![]() It is sound dramatically and, despite its expanse, well-knit and cohesive.Ĭharlton Heston as Moses is splendid, handsome and princely (and human) in the scenes dealing with him as a young man, and majestic and terrible as his role demands it. Frank, is based on incredible historical background and advice. The screenplay by Aeneas MacKenzie, Jesse L. It stresses our common brotherhood, as children of Abraham, rather than the differences which the years have brought. Having chosen his own people, he then leads the Jews out of Egypt and, after years of hardship and wandering, delivers them to the Promised Land.ĭeMille has augmented the Bible story with careful research, wisely careful that the story as he presented it will not give offense to any believers, Christian, Jew or Mohammedan. There comes a time when Moses learns he is Hebrew, not Egyptian, and when he must choose which future he will accept. The child is found by the Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as her own child, as a prince of Egypt. Moses, born to a Hebrew family in slavery in Egypt, is spared by his mother from the death decreed by the Pharaoh when she puts the infant in a basket and sets it adrift on the Nile. The story, in its bare outlines, is familiar to everyone. This is the theme of this great picture, liberty under God, the sanctity of the individual and his struggle for freedom from oppression created tyrannical state and the men who see no higher authority than that with which they invest themselves. “Proclaim liberty throughout the lands, unto all the inhabitants thereof.” So says Moses to the Jews as the Chosen People approach the River Jordan and Moses leaves them. And it puts the credit squarely where it belongs. This reasoning does not diminish the many other fine artists there are in Hollywood, it simply puts in proper perspective the massive accomplishment that his picture is. But you have only to imagine (or try to) the name of any other man who could have functioned as the creator of The Ten Commandments to realize what a giant Cecil B. There are many very capable people who have helped to make The Ten Commandments and DeMille has been generous in his credit to all departments. Because The Ten Commandments takes all the great technical advances, VistaVision, Technicolor, high fidelity recording, etc., and without allowing these physical elements to dominate, tells one of the greatest stories of all time. This is why we say the summit of screen achievement. DeMille is still the master of spectacle, still as skillful as ever in translating historical events in terms of human values, and of welding these two elements into absorbing, exciting, thrilling, moving screen entertainment. These weighty comments should not obscure the fact that Cecil B. It establishes its own measure of evaluation in almost every way, speaking theatrically, and it cannot even be judged on that basis alone, since it is also a profound and important spiritual message. Because The Ten Commandments cannot be evaluated by ordinary critical standards. But this is a little like inquiring timorously if the Colossus of Rhodes was a nice piece of statuary, if the Parthenon was a pretty little church. Is it a great movie? Entertaining? Artistic? Well, yes. DeMille’s lofty and crowning achievement will bring into theatres throughout the world the most important segment of potential audiences: the people who do not attend movies regularly or do not go at all. If there were but one print of this Paramount picture, the place of its showing would be the focus of a world-wide pilgrimage. It is not just a great and powerful motion picture, although it is that it is also a new human experience. DeMille‘s The Ten Commandments is, in many ways, the summit of screen achievement. DeMille’s Masterpiece - Monumental Production, Entertaining and Uplifting, An Unsurpassed Achievement.”Ĭecil B. ![]() 5, 1956, The Hollywood Reporter gave the highest praise to the film in a review originally headlined, “‘The Ten Commandments’ C.B. In the fall of 1956, moviegoers were greeted with what would become one of Hollywood’s most enduring Biblical-themed films, The Ten Commandments. ![]()
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