Tonight is ABC's annual broadcast of The Ten Commandments, to which I always tune in for twenty minutes just to laugh at the display of pretentious windbaggery. (No, not the same twenty minutes. I just randomly flip to it at some point.) I mean, really – what a pompous ass of a movie this is! And its traditional airing at Easter-time has always baffled me, as I noted last year on this occasion:
"I'm not the most astute person when it comes to matters of Christian doctrine, but I'm pretty sure that Easter is a holiday/festival that's pretty Jesus-centric. You know, the whole crucifiction/burial/resurrection thing. So why is it that each year at Easter-time, ABC televises The Ten Commandments which is about Moses and the Exodus and has nothing at all to do with Jesus? I know that the Biblical epics that specifically deal with Jesus -- The Greatest Story Ever Told, King of Kings -- aren't particularly well-known these days, outside of film music geek circles. But there is a classic costume epic that, while not specifically about Jesus, at least is set in and around the events of his life. That would be Ben-Hur, which is helpfully subtitled "A Tale of the Christ", stars Charlton Heston, and is frankly a much better movie than the lugubrious overacted monument to pomposity that is The Ten Commandments.
So come on, ABC. Next year, ditch Moses and let's have Judah Ben-Hur."
Really, why is this the traditional Easter movie? It's like if they honored Gene Roddenberry's birthday by screening Star Wars.
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
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