#nefretiri

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956)

The Ten Commandments (Paramount, 1956), Anne Baxter "Nefretiri" Turquoise Gown

One aspect of the Exodus story that is often left out in adaptations is that God is the one hardening Pharaoh's heart. The Pharaoh is a puppet, and the whole thing is orchestrated to make the Egyptians suffer as much as possible, and to make everyone know how much powerful Yahweh is.

One thing I noticed is that although in the film we don't have God proudly admitting how much he is hardening Rameses' heart to cause more and more plagues, we still have several instances of Rameses heart told to be hardening, and almost all of them are solely blamed on Nefretiri.

Nefretiri is the one taunting and mocking Rameses, and the film goes out of its way to blame all the instances of Rameses being stubborn during the plagues on her.

And more. When Nefretiri meets with Moses alone, right after he confronts Rameses, she says that she is the only one capable of hardening or sifting Rameses' heart, and Moses AGREES WITH HER. He even says that God can act through people like her.

Heck, before her son died, Nefretiri was fully madly in love with Moses, so why was she manipulating her husband to make Moses' job even harder? Maybe because she thought she was helping somehow.

Nefretiri is like an old school, Jewish version of the Devil. No matter how manipulative and malicious she acts, she didn't cause anything that God didn't want to happen.