When you’re retelling an Old Testament story, you have to sound as authoritative as the source material. The dialogue is meant to sound like something you’d see carved in stone. Once you get used to the Fifties studio fakery - the mighty Nile from which Moses’s basket is drawn is plainly just a tank of water on an indoor set - appreciate how DeMille sells almost every plot beat expertly. The palace set is so gigantic, the depth of the space established by long rows of guardians receding into the distance, that as Moses walks slowly away from the emperor’s denunciation - “Let the name of Moses be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of men for all time” - he attains a physical distance from the camera that enhances his isolation and peril. The film is so sparing with its camera movements that it’s a startling departure from form when the camera dollies in on the Pharaoh Sethi for the banishment of Moses from the Egyptian court, accompanied by thundering drumrolls of doom. Never hurrying, but never letting things drag either, he used long takes, typically planting his camera for medium shots and letting the actors go to work uninterrupted for minutes at a time.
DeMille chose not to get in the way of one of the most potent stories ever told. Heston’s style is in perfect harmony with DeMille’s equally calm and patient staging. Is this the holy Lamb of God we all heard of in so many church services? It’s a beautiful, simple image of salvation. As for that desert scene I never got to the end of as a little kid, it reaches a powerful climax when Moses silently contemplates a lamb who serves as the herald of a life-saving oasis. Baxter’s acting may be campy (“Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!”) but she makes for one of the era’s classic bitchy vixens. “Better to die in battle with a God than live in shame,” he says, as demanding of himself as of others. Still, though: I always liked Yul Brynner’s Rameses, the epitome of an antagonist who inspires respect because he sticks to his sense of honor. And those special effects, which were cutting-edge when the film was released, came to look ridiculous over time. Robinson) from the Canarsie section of Cairo? Is there a worse actress than Anne Baxter as Nefretiri? Could they have found a less Jewish actor than Charlton Heston to play the Deliverer of the Hebrews? Why is God turning Moses’s staff into a cobra that devours two other snakes, anyway? That sounds more like a Satan kind of thing. Is the double-crossing Hebrew Dathan (Edward G. You’ll be able to enjoy The Ten Commandments in amazing 4K Ultra HD on March 30, 2021.As a young adult, I found the movie a bit. Theatrical trailers, including at 10-minute “making of” trailer.Newsreel footage of the film’s New York premiere.
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To commemorate the film’s 65th anniversary in 2021, DeMille’s groundbreaking cinematic triumph will be available to watch at home in time for Easter on Main sparkling 4K Ultra HD with High Dynamic Range.Īs part of the restoration done in 2010, the film was scanned in 6K and those files were the basis for this brand-new Dolby Vision version, which shows off the full beauty of the original VistaVision negative. Bringing to life the inspiring story of Moses in all its stunning glory, The Ten Commandments has withstood the test of time.