Review of The Ten Commandments (1956) by Maineutral R — 29 Dec 2013

Hands down one of the greatest films ever crafted. The Ten Commandments is a perfect example of full effort into a film: tons of extras, giant scope, epic size, incredible score, intelligent, wonderful, loyal to its source material (including then modern investigations) and having only incredