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The plot (from Wikipedia):
In 18th dynasty Egypt (14th Century B.C.), Sinuhe (Edmund Purdom) is an elderly man in exile on the shores of the Red Sea, writing the story of his life. He says he has always been alone, but has had a long, full life. Cast adrift as a baby in a reed boat on the Nile (common practice in that period and not limited to Moses), he was adopted by a middle-aged couple in the city of Thebes. His adoptive father Senmut (Carl Benton Reid) was a physician who served the poor. As a young man, Sinuhe graduates from the School of Life and is respected as a brilliant physician by his classmates, including his best friend Horemheb (Victor Mature), the son of a cheese-maker, who plans an army career.

Sinuhe wants to work for the poor like his father, but has a hard time finding clients. He is approached by Kaptah (Peter Ustinov) who offers to become his servant and garner him some publicity. Another friend of Sinuhe's is Merit (Jean Simmons), a quiet, shy tavern-maid, who is secretly in love with him.

When Pharaoh Amenhotep III dies, the nation goes into mourning. Horemheb and Sinuhe stay up late at Merit's tavern drinking and carousing. Horemheb was refused an appointment by the Royal Guard because he is of lowly birth. Frustrated, he goes out into the desert on a lion hunt and invites Sinuhe along. They encounter a white-clad young man engrossed in prayer. He recites the first lines of a poem honoring the sun god Aton before falling into an epileptic seizure, which Sinuhe recognizes as "the holy sickness" and knows how to help. The young man turns out to be the new Pharaoh Akhnaton (Michael Wilding). Grateful, he asks that Sinuhe remain on call in case anyone in the royal family falls ill; and he assigns Horemheb to the Royal Guard. Sinuhe is summoned by Akhnaton's sister, Princess Baketamon (Gene Tierney) to examine Queen Mother Taia (Judith Evelyn) who is ill as a result of her alcoholism. She asks him strange questions about the circumstances of his birth before dismissing him.

Sinuhe and Horemheb attend a party thrown by courtesan Nefer (Bella Darvi), with whom Sinuhe rapidly becomes infatuated. Learning that she's fond of gifts, he gives her things of increasing value in hopes of impressing her. He even gives her the deed to his parents' house, and the money that would have gone for their embalming and burial, which the Egyptians believe is crucial for the afterlife. She tires of toying with Sinuhe and banishes him from her home. In a rage, Sinuhe attempts to strangle her, and after Nefer's guards toss him into the street, Sinuhe goes to his parents' home, where he learns that they have committed suicide. Devastated, he takes the bodies to the House of the Dead and offers to work there to pay for their embalming. He then buries them in the Valley of the Kings, so they can share in the wealth of the Pharaohs.

Merit finds him there and warns him not to return to Thebes. Because he was in the House of the Dead anonymously and worked there several months, he was unavailable when one of Akhnaton's daughters took ill, and she has died. Akhnaton, mad with grief, has condemned Sinuhe to exile. Sinuhe realizes that Merit has loved him all along, and they share a desperate passion before he leaves with Kaptah.

Sinuhe and Kaptah spend the next ten years wandering the world, At first a penniless beggar in foreign lands, Sinuhe begins to practice medicine again and soon gains an excellent reputation. Called to treat the king of the Hittites, he asks in payment only a Hittite sword of black metal. The black metal was iron.

Upon his return to Egypt, Sinuhe is arrested, and is brought before Horemheb, now the supreme commander of the army. Sinuhe warns that the Hittites plan to attack Egypt and are forging thousands of these iron weapons, which could cut through Egyptian bronze swords. Incidentally, this supposed fact is incorrect. Bronze is actually harder than wrought iron, but iron deposits were more common than the copper and tin needed to make bronze, and thus more weapons could be produced more quickly. This was the reason the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age.[1]

Horemheb takes Sinuhe to Akhnaton's temple where the peace-loving Pharaoh and his family worship Aton, the One God, with flower offerings instead of animal sacrifice. Akhnaton understands about the Hittites but won't declare war, believing that peace is the only way. Horemheb, frustrated, explains to Sinuhe what's been going on in Egypt. Economic instability has caused increased criminal activity, riots and violence in the streets. Pharaoh is disengaged and oblivious, but the priests of the Old Gods are even worse; they've been spreading rumors and fomenting the riots. Many other people, especially the poor and working-class, worship Aten, the One God, as Akhnaton does. Committed to peace and brotherhood, they wear the ankh, which is repeatedly described as "the cross of life".

One day, a diseased Nefer comes to Sinuhe for help, and the physician is surprised to find that he no longer desires revenge against her. He promises to cure her but cannot restore her beauty. Sinuhe returns to his old neighborhood and finds that Merit, now an Aton worshipper, has bought his father's house and lives in it with her son Thoth (Tommy Rettig), whom she says is adopted, but Sinuhe realizes this is his own child and offers to be Merit's husband.

Summoned to court by Queen Nefertiti, Sinuhe examines Akhnaton and believes him to be insane. Akhnaton asks Sinuhe to release him from his pain. The priests of the Old Gods, led by Mikere (Henry Daniell), demand that Sinuhe put Akhnaton out of the way so Horemheb can be made Pharaoh by popular acclaim. Sinuhe refuses and storms out. Baketamon confronts him, reminding him of the day he examined Taia. Before she died, Taia told Baketamon everything: from the information Sinuhe gave her in answer to her bizarre questions, Taia concluded that he was the first-born of Amenhotep III by another of the royal wives. Determined to have the credit for giving Amenhotep his first son, Taia stole the baby and put it in a reed boat on the Nile—where it was found and adopted by Senmut.

