I thought it was fifteen.
Posted on 03/20/2006 9:38:39 PM PST by goldstategop
On March 21st, Paramount will be releasing a 50th anniversary DVD set of Cecil B. DeMille's legendary classic, The Ten Commandments - and frankly, the timing couldn't be any better.
Why, you may ask? How could a 50 year-old epic from Hollywood's Golden Age still be 'relevant' today? I'll answer that question below - but let's first take a look back at this glorious and important film.
The Ten Commandments happens to be the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation. When the film was released in 1956, theater tickets cost 50 cents - and the film still grossed over $65 million. What this means is that at today's ticket prices, The Ten Commandments would gross roughly $838 million at the domestic box office. In the history of American moviemaking, only Gone With the Wind, Star Wars. The Sound of Music, and E.T. have fared better at the box office than DeMille's extraordinary film. [And a theatrical re-release could easily pop the film back into the #3 spot.]
I don't mention The Ten Commandments' box office success, because that denotes anything in particular about the film's merits - success at the box office can always be misleading - but to suggest the kind of powerful bond this film has with the public. The Ten Commandments is, as it turns out, a beautifully written, directed, acted, photographed and scored film - a majestic and emotional voyage into one of the primary myths of Western religious life. It's also the crowning achievement of one of America's greatest moviemakers. But at the same time, The Ten Commandments is even a bit more than all that: it's a part of American popular mythology, as important to America's conversation about itself as Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, or On the Waterfront.
The Ten Commandments begins and ends, first all, with its legendary director - Cecil B. DeMille - who is possibly (along with D.W. Griffith, his contemporary) the first motion picture director anyone ever thought to call 'legendary.' The reason for this is not hard to find: DeMille's personality was as vivid and outsized as his films, and that personality infused everything he did. DeMille's father, mother, and brother were playwrites and theatrical impresarios, and DeMille seems to have had drama running through his veins - it's inconceivable that the man could do anything dull or conventional.
DeMille intended that The Ten Commandments be the capstone of his career, which had begun back in 1914 with The Squaw Man. Ironically enough, DeMille had already directed a version of The Ten Commandments in 1923 (also included in the DVD set, along with a great 6-part documentary), although that stylish silent epic was a 2-part film that only featured about 55 minutes of story set in ancient Egypt - the rest being set in the 1920's.
So what changed in the intervening years that made DeMille revisit this material? First, there was the success of DeMille's own Samson and Delilah from 1949 - a film that kicked-off a run of Biblical epics from Hollywood like The Robe and Quo Vadis. And DeMille was already comfortable with this sort of material, having directed landmark films like King of Kings (1927), The Sign of the Cross (1932), and my personal favorite - Cleopatra (1934).
Technology was changing as well. The 1950s brought massive, VistaVision images that were perfectly suited to epic material. And this is an important point: The Ten Commandments is a huge, lavish film, shot in exotic Egyptian locales like Abu Rudeis, Abu Ruwash and Beni Youssef. If you ever find a more sumptuous looking film with more deeply saturated colors, please tell me about it - because I haven't seen it.
There were probably other reasons why DeMille was drawn to this material for his valedictory film statement. DeMille had been an ardent anti-communist for years, and he opens The Ten Commandments with an unusual prologue in which he asks whether men are "property of the state ... or are they free souls under God?" "Are men to be ruled by God's law, or ruled by the whims of a dictator? This same battle continues throughout the world today." One can almost imagine Pope John Paul II - or Ronald Reagan - uttering those some words.
The Ten Commandments was made after the defeat of Hitler, and at the height of the Cold War - when the conflict with the Soviet Union looked to be a long, twilight struggle. It's not hard to believe that DeMille saw Pharaonic Egypt as emblematic of tyrannical dictatorships past and present, and the Jewish exodus as representative of a universal struggle for freedom.
Such intellectual matters, however, never intrude on The Ten Commandments' robust, operatic storytelling. The Ten Commandments is a great film because its characters - primarily Moses (Charlton Heston), Rameses (Yul Brynner), and Nefretiri (Anne Baxter) - are all vibrant, complex and full of life.
Heston's Moses is the dutiful son of Pharaoh's court, who's earned his adoptive father's love and respect through noble deeds, ironic wit and a gentle heart. His half-brother Rameses, as embodied by Brynner, is a kind of arrogant, sexual panther, covetous of both the throne and the queen he believes are rightly his. Rameses is the most tragic figure of the film - and also the coolest. He gets the throne and his queen, but everybody despises him, including his own father.
Anne Baxter's delightful Queen Nefretiri is so full of love and sexual desire for Moses, she seems about to burst. She too despises Rameses, and hers is the cunning voice that hardens his heart. Rameses and Nefretiri make the most delightfully miserable couple in movie history, even surpassing Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?"
The Ten Commandments is otherwise full of wonderful supporting performances from veterans like Edward G. Robinson, Dame Judith Anderson, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, Nina Foch and Yvonne De Carlo.
