The plaster sphinx was one of 21 featured prominently in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 epic. The legendary director remade the silent film in 1956, starring Charlton Heston as Moses.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
‘Ten Commandments’ Sphinx Unearthed
The plaster sphinx was one of 21 featured prominently in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 epic. The legendary director remade the silent film in 1956, starring Charlton Heston as Moses.
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This is a really funny article it must be crazy to find a movie set in sand dunes. I really want to see the movie because I think it would be a fun and interesting experience to see such a massive set that has not used any special effects. Older movies have that great novelty feeling to them that is lost with the 21st century. I think it is wonderful what the film industry was able to accomplish without the advanced technology of today. A 12 story set is amazing, not to mention the transport and on site assembly that had to happen. I looked up the budget for the production and it cost them 13 million dollars. 13 million dollars in the 1950s has the same spending power as over 100 million dollars today. For reference I think of HBO which spends a few million per episode, so scale that up 25 times and that is pretty cool.
I cant begin to say how weird that must have been for the archaeologists to see. Where they looking for movie parts? Some poor rookie probably question just what all that time and money spent in college really got him. At rate what a cool find. It may not have been the kind of history that they were looking for, but its important to preserve theatrical history as well as the theater plays a large role in the make up of our society. Not only that but its very interesting to see how far we've come over the years in the field of special effects. Very far thank God.
How long does something have to be lost in the sand for the uncovering of it to be deemed "archeology?" The term archeology, perhaps incorrectly, calls to my mind bespectacled British aristocrats, raiding cultural treasures in the Valley of the Kings or the Fertile Crescent, gin and tonic in one hand, rock hammer in the other. The etymology of the word would suggest it should be reserved for the study of "ancient" artifacts, the Greek archeo meaning just that "ancient." But in our sped-up culture, where everything is dated after five minutes and the collective attention span bears comparison to that of a hummingbird, maybe there's a different kind of science at work. Let's call it "neochronology": the study of New Time. It occurs to me that the making of a time capsule is an exercise in neochronolgy, an attempt to define a moment in time with mundane objects that will have unknown meanings to posterity. Similarly the concept of "geo-cacheing" might fit the parameters of this new science. I wonder if Mr. DeMille stood on the crest of a dune 90 years ago, watched the encroaching landscape blow across the horizon, obscuring from sight the broken nose of his Sphinx, and imagined the looks on the discoverer's faces 1000 years thence as they brushed the sand away. How disappointing for him...
The entire concept of "rediscovery after 91 years" has left me rather perplexed. I'm sure it was rather amusing to find a random movie set from nearly a century ago in some sand dunes, but how on earth did it get there without anybody noticing? Was there no record kept of what was done with a GIANT piece of scenery after its purpose had been served? The article states that the set likely collapsed, so was it just left there after the movie had been filmed? Obviously there was no harm done here, but it seems like movie crews and producers should maybe be held to a little bit more responsibility in what they do with their used sets.
It's really interesting looking at how the concept of a film's footprint has evolved. Nowadays, a production being filmed in a location such as this would be required to really carefully mind its footprint and the future impact to the area. A large set piece being left like this would be pretty much unheard of. But because this set piece is from the 20's, instead of unearthing litter, we have made an archaeological find. That's not to say that this is an unimportant find - these set pieces tell our collective history - it's just interesting to reflect on how time has altered how we regard things like this.
You know, you could make a movie out of this. It could be a post-apocalyptic comedy about a society of refugees that have found shelter in the wetlands of Central Florida (you know, if it's not an island or totally underwater by this point).
They stumble upon the gates of of a lost kingdom full of large sanctuaries full of magnificent and fearsome creature frozen in time. In the middle of the kingdom is a castle, with a tall tower from which you can see in to the horizon. In the distance, the roaring of animals is heard, as if a multitude of different species of creatures have all escaped from their prisons and entered into a land of which they are definitely not indigenous to.
What kind of beings built this place? A society of mysterious people who fashioned vehicles in the form of giant drinkware and flying elephants and who appeared to have worshipped a mustachioed gentleman and his sidekick, some kind of mutated giant rodent.
This article was so funny, and I’m sure that there’s probably some angle on it about production companies being irresponsible and needing to clean up after themselves, but for now I like the funny angle. As with previous commenters, I question the use of the word archaeology, but considering that the object was a sphinx I’m going to waive those concerns. It seems strange that something so massive could be forgotten, but I like the concept of people trying to unearth old movie scenery. It is disappointing that the people who discovered it were looking for scenery though, and I think that it would have made a much better story if they thought that it was real. Unfortunately, thanks to things like CGI and caring about the environment, I don’t think that this type of incident is going to happen again.
I'm amazed that something built out of plaster, as temporary scenery, has lasted almost 100 years buried in sand. I would have thought it'd eroded away long ago. There's something pretty awesome about the concept of film without special effects. We talk a lot about "movie magic" and how to make people who are the same height look like elves and dwarves next to each other, but to me it's equally awesome in a brute force kind of way to have a director say, "That should be bigger" and have a mass of technicians just build it. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if this find features heavily in the plot of an as-yet-unannounced "National Treasure 4". Perhaps Cecil B. Demille was a Mason who was aware of some kind of pre-Nazi conspiracy?
this is awesome! i am reminded of the once great set San Antonio in Texas that john wayne used for his adaption of the Alamo battle. It is really weird and sad to think that such a great piece of scenery from such a great golden age of film making could be left for no one to see again. I hope that this great film piece finds a home in some great museum somewhere sot that we are all reminded that not so long ago we didn't always use digital media to cut costs, we used to build our film worlds in real life.
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