Thus, Sinuhe is technically Pharaoh, Baketamon's half-brother, and has the right to rule Egypt. As the Throne Princess (who must marry whoever is Pharaoh), she'll be happy to marry him -- she has previously and repeatedly rejected Horemheb. She asks that he kill Akhnaton, but kill Horemheb too; she'll back him up and so will the priests. Sinuhe is astonished by the news, but when he sees a statue of Amenhotep in the City of the Dead and recognizes the physical resemblance between them, he realizes she is telling the truth. But when she tells him that the army is moving against the Aton worshippers, Sinuhe dashes back to his father's house, fearing for his wife and child. The streets are filled with smoke and fire, and soldiers are arresting and killing the Aton worshippers. Sinuhe finds Thoth and puts him in the care of Kaptah, who escapes with him on a boat leaving Egypt. Sinuhe finds Merit in Akhnaton's temple with the other monotheistic worshippers, just as army troops batter the doors down and kill her, along with most of the others.[2]

Blinded by anger, Sinuhe now agrees to poison Akhnaton, and returns to the palace with Horemheb and seemingly goes along with Baketamon's plan. Pharaoh knows he's been poisoned, but says it is all right, and that now he sees clearly; God is much more than the face of the sun, and one day "other voices" will speak, more clearly than his, and people everywhere will believe.

Inspired, Sinuhe warns Horemheb not to drink from the cup he's been given, but to take the crown and be Pharaoh. Horemheb, rather than being grateful to Sinuhe for saving his life, is furious when he realizes that he could have drunk out of the poisoned cup. He first imprisons Sinuhe, then during a palace ceremony, exiles him from Egypt for good. The film concludes back on the Red Sea. As the now aged Sinuhe finishes up his autobiographical manuscripts, meant for his son to read, he dies, and the words "These things happened thirteen centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ" appear on the screen.

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Posts: 7069 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Wally:
Nebsen,

The film was 1950s crap; so was the book on which it was based - The Egyptian by Mika Waltari...

being slightly 'metaphysical' here, I think that your reaction to this film, and probably other African-Americans', myself included, is somewhat of a subliminal message that these 'ancient Egyptian films' are really about Black folks...but I digress...

'The Tale of Sinuhe,' upon which this modern fiction is based, should form the basis of any new attempt of a contemporary film; its basic premise being universal - "there's no place like home.' Yeah, 'The Tale of Sinuhe', 'The Wizard of Oz'...Great cinematic fodder!

--African-American actors as the Ancient Egyptians
--Euro-American actors as the Asiatics

If it has commercial potential, Hollywood will make it...

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Posts: 7069 | From: Fallbrook, CA | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Truthcentric:

...I dunno, I think white Americans playing Southwest Asians would be silly. Why not use Southwest Asian actors instead?

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Hey, we're talking commercial Hollywood here... and what's wrong with Angelina Jolie playing an Iranian;Syrian;Lebanese; or..?

Oh, and here's
EEKS!!


the video - Amazon - which is currently unavailable...

Posts: 3344 | From: Berkeley | Registered: Oct 2003  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Nebsen:
Wally,
i do understand that "The Egyptian" was a "Hollywood" so called Sword & Sandals movie of the repressed 50's with whites actors & all; it was enough to mesmerize this young black boy looking at the than new Cinemascope screen to make me wonder "Who are these people the Egyptian" ? Even at a young age, their was something that woke something up in my DNA & stired my unconscious . This movie put my feet on the road to discovery of my, (our) ancestors, & for that I'm "Grateful" .

Yes, the book was all the fad by Mika Waltari, even black folks in the hood was reading it, including my mom at the time. He went on to write The Mayans, & The Romans.

So at age 9, when i saw this film I was trying to learn as much about ancient Egypt that my young mind could understand, I already had a love for Africa & knew Egypt was a part of Africa, but felt something was not congruent from what we were taught in school & what Hollywood was showing me.One has to remember this is the 50's. So I had to piece together the truth for myself.

Thanks to my high school Early World History teacher from Greece, who had drawings of the ancient Egyptians as AFRICANS & thus BLACK & was on a mission to enlighten her class who were all African American like myself, about the " "Truth". Most of the young people did not believe her or just bored out of there minds in having to take history anyway. Needless to say I became her star student.

So by time the "Black Power Movement" started with emphasis on the truth about Africa esp. about Egypt I was well ahead of the curve including my close friends who had to share my passion if they wanted to be close buddies with me including my girl fiends at the time.

I don't know if you were around doing the 50's but I was, & know the well was bone dry about who really were the Kmt Egyptians & the connection to Africa..

When I first read Cheika Anta Diop in the 70's I knew I was HOME& he became my MASTER TEACHER & HERO. All Because of a "Crappy Movie".

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Maybe I was using too much brevity when I said, "being slightly 'metaphysical' here, I think that your reaction to this film, and probably other African-Americans', myself included, is somewhat of a subliminal message that these 'ancient Egyptian films' are really about Black folks..."

You have stated more clearly and in more detail what I was trying to say by my statement...Thanks...

Posts: 3344 | From: Berkeley | Registered: Oct 2003  |  IP: Logged |