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Monumental epic casts long cultural shadow
by CarlosC (movies profile)
Nov 25, 2007
6
of
8 people found this review helpful
The Exodus hero's tale is brought to life in grand style in Cecil B. DeMille's perennial classic, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Originally made by DeMille in 1927 as an opulent silent film, the 1956 remake casts Charlton Heston as the Biblical liberator of the Jews during Egyptian bondage. The eye-filling spectacle follows Moses (Heston) from infancy, when he was cast onto the Nile by his Hebrew family to escape a baby-slaughter decree; through his youth, when he grows up as a prince in the royal court, after a courtesan rescues his basket from the river; and through adulthood, when he discovers his identity and is exiled into the desert after he demands of his foster brother, the pharoah, "Let my people go!"
This is a staggering, monumental film. The epic sweep of the plot intermingles an individual's story with the fate of an entire people, assuring its universal success. The Oscar-winning special effects were unsurpassed for decades, and are still effective today (the parting of the Red Sea, the inscription of the sacred tablets, are high points). Casting screen giants like Edward G. Robinson and Vincent Price in secondary roles sometimes brims over into grandiose melodrama, but the overall effect is to bring to life a high-volume, pumped-up version of the ancient world. The main stars are all magnificent, especially Yul Brynner in the role of Moses' estranged foster-brother, Rameses II. When he pronounces, with dead-panned matter-of-factness, "The city that he builds shall bear my name; the woman that he loves shall bear my child; so let it be written, so let it be done," it sounds like black-letter law.
DeMille draws well-defined backround characters to flesh-out the main action. Moses' foster father ordains that the "the name of Moses be stricken from every book and tablet; stricken from every pylon and obelisk of Egypt; let the name of Moses be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of man, for all time." Yet, "Moses" is the last, dying word spoken by this pharoah before the film is through, breaking his decree -- and our hearts. Although the invention strays from the Biblical account, it does not detract from its dramatic power. In fact, it bolsters it. Many other characterizations, like the family life of Moses' Hebrew bride, Sephora (Yvonne DeCarlo -- of TV "Munsters" fame), and Moses' romantico-tragical relationship with the crown princess, Nefretiri (Anne Baxter), have a similar effect.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS told the Bible story so convincingly that it is almost imbued with the reverence due to the Bible, itself. To this day, when I "picture" God's voice, I think of Cecil B. DeMille's voice-over, telling Charlton Heston to take off his sandals before the Burning Bush. "Thou shalt not" dislike this movie.
(Carlos Colorado) |
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