginning and their return to the Promised Land at the end.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Mernefta.
  • An advisor in the Court. In the Italian version he laughs about Moses' endeavor to free the Israelites. Later, he is humbled, having lost his family to the Plagues.
• Bearer of Bad News: Moses sadly tells Miriam that the coming Exodus will be especially hard on the Innocent, gazing at his sister's children. At his meeting with Mernefta, the Pharaoh presents his infant son. Moses looks sadly at the babe, knowing the dark possibilities that may befall him if his father refuses the Israelites' emancipation.
• Bystander Syndrome:
  • The Levites choose not to involve themselves when the Israelites organize a cult for the Golden Calf and have an orgy. They do nothing to prevent such blasphemy or protect any innocent from the worshippers' violence. Moses and Miriam call them out for their non-involvement.
• Call-Back: Several nods from The Ten Commandments (1956):''
  • Dathan outing Moses' Israelite identity.
  • Mernefta insulting a statue of Horus' bird head resembles Nefritiri's insult from the earlier film.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: At one point Moses comments that he is sick of the Israelites for their neediness and complaints, but acknowledges that they are all he has.
• Cassandra Truth: In his final (by adaptation) meeting with Mernefta, Moses warns him of the severity of the upcoming Tenth Plague:

  "There will be one last trial yet to come. It will not fall directly on your head. You will live to see the Israelites leave the land of Egypt. But this last trial yet to come will be the most terrible trial in all the world unless you let my people go."

• Chekhov's Gun: Averted. Although Moses' staff turns into a snake at the Burning Bush, this Series doesn't repeat the trick at Mernefta's Court. Mernefta does exposition the trick, telling Moses not to even try it.
• The Chosen One: Downplayed. The series avoids the 'deliverer prophecy' used in several Exodus films. It is only Miriam who predicts Moses as the deliverer before he is born.
• Cool Big Sis: Miriam. Praises Moses before he is born. Gets him adopted into Egyptian Royalty. Is his staunchest supporter.
• Covers Always Lie: Several posters made for the Compilation Movie play it up as some Big Budget Spectacular instead of the Small Budget/Low Key portrait it really is. One poster has Moses resemble the Charlton Heston incarnation from The Ten Commandments (1956)
• Death by Adaptation: Bithia. The Bible does not mention her after her adoption of Moses. Jewish Traditions have her join the Israelites into the wilderness. Here, she dies shortly before Moses makes his life-changing killing of the Egyptian.
• Darkness Equals Death: Bithia believes this. She explains to Yokobed that men like her father live metaphysically in the dark, worshipping Dark Gods, etc. causing dark actions like executing innocent children (she differentiates her gender as living in the light, worshipping Gods of Light, sanctifying life). Later, at her impending death, she asks Moses to light up her room to assuage her fear of the coming darkness.
• Decomposite Character: Merneptah is portrayed as the grandson of Ramesses II rather than his son, with an unseen son of Ramesses referred to as his father. Historically, Merneptah was the thirteenth son of Ramesses. The novelization still refers to Merneptah as Ramesses' son at one point however, while referring to him as Ramesses' grandson for the rest of the book.
• Deconstruction:
  • The Series departed from the Epic Film trappings of earlier Biblical Epics, like Cecil B. DeMille's two versions of The Ten Commandments. The wardrobe of the Israelites, being in the status of slaves, is accurately ragged and dirty, lacking in the color of those earlier versions.
  • A Darker and Edgier tone to the Plagues of Egypt. Earlier Exodus films' focus on the Egyptians were limited to the Jerkass Nobility and authorities. Here attention is given to the populace, as men, women, and children suffer greatly from draught, frogs, flies, boils, etc. The Body Count from the Tenth Plague is limited to offscreen screams, but since the focus is on Mernefta's son- here portrayed as a newborn infant- the cruelty of the Plague on the Innocent is still clear.
• Demythification:
  • Although the Series is Truer to the Text, it nevertheless departs from the legendary aspects created over the centuries. Due to contemporary research, the Series interprets the Sea of Reedes as the waters the Israelites crossed, instead of the popular Red Sea.
