Review On “The Prince Of Egypt” Essay, Research Paper
A Review on The Prince of Egypt.
On Friday, November 26, 1999, I sat down and viewed the entire movie ?The Prince of Egypt?. This movie was about Moses and some of his life journeys. In this movie you see Moses?s transition from living as the Prince of Egypt to being God?s deliverer and going against the Pharaoh to free the Hebrew?s out of Egypt?s slavery. This movie was excellent in the way it portrayed Moses?s journeys and helped the viewer get a better understanding of all of the emotions that were taking place at this time.
In the beginning of the story Moses was a newborn baby of a Hebrew family. At the time the Pharaoh had ordered that any son born into a Hebrew family must be thrown in the river as a means of execution. Moses?s family tries to save him by placing him in a basket and sending him floating down the river, praying to God for his safety. His sister follows the basket floating down the river and sees that it floats up to the palace of Egypt where the Pharaoh?s wife finds him and decides to keep him as her own son. Moses?s sister sees that he has reached safety and prays that one day they will be reunited.
During the next scene Moses is playing with his brother, Rameses, riding all over the kingdom in chariots. They eventually destroy some of the construction and the Pharaoh reprimanded them both for their behavior. Moses knows that the Pharaoh usually puts dishonor on Rameses when he is troublesome, so Moses takes the blame to protect his brother from the shame. This scene depicts Moses?s closeness with Rameses and the love he has for his brother.
Moses then travels through the town and runs into his biological sister who tells him that he is a Hebrew. At first Moses does not believes her, but then he returns to the palace, finds his mother and she tells him the truth about his heritage. This upsets Moses because the life that he has grown up knowing, no longer feels like the one in which he belongs. He begins to feel sympathetic for the enslaved Hebrews, and ends up killing a guard for needless whipping of an old Hebrew man. After this, Moses feels he must leave Egypt, even though his brother tells him that he will eradicate him of this crime. He leaves town and wanders through the desert until eventually he comes to the home of The High Priest of Meridian. He marries the priest?s daughter and learns how to live life as a common shepherd. Through this he discovers that he loves this new life through heaven?s eyes. One day, chasing a sheep he comes unto a cave in which he finds a holy fire that does not burn him. He hears a voice calling his name, and inquires who is speaking, and God speaks to him telling him ?I am who I am?. God then tells Moses that he has seen oppression in Egypt and that Moses is the one who will deliver the Hebrews from slavery. Moses is doubtful that he can handle this task, but God commands him and tells him that he is the chosen deliverer. Moses is skeptical about people believing his word, so he is given a staff, which will serve as a sign for those who do not believe
Moses then travels back to Egypt to deliver the Hebrews out of Egypt. When he first goes into the palace to confront Pharaoh about freeing his people, he finds that the man who he knew as his father growing up had died, and Rameses was the new Pharaoh. At first Rameses was ecstatic about his brother?s return, but then Moses informed him for what this visit was made. He spoke to Rameses of all of the suffering the Hebrews had endured and that his God had sent him to free his people. When Rameses questioned the God from whom which Moses was sent, Moses held up his staff, which swiftly turned into a cobra and fell to the floor hissing. Rameses then took Moses into a private chamber and relayed to him that he has ancient traditions to uphold, and that he is not willing to do this. After more discussion, Rameses then becomes angry about this request and commands the slaves to have a double workload, ending the discussion. This request from Moses was very troubling to ask because of the fact that he was asking against beliefs that he had thought of as normal growing up. It was also very disheartening because he loved his brother very much and knew that the punishment for Egypt would be very severe and they would suffer greatly.
The movie then depicts Moses walking through the town speaking with angry Hebrews that are enraged because of the doubled workload they had been given. As he is speaking with the Hebrews, Moses is reunited with his enslaved biological sister who is jubilant about their reunion and she already knows that God saved him that day in the river to deliver them out of slavery. As they?re conversing they see the Pharaoh?s boat floating in the river and Moses goes to the bank to ask him for freedom of his people. Rameses becomes quickly angered and orders his guards to take Moses captive, who then jump out of the boat into the water to seize him. With God?s help, Moses uses his staff to turn the river into blood. The guards became so terrified that they quickly retreat and run quickly to jump back on to the boat.
God then sends the plagues to Egypt. In the movie most of the plagues are not emphasized greatly, there was a song where pictures of frogs and locusts were shown tormenting Egypt. The last plague was the Plague of the Firstborn and in this plague God warned Moses to have all of the Hebrews mark the top and side of their door with lamb?s blood. During the night the movie depicted a Holy Spirit like a bright, picturesque, fast moving, and breezy cloud rushing through the town creeping through doorways and taking the last breath of the firstborn. If the doorway was marked with blood, the spirit would turn away and continue on to the next house until he had been in every Egyptian?s house in the town. The last place he traveled was into the Pharaoh?s palace where he took the life of the Pharaoh?s firstborn son. The next day in Egypt there was a great cry because of the town mourning the loss of their loved one?s. At this point Moses travels to the Pharaoh?s home to ask for his people to be set free. He apologizes to Rameses for his losses, but explains that he has brought this upon himself, but Rameses does not accept this answer. He is angry with Moses and tells him to leave his kingdom and take his people away with him.
Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt and traveled across the desert to the Red Sea. When they arrive they began to settle down to rest there, but then the Pharaoh?s troops led by Rameses came over the hill in their horses and chariots to kill the Hebrews. They all panicked because there was nowhere to run from the Egyptian troops, but then Moses held his stick in the sea and parted the sea making walls of water. The movie showed this as a very beautiful occurrence; as the Hebrews were walking thorough they could even see fish swimming by in the walls of water. The Hebrews then proceeded to run through the Sea to get through the other side. The Egyptians followed them into the water, but as the Hebrews reached safety the walls of water closed up and the Egyptian troops were all destroyed except for Rameses who washed up on the shore, screaming Moses?s name in anger. In the final scene Moses is portrayed walking down the mountain carrying stone tablets and smiling because of his happiness about the freedom of his people.
There were few discrepancies throughout the movie, but most of them were simple exaggerations to make the story a little more exciting. In the Bible the Pharaoh?s death is not mentioned when the wall of water comes down onto the Egyptian Army, but it does say:
The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen- the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. Exodus 14:28
Another exaggeration in the movie was after Moses traveled across the desert and arrived at the house of The High Priest of Meridian. In the movie it is portrayed that when Moses first arrives he had first fallen down their well, and then met the girls when they pulled him up. In the Bible when he first arrived and met the girls, the first thing he did was to water their flock.
The Prince of Egypt was an excellent depictation of the story of Moses delivering the slaves out of Egypt. The animations throughout the movie were beautiful and imaginative. It brought realism to the story for the viewer, bringing a sense of how it would have been for Moses back in those times. It also brought the viewer emotionally into the movie, with the viewer feeling sadness for Moses and the difficult journey he had to make. It also showed the transition that Moses made through the duration of his life. The Prince of Egypt is an excellent movie for someone to watch if they would like to get a better understanding of the story of Moses delivering the Hebrews out of oppression.