DeMille takes 3 hours and 40 minutes to tell the story of Moses' rise to the pinnacle of Pharaoh's court, his self-exile after learning of his Jewish heritage, his banishment from Egypt and wanderings in the desert, and finally his return to Egypt and supernatural liberation of the Jews in bondage. A lot of suspense is built up over how and when Moses will learn he was born of Hebrew slaves. Once Moses learns this, however, he accepts the full weight of its implications.
The movie builds to the justly famous moment at which Moses parts the Red Sea, one of the iconic moments in film history. In this one cataclysmic sequence, the Jewish slaves escape Pharaoh between towering walls of water, after which Pharaoh's pursuing army is crushed under enormous waves. It's difficult to imagine how today's digital effects would improve this sequence, or give it any more emotional impact than it already has. In fact, it's possible that the movie should've ended there - except that DeMille still has a dazzling sequence up his sleeve in which he intercuts a massive pagan orgy with God's burning of the Ten Commandments in stone atop Mount Sinai! Elmer Bernstein's musical score during this sequence is really extraordinary.
The Ten Commandments is a long and intensely dramatic journey, over the course of which Moses' character undergoes drastic changes. These changes take place at two crucial junctures when Moses learns of his Jewish heritage - and when Moses accepts God's commission to return to Egypt. [It's interesting to note that Heston himself provided the voice of God.] DeMille never rushes these moments, or ignores the impact they have on the personal lives of the characters.
Indeed throughout the film Moses' high calling puts an enormous strain on his personal relations. On returning to Egypt from exile, the previously gentle Moses becomes a driven man on a mission - a stern figure of fatherly discipline and moral admonition in moments when Israel's faith weakens. He is slowly transforming from a man into a symbol - somewhat to the chagrin of his Jewish wife Sephora, and his old flame Queen Nefretiri. DeMille is alive to these changes in Moses' character, and much of the film is structured around the havoc Moses' wanderings (both geographic and emotional) wreak on the women in his life - including both his natural and adoptive mothers. These quiet, intimate scenes are actually the best in the film, and belie the silly stereotyping of DeMille as someone who could 'only do spectacle.'
So Moses is a sympathetic yet somewhat remote figure, always out of his loved-ones' reach. DeMille and Heston take pains to show the private anguish this causes Moses - who can't even be alone with God without arguing with Him! And one wonders at a certain point: is there a little bit of Cecil B. DeMille, too, in Moses? The DeMille who overflowed with warmth and loyalty to his friends, yet who transformed himself into a stern taskmaster on-set? DeMille the visionary, who exiled himself from the sophisticated world of New York theater to the desert of southern California - all to found a new entertainment industry? Is The Ten Commandments a more personal film than we might previously have thought?
In all likelihood it is, and I suspect DeMille wrestled with God - and lovely, tempestuous women - in much the same way Moses does in this film.
But, as was always the case with DeMille's films, there was something more at stake. I mentioned above that this film still seems 'relevant' today, and it does, in this way: the great American movies have always had a powerful moral component to them. Hollywood in its Golden Age was never merely content to entertain the public, as some may claim. Its other purpose was to dramatize the nation's conscience, and I think this is very much the purpose of The Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments isn't 'about' America in a literal sense - nor, incidentally, is it about the Bible in a literal sense (we know next to nothing about Moses' adult life). But the film is still very much about what America meant to DeMille: freedom. The Ten Commandments reminds us, at a time when we apparently need such reminding, that America is a just and righteous society because we value human freedom. The film ends with these words: "Go, proclaim liberty throughout all the land, and to all the inhabitants thereof."
I can't think of a better message for our times.
I thought it was fifteen.
Meanwhile, this flick wasn't memorable 50 minutes after it was released.
Good post.
The Ten Commandments is still a great movie.
I remember seeing this in the theatre in the late '70s when I was very young. It was indeed quite an event, and was for my parents also, who had seen it when it was first released. There have been cinematic and technical advances since this was made, but I'll take this film over ANY of last year's Hollywood films any day! I look forward to the annual showing of this film on TV.
Thank you for this post. I never tire of the film, and I've always looked forward to it coming on the TV during the Easter season. It truely is a timeless piece.
After - and JUST BARELY AFTER - the "Lord of the Rings", the Ten Commandments has been my uttermost favorite movie, one that I will watch and savor and enjoy time and again.
The epic tale, the grand and sweeping dialogue, and that majestic voice of Heston in this most majestic of roles. A thrill of goosebumps every time I hear that voice.
The Golden Age of Hollywood, never to return. I grieve for my loss, and for the loss of the nation.
It was most grand, Sarge!!!
"King of Kings" was my favorite..
Ms.B
MMMM!! Great movie. But even more than 10 Commandments, I LOVE Heston in "Ben Hur." :o)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.