  • Moses, usually interpreted as the stereotypical stoic hero, is a human being with natural flaws.
  • A Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane approach is given to the supernatural elements.
• Defiant to the End: (Italian version) A man condemned for collecting wood on the Sabbath is tied to a post to be stoned to death. When the authority faces him, the condemned spits in his face.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • The Biblical sources had Miriam die sometime near the end of the Israelites' 40 Years of Wandering. Here, she gets lynched by the Golden Calf worshippers and succumbs to her injuries shortly after.
  • Likewise, Aaron's death is moved to the beginning of the Wandering, from injuries sustained from the Korah Revolt.
• Disappeared Dad: As Moses plays with Miriam's children, she reveals that their father was killed by an Egyptian.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Inverse. A man admonishes Moses for executing his brother for breaking the Sabbath, feeling it too harsh.
• Disproportionate Restitution: Inverse: When a man is murdered, Moses contemplates how to make reparation, feeling goods or possession aren't equal to the value of a life.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Dathan refers to the "smoke stuff" his follower is inhaling:

  "Gives you visions of the Promised Land, so they say, but makes you sick afterwards."

• Dreaming of Things to Come: Aaron has a dream: he is being whipped by a group of Egyptians. A Hawk from the sky scares them away. Aaron interprets this as Moses returning to Egypt.
• The Faceless: The Pharoah to whom Dathan confesses Moses' true background (and referred to as Bithia's brother and Mernefta's father) is not shown save in shadow.
• Faking Another Person's Illness: Miriam takes this trope. She has to hide the truth about her mother giving birth to a male in a secret place so the Egyptians won't find the baby and drown it. So the girl explains that Mom has the fever and is isolating herself.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Moses notes children sculpting a bull.
• Get Out!: When a group comes to Moses for guidance, he gives advice and then gestures them to leave. When they don't take the message, Moses angrily tells them to leave him alone.
• Going Native:
  • An Israelite girl puts on an Egyptian necklace. This infuriates Miriam, who tears the trinket off and admonishes the girl for accepting their new status.
  • Moses obviously does this twice: first as an Egyptian Prince and then as a shepherd.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Aaron feels this way at one point when Moses gives attention to Joshua.
• Hearing Voices: Moses is pegged by this condition, although his fellow Egyptians thinks he's listening to Bats and mice.
• Historical Domain Character:
  • Ramesses II and Merneptah.
  • Downplayed because his name is not mentioned. Mernefta's magician comments about the Israelites' monotheism. Mernefta is aware that this belief resembles a past religious convention in Egypt's history. He is referring to the reign of Akhenaten (when he forbade all deity cults save the worship of the Sun God Aten).
• Hollywood Darkness: (Italian version) The Golden Calf Orgy is portrayed as night via a filter. The English version shows the scene filter-free in the daytime.
• Hypocrite: A minister pleads with Mernefta to appease the Israelites so it will end the Plagues. The courtier is motivated by grief over the death of his wife and daughter from the present crisis. Mernefta dismisses his loss, saying he could get a new wife and father a new child. When Mernefta loses his own child to the Plagues, he immediately emancipates the Israelites in Grief.
• I Want Them Alive!: For the intended reclaiming the Israelites, Mernefta orders as minimal harm as possible. This is not a war, he explains. Moses is to brought back for a public execution.
• Karma Houdini: Ramesses II, the Pharaoh that ordered the death of the Hebrew male children.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Dathan has been a thorn to Moses' side for years. He sells out Moses' Israelite birth to Pharaoh, constantly sways the embittered Israelites to oppose Moses' authority, orchestrates the Golden Calf cult and causes the murder of one girl as a sacrifice to the idol. Moses keeps him alive so he can one day understand God. However, then he openly rebels against Moses and Aaron, forming a separate group intent on returning to Egypt. When Dathan declares the God of his new tribe is against the present covenant, an Earthquake opens the Earth beneath him and he falls to his death.
