me, and there are many analogies between their suffering then and what they have had to endure over more recent times.” 2
It was De Bosio’s basic concept to liberate Moses, as much as pos- sible, from the overblown, melodra- matic religious spectacle of films like Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Command- ments (1956)—to depict Moses not as a bearded, stentorian superhero with a magic rod, but as a human being who has been ordered by des- tiny to rise to the challenge of achiev- ing something extraordinary. His Moses is a simple man, halting of speech, who is burdened with a great vision, and great doubts as well; he must not only overcome the tyranny of Egypt, but the tyranny of the Egypt within himself, in order to deliver his community to freedom.
Moses adapted well to timely re- invention. He is depicted as a tribal hero, a bearded, long-haired cham- pion of the young, who challenges imperious, war -waging authority that would knowingly order the slaughter its nation’s young men; the idea being that a more relevant hero would help to make the ethics and ideals underlying the Hebrew faith more approachable to the average person, whether predisposed to sym- pathy or skepticism. When one of the younger Israelites use the word “pro- gressive”
to describe their move
across the desert in search of the promised land, Moses echoes, “Pro- gressive. It’s a good word, progressive. It means to move forth.” Moses’ name is bestowed upon him by Bithia, in whose tongue it means “my son,” but it is later revealed as meaning, in He- brew, “to bring forth.” (In one of many such ironic moments present in the humanistic script, Moses’ birth par- ents “shrug Jewishly”—Burgess’ phrase—when the word of his name is carried back to their home.) Thus, Moses is depicted as a progressive model for progressive times. To tell Moses’ story realistically, it was necessary for De Bosio to ratio- nalize the miracles performed and claimed by Moses, according to legend,
DESCENDING from Mt. Horab and finding his people in sinful chaos, Moses shatters the Tablets of the Law.
