Great one, I bring you Ethiopia.
Rameses [Trumpets play, Ethiopians step forward]
Command them to kneel before Pharaoh.
Command what you have conquered my brother.
Played by Yul Brynner 
The Ten Commandments (1956) · 94 quotes
The Ten Commandments (1956) · 94 quotes
4th most-quoted character in The Ten Commandments (1956): in 16 of its 94 quotes
Most scenes with: Ramses II (13), Moses (7), Nefretiri (5)
Scenes with Rameses
16 scenes Rameses Would you please your Pharaoh, Moses?
Your wish is my will.
Then you build the city
Rameses A wise decision. [To Moses] Noble task.
Rameses, do you believe this slave deliverer is a myth?
Rameses What I believe is of no account. What matters is the slaves believe in him.
Of course, of course. Then you, too, shall go to Goshen. Learn if this deliverer be a myth or a man. If a myth, bring him to me in a bottle. If a man, bring him to me in chains.
Rameses So let it be written, so let it be done.
Rameses Difficulty with the slaves, my brother?
None that could not be cures by a ration of grain and a day of rest.
Rameses A day of rest?
When your horses tire, they’re rested. When they hunger, they’re fed.
Rameses Slaves draw brick and stone. My horses draw the next Pharaoh.
Is there any grain stored here in Goshen?
Rameses None that you would dare take, my brother.
The temple granaries are full.
I will…great prince.
Rameses I warn you, Moses, the temple grain belongs to the gods.
What the gods can digest will not sour in the belly of a slave.
Rameses [After Nefretiri kisses Rameses and he shoves her away]
I know you, my sweet. You’re a sharp-clawed, treacherous little peacock. But you’re food for the gods, and I’m going to have all of you.
None of me. Did you think my kiss was a promise of what you’ll have? No, my pompous one, it was to let you know what you will not have. I could never love you.
Rameses Does that matter? You will be my wife. You will come to me whenever I call you. And I will enjoy that very much. Whether you enjoy it or not is your own affair. But I think you will.
[Rameses leaves and Nefretiri wipes her lips in disgust]
Will you lose a throne because Moses builds a city?
Rameses The city that he builds shall bear my name. The woman that he loves shall bear my child. So it shall be written, so it shall be done.
Great one, you hear the cry of Egypt.
Rameses They would cry louder if they had to make the bricks.
Can taxes be collected from dead cattle and blighted harvests?
Rameses Does fear rule Egypt?! Or do I?
If there is one more plague on Egypt, it is by your word that God will bring it. And there shall be so great a cry throughout the land…that you will surely let the people go. [Walks away]
Rameses Come to me no more Moses! For on the day you see my face again, you will surely die!
So let it be written.
Rameses You have conquered, Moses. The foot of a slave is on the neck of Egypt. You were saved from the Nile to be a curse upon me. Your shadow fell between me and my father, between me and my fame, between me and my queen. Your shadow now fills all things with death. Go out from among us, you and your people. I set you free.
It is not by your word, nor by my hand that we are free, Pharaoh. The power of God has freed us.
Rameses Enough of your words! Take your people, your cattle, your God and your pestilence. [Throws his collar to the ground] Take what spoils from Egypt you will, but go!
How many more days and nights will you pray? Does he hear you?
Rameses Dread Lord of Darkness, I have raised my voice to you, yet life has not come to the body of my son. Hear me!
He cannot hear you. He's nothing but a piece of stone with the head of a bird.
Rameses He will hear me. I am Egypt.
Egypt? You are nothing. You let Moses kill my son. No god can bring him back. What have you done to Moses? How did he die? Did he cry for mercy when you tortured him? Bring me to his body! I want to see it, Rameses! I want to see it!
Rameses This is my son. He would have been Pharaoh. He would have ruled the world. Who mourns him now? Not even you. All you can think of is Moses. You will not see his body. I drove him out of Egypt. I cannot fight the power of his God.
His God? The priests say that Pharaoh is a god. But you are not a god. You are even less than a man! Listen to me, Rameses. You thought I was evil when I went to Moses. And you were right. Shall I tell you what happened, Rameses? He spurned me like a strumpet in the street. I, Nefretiri, Queen of Egypt! All that you wanted from me he would not even take! Do you hear laughter, Pharaoh? Not the laughter of kings, but the laughter of slaves on the desert!
Rameses Laughter? Laughter?! [Shoves her aside and rings the gong] My son, I shall build your tomb upon their crushed bodies. If any escape me, their seed shall be spattered and accursed forever. [To the arriving servant] My armor! War crown![To Nefretiri] Laughter... I will turn the laughter of these slaves into wails of torment! They shall remember the name of Moses! Only that he died under my chariot wheels!
Kill him with your own hands.
Rameses I will. [Takes the sword and sheathes it] To mingle with your own!
Pentaur
He opens the waters before them, and he bars our way with fire. Let us go from this place. Men cannot fight against a God.
Rameses Better to die in battle with a God than to live in shame.
[Walking into the throne room, Rameses lifts his sword to kill Nefretiri]
Before you strike, show me his blood on your sword.
Rameses His god…is God!
Rameses Where was his body found?
Pentaur
Buried in the sand, Royal One.
This is Baka's knife.