• The Kingslayer: (Italian version) The Midianite King, his Court & Army scattered in defeat, gets surrounded by three of this trope (all Israelite) and is killed.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Double Subverted. The Egyptian Court Magician scoffs at the Divine power of the Plagues, explaining them as natural disorders. However it appears he takes his abilities seriously. The only scene he performs his "magic" is to futilely protect Mernefta's son during the Tenth Plague, which is implied to be of supernatural origin.
• Lady Macbeth: Eliseba takes on this trope's characteristics. When Moses makes his 40-day absence, Eliseba tries to persuade Aaron of his brother's incompetency in leading the Israelites and usurp the authority. She later drops the trope, either because she is satisfied with Aaron becoming High Priest or feeling guilty for the Golden Calf fiasco.
• Loophole Abuse: Although Mernefta orders the Israelite Emancipation after the death of his son, shortly after he alters the terms based on earlier compromises asked by Moses and Aaron- allowing the Israelites to go into the Desert and pray to their God under a time limit of three days. Since this "trip" has now passed the assigned time limit, Mernefta views this as a violation of the terms, and sees no choice but to reclaim the Israelites.
• Made a Slave: this is probably one of the few Exodus films to show the Israelites BEFORE their enslavement. The beginning shows them settling peacefully in Egypt. Then Pharaoh- fearing the potential of this group allying themselves with foreign enemies- orders their subjugation and resettlement.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places:
  • Moses walks past a hut where a couple is making out with the door open.
  • Later at an oasis, Moses comes to a Man of Rueben making out with the very married wife of Eliphaz.
• Maternity Crisis: Yokebed goes into Labor at the WORST TIME POSSIBLE. Egyptian soldiers have just forcibly collected all the Israelites' male toddlers and infants to drown in the Nile River. Fortunately, she is moved to a hiding place and delivers her son.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The Burning Bush and the first examples of Moses' granted power could be portrayed as an illusion. God's voice could be Moses talking to himself. Several of the Plagues and the parting Sea of Reedes are implied to be natural disorders. On the other hand, the death of the First Borns and the Earthquake that swallows Dathan, Korah, and the rebels lack such informed excuses and could actually be Wrath Of God.
• A Molten Date with Death: Moses punishes one of the Golden Calf worshippers by having the melted statue's liquid be poured into his mouth.
• Moment Killer: Reunited, Moses and Zipporah get passionate, but they get interrupted by the Israelites getting restless again.
• Money Is Not Power: The Egyptians, suffering under the Plagues, try to bribe the Israelites into escaping Egypt by giving them their treasured possessions. But the Israelites will not leave without the Pharoah's consent, meaning the Egyptians will have to continue to suffer.
• Moses in the Bulrushes: Unlike other versions, where Moses ending up adopted by the Pharaoh's daughter is a happy coincidence, this Series has that outcome engineered, with Miriam coming near to Bithia's fertility ceremony at the Nile and setting the basket to sail down the River into plain sight.
• Moving The Goal Posts: On both sides with Moses & Aaron's talks with Mernefta. First, they demand the right to go to the desert for three days and give sacrifice to their God. Mernefta refuses. A few Plagues later, Mernefta relents but with the demand that the women and children remain home as an incentive of their return. This won't do. A few more plagues later, Mernefta relents to the wish that all Israelites pay the tribute in the desert, but their animals and goods remain behind as an incentive that they return. This won't do, with Moses changing the goal to permanent freedom from Egypt. Again this is refused by Mernefta. After the Tenth Plague, Mernefta relents. However, he later makes a Loophole Abuse by returning to the original demand, viewing the Israelites' prolonged absence beyond the three-day limit as a violation to the terms, rendering things null and void.
• Musicalis Interruptus: The "Israel" scene gets interrupted by a scene of the Egyptian funeral procession for Mernefta's dead son.
• Narrator: Richard Johnson.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Moses kills the Egyptian that was punishing Dathan (and raping his wife). Dathan informs King Rameses that Prince Moses is an Israelite.
