For years, the 1956 version was broadcast on TV on Easter Sunday afternoons. Why then exactly? This article seeks out answers to this and other related questions.
From an email from someone who does not want to be identified:
Wow, what an amazing exploration of "The Ten Commandments"
Just read your Substack reflection on De Mille and his movies. What an amazing amount of research you did! As I've mentioned to you before, you are a great storyteller and, in that sense, a "good preacher" 😇
I appreciate the layered approach to your reflection on De Mille, on the particular movie (Ten Commandments), the movie culture in general, and on the impact of all of it on you both personally and as a participant in the Catholic culture (both as a young girl and now as an adult).
That layering opens up possibility for genuine conversation on the complexity of the cultural aspects of faith, any faith. There are things that "just happen" (the nuns taking you all to see this movie) and then there is the maturation of our personal acquisition of the faith and our reaction to those earlier experiences.
One of the underlying questions your reflection brings up for me is how do we find "the middle way" of charity and compassion both for our "younger self" and those around us who are still finding our way into a deeper and more robust acquisition of the faith. No easy answers but you lay out a helpful framework for a conversation.
. . . I look forward to reading your next "episode"
My family loves movies, and these days, we watch a lot of older movies. For years, though, on the weekend before Easter, my family watched both _The Ten Commandments_ and _Ben Hur_. It was our Easter season tradition. My husband and I are the only ones at home now, but we still watch these old movies together just before Easter.
From an email from someone who does not want to be identified:
Wow, what an amazing exploration of "The Ten Commandments"
Just read your Substack reflection on De Mille and his movies. What an amazing amount of research you did! As I've mentioned to you before, you are a great storyteller and, in that sense, a "good preacher" 😇
I appreciate the layered approach to your reflection on De Mille, on the particular movie (Ten Commandments), the movie culture in general, and on the impact of all of it on you both personally and as a participant in the Catholic culture (both as a young girl and now as an adult).
That layering opens up possibility for genuine conversation on the complexity of the cultural aspects of faith, any faith. There are things that "just happen" (the nuns taking you all to see this movie) and then there is the maturation of our personal acquisition of the faith and our reaction to those earlier experiences.
One of the underlying questions your reflection brings up for me is how do we find "the middle way" of charity and compassion both for our "younger self" and those around us who are still finding our way into a deeper and more robust acquisition of the faith. No easy answers but you lay out a helpful framework for a conversation.
. . . I look forward to reading your next "episode"
My family loves movies, and these days, we watch a lot of older movies. For years, though, on the weekend before Easter, my family watched both _The Ten Commandments_ and _Ben Hur_. It was our Easter season tradition. My husband and I are the only ones at home now, but we still watch these old movies together just before Easter.