The Prince of Egypt
Year:
1998
Running time:
99 mn
Nationality:
USA
Language:
English
Genre:
Animation, Musical, Adventure, Biblical
Director:
Simon Wells, Steve Hickner, Brenda Chapman
Producer:
DreamWorks Animation, DreamWorks SKG
Screenwriter/s:
Philip Lazebnik
Cast:
(Voices) Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart, Jeff Goldblum, and others.
Other websites:
Trailer:
Summary of the film
The Prince of Egypt is an animated adaptation of the biblical story of Moses and the Exodus. The movie opens with the pharaoh Seti I ordering the death of all newborn Hebrew boys. To save his life, Moses’ mother places him in a basket in the Nile River. Moses floats to the palace where is he is found and adopted by the pharaoh’s wife. Moses (voiced by Val Kilmer) is brought up in the palace with his brother, Rameses (voiced by Ralph Fiennes), who is the heir to Seti’s throne. As young adults, Moses and Rameses are given more responsibility by their father, as Rameses is named Prince Regent and Moses as Royal Chief Architect. Moses soon discovers the truth of his heritage, after meeting his Hebrew brother and sister, and this opens his eyes to the treatment of the Hebrew slaves working on the pharaoh’s monuments. In attempting to prevent the beating of an elderly Hebrew slave, Moses accidentally kills one of the overseers, after which he flees in exile into the desert.
Moses starts a new life in the desert as a shepherd and marries the daughter of the high priest of his new village. While out minding his flock, Moses comes across the burning bush, which directs him to return to Egypt to free his people. He returns to Egypt to find his brother now as pharaoh. He is initially greeted warmly by Rameses, who is happy to have his brother back, but when Moses demands that his people be released from bondage, Rameses grows angry, refuses, and instead doubles the Hebrew’s workload. Moses, guided by the voice of God, calls down the Ten Plagues of Egypt. After the tenth plague, the death of all firstborn boys, Rameses relents and releases the Hebrews. Moses leads the Hebrews to the promise land, after parting the Red Sea and escaping the pursuing Rameses and the Egyptian army, where he receives the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.
Part of the opening scene of the movie when baby Moses is found by Queen Tuya. A toddler Rameses is also shown with a sidelock of youth (Screenshot by author
An adult Moses speaks with his adoptive father, Seti I. In the background a large statue of Seti and various temples are visible, along with the pyramids in the distance (Screenshot by author)
Egyptomania narratives or motifs
Since this movie is primarily set in Egypt, Egyptomania motifs abound. First, many true historical figures are referenced, including Seti I, his wife queen Tuya, and Rameses II. Seti’s character design even resembles the king’s extant mummy, with his distinctive noes. The two priests who serve Seti and Rameses, Hotep and Huy, also reference figures at the time. Huy, for instance, was the name of a High Priest of Ptah during Rameses II’s reign. The Egyptian characters have kohl-lined eyes and wear clothing that is representational of the period, including linen robes, dresses, and kilts, with decorative collars, armbands, belts, sandals, and wigs. When Rameses is shown as a child and young man he wears the side-lock of youth. As adults, Seti I and Rameses are often shown with a nemes headdress, false beard, and holding a crook and flail. At the end of the movie, when Ramses pursues Moses and the Hebrews, he rides in a chariot, and wears the blue pharaonic war crown; his imagery in this scene seems to be taken directly from the surviving war images of Rameses II.
The architecture featured in the film is also derived from extant Egyptian monuments. The palace is decorated with lotus-style columns and Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the enslaved Hebrew population is shown as helping to build the pharaoh’s monuments, such as sphinxes and pyramids, with techniques and tools that are accurate to the period. The structures being built demonstrate where the timeline is skewed a bit in favor of depicting monuments the viewing audience could easily recognize. Seti I did not build a sphinxes, and by the New Kingdom period when he ruled, Pyramids had been abandoned in favor of burial tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
The two priests, Hotep and Huy, present a stereotypical version of Egyptian priests, who are sly and rely on trickery and misdirection. When challenging Moses, they sing a song about the Egyptian gods, entitled “Playing with the Big Boys”, that references many of the Egyptian gods worshiped during the New Kingdom period. The song opens with the chant:
By the power of Ra...
There are two areas of contention that surround the film. First, when it was released, the film was banned in Egypt for portraying a prophet of Islam. Second, many archaeologists challenge the historicity of the Exodus and the portrayal of the Hebrews as an exclusive slave class in Egypt, as noted in the linked blog post by archaeologist Daniel Soliman. Within Egypt, the film is also seen as distorting Egyptian history, due to the depiction of the treatment of the Hebrews as an exclusive and abused slave class.
The architecture featured in the film is also derived from extant Egyptian monuments. The palace is decorated with lotus-style columns and Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the enslaved Hebrew population is shown as helping to build the pharaoh’s monuments, such as sphinxes and pyramids, with techniques and tools that are accurate to the period. The structures being built demonstrate where the timeline is skewed a bit in favor of depicting monuments the viewing audience could easily recognize. Seti I did not build a sphinxes, and by the New Kingdom period when he ruled, Pyramids had been abandoned in favor of burial tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
The two priests, Hotep and Huy, present a stereotypical version of Egyptian priests, who are sly and rely on trickery and misdirection. When challenging Moses, they sing a song about the Egyptian gods, entitled “Playing with the Big Boys”, that references many of the Egyptian gods worshiped during the New Kingdom period. The song opens with the chant:
By the power of Ra...
Mut... Nut... Khnum... Ptah...
Nephthys... Nekhbet... Sobek... Sekhment...
Sokar... Selket... Reshpu... Wadjet...
Anubis... Anukis... Seshmu... Meshkent...
Hemsut... Tefnut... Heket... Mafdet...
Ra... Mut... Nut... Ptah...
Hemsut... Tefnut... Sokar... Selket...
Seshmu... Reshpu... Sobek... Wadjet...
Heket... Mafdet... Nephthys... Nekhbet...
Ra...!
There are two areas of contention that surround the film. First, when it was released, the film was banned in Egypt for portraying a prophet of Islam. Second, many archaeologists challenge the historicity of the Exodus and the portrayal of the Hebrews as an exclusive slave class in Egypt, as noted in the linked blog post by archaeologist Daniel Soliman. Within Egypt, the film is also seen as distorting Egyptian history, due to the depiction of the treatment of the Hebrews as an exclusive and abused slave class.
Author: Tara Sewell-Lasater
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