• No One Gets Left Behind:
  • As the Israelites abandon their slave quarters, a boy runs back to claim a black lamb.
  • Averted for the Israelites during the 40 days of Wandering. A montage shows travelers dropping dead and abandoned.
• Novelization: There were two books. A book with the same title by Thomas Keneally and Moses A Narrative by the co-screenwriter Burgess.
• Plucky Girl: Miriam was one feisty kid. She attacks a fellow girl for wearing an Egyptian necklace. She plays guide for her parents so they can deliver Moses in hiding. It is she who plans and engineers Moses getting adopted by the Pharaoh's daughter. She also persuades Bithia to get a wet nurse for the baby (who turns out to be their mother).
• Plunder: Dathan has stocked up on gold items from several Egyptian villas abandoned during the Plagues.
• Resigned to the Call: The interpretation of Moses signifies the trope. He tries to talk God out of making him the deliverer, laments taking the job, asks fruitlessly to be free if it.
• Royal Brat: Kid Mernefta.
• Sex Slave: (Italian version) The Midianite King has a male sitting beside his throne.
• Shrine to the Fallen: (Italian version) Averted. Joshua orders Moses' corpse to be buried in secret and with no mark, so the grave will not become a shrine for idolatry.
• Shrouded in Myth: Even before he gets called by God, Moses receives a popularity that exaggerates his actions. His killing of one Egyptian becomes a Curb-Stomp Battle of twenty Egyptians. His rescue at the Midrian well is equally propped up, and that he married all the daughters of Jethro.
• The Social Darwinist: in the desert, an old man is robbed of his water by several young men. Moses reprimands them for stealing something the man had wisely saved (in contrast to the youths who wasted their supply). The youths feel their age allows them priority for survival instead of an old man.
• Song of Prayer: When the Egyptians get drowned- the final victory over their slavers- Miriam and a group of maidens celebrate with song and dance. "I Will Sing to the Lord..."
• Spell My Name With An S:
  • While already a case as his name is either spelled "Merneptah" or "Merenptah", "Mernefta" is not a recognized spelling of the pharaoh's name. Strangely, the Keneally novelization refers to him as "Mernefta" exactly once, while referring to him as "Merneptah" for the rest of the book.
    • The Series credits spell Merneptah as "Mernefta." The historical and Series versions shall be distinguished by the spelling.
  • The Series credits spells Jochebed's name as "Yokebed".
• That Cloud Looks Like...: While crossing the parted Sea, a child noted a cloud resembling a bull. Later, the child mistakes the Golden Calf for that cloud shape.
• Truer to the Text: Unlike previous Hollywood versions of the Exodus, this series shows more accuracy to the Biblical text:
  • Pharaoh's motivation to kill the male Israelite babies (population control) and the method of death (drowning).
  • Moses' father Amram, a usually Adapted Out figure, appears here.
  • Moses having a stutter and Aaron being his mouthpiece to Pharaoh.
  • The Moving the Goalposts negotiations with Pharaoh.
  • Moses going Church Militant on the Golden Calf worshippers.
  • Inclusion of Adapted Out passages like Zipporah's emergency circumcision of her son and the Daughters of Zelophehed demanding a change to inheritance rights.
• Ungrateful Bastard: While some adaptations have the Hebrew that Moses rescues by killing the Egyptian be Joshua, Aaron or a complete stranger, this one has it be Dathan, who has no problem with reporting Moses.
• Villainous Breakdown: Mernefta undergoes this when his infant son dies from the Tenth Plague. He wanders and rants around the empty Throne Room, declaring the slaves' freedom and pleading for a blessing from their God before collapsing to the floor.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Bithia. One scene she has adopted the infant Moses; one Time Skip later, her next scene has the Princess at her death bed.
• What the Hell, Hero?: This happens to Moses several times.
  • Moses gets ostracized by the slaves after Mernefta removes the Egyptian's straw contribution in brick making.
  • Much later, the brother of a man executed for breaking the Sabbath admonishes Moses, decrying his laws.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Moses' son Gershom asks this question to Zipporah.