Rameses But there was no wound on the body. Baka was a powerful man. It would take strong hands to break him.
The slave Joshua is a stonecutter.
Rameses Go find me this Joshua.
Joshua's strength didn't kill the master builder.
Rameses Now speaks the rat that would be my ears.
Too many ears tie a rat's tongue.
Pentaur
[to guards]
Go, all of you.
Rameses Well...who killed him?
I am a poor man, Generous One. What I bring is worth much.
Rameses I have paid you much, and you have brought me nothing.
Now I bring you the world...true son of Pharaoh.
Rameses You offer me the world when you cannot even bring me the deliverer. Who killed Baka?
The deliverer.
Rameses Would you play at words with me?
No, Lord Prince.
Rameses And this murderer has now fled to some distant land?
No, Lord Prince.
Rameses Name him.
One who made himself a prince and judge over us. And if he knew I were here, he would kill me as he killed the Egyptian.
Rameses I will hang you myself if you tire me further.
There are those who would pay much for what my eyes have seen.
Rameses Do you haggle with me like a seller of melons in the marketplace?
No, I will not haggle, Great Prince. Here's your money. [Rameses hits his hand throwing coins] But for ten talons of fine gold, I'll give you the wealth of Egypt. Give me my freedom, and I'll give you the scepter. Give me the water girl Lilia, and I'll give you the princess of your heart's desire. Give me this house of Baka, and I'll give you the throne. Give me all that I ask...or give me leave to go.
Rameses [pulls out his blade]
I will give you more than leave to go. I will send you where you belong.
I belong in your service, Glorious One.
Rameses Very well. I will bargain with you. If what you say pleases me, I will give you your price, all of it. If not, I will give you the point of this blade through your lying throat. Agreed?
Agreed. The deliverer...is Moses.
Rameses [puts his blade on Dathan's neck]
Draw one more breath to tell me why Moses or any other Egyptian would deliver the Hebrews.
Moses is not Egyptian. He's Hebrew, the son of slaves.
Rameses [gets quietly surprised]
I will pay your price.
Great Pharaoh...I stand in the shadow of your justice.
Whose work is this?
Rameses I warned you of his treason, my father. Judge now if I spoke truly. The evil star foretold him as the destroyer of Egypt and deliverer of slaves.
It is not possible. A prince of Egypt?
Rameses He is not a prince of Egypt. He is not the son of your sister. He is the son of Hebrew slaves. [The crowd is shocked]
Speak...my son.
I am the son of Amram and Yochabel, Hebrew slaves. [The crowd is shocked again]
My brother, it was I who deceived you, not Moses. He was only a child.
Leave me. I shall not see your face again. [Rameses orders Pentaur to take Bithiah away from him; to Moses] Moses...come to me. [Moses approaches him] I do not care who you are or what you are or what they may say about you, but I want to hear from your own lips that you are not a traitor, that you would not lead these people in revolt against me. Tell me, Moses. I will believe you.
I am not this deliverer you fear. It would take more than a man to lead the slaves from bondage. It would take a god. But if I could free them, I would.
What has turned you against me? From the time my sister brought you to the court, I loved you, reared you, set you before my own son, because I saw in you a worth and a greatness above other men.
No son could have more love for you than I.
Then why are you forcing me to destroy you? What evil has done this to you?
The evil that men should turn their brothers into beasts of burden, to slave and suffer in dumb anguish, to be stripped of spirit and hope and faith - only because they are of another race, another creed. If there is a God, He did not mean this to be so. What I have done...I was compelled to do.
So be it. What I do now, I am compelled to do.
No. No.
[grabs Nefretiri]
Rameses...Egypt shall be yours. Hear what I say, Rameses. When I cross the River of Death, you will be...Pharaoh in Egypt. Harden yourself against subordinates. Put no faith in a brother. Have no friend. Trust no woman. I protected the helpless. I nourished the orphan.
Great One! [hugs Seti]
But he who ate my bread and called me father would make rebellion against me.
Rameses What manner of death do you decree for him? [Some people in the crowd say "death" as a possible answer]
I cannot speak it. Let it be as you will.
I will not live if you must die! [hugs Moses's leg and sobs]
Rameses [takes Nefretiri away from Moses]
The feet of a Hebrew slave is not the right place for the next queen of Egypt. [to guards] Take him away. [The guards lead the arrested Moses away towards the exit]
Let the name of Moses be stricken from every book and tablet. Stricken from all pylons and obelisks, stricken from every monument of Egypt. Let the name of...Moses be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of men...for all time.
How long will you refuse to humble yourself before God?
Rameses If you bring another plague upon us, it is not your God but I, who will turn the Nile red with blood.
As your father's father turned the streets of Goshen red with the blood of our male children! IF there IS one more plague on Egypt, it is by your word that God will bring it. And there shall be so great a cry throughout the land...that you will surely let the people go. [walks away]
Rameses Come to me no more, Moses! For on the day you see my face again, you will surely die!
So let it be written. [leaves]
Rameses [enraged]
I will give this spawn of slaves and his god an answer the world will not forget! Commander of the Host, call in the chariots from Tanis! There shall be one more plague, only it will come upon the slaves of Goshen. The firstborn of each house shall die, beginning with the son of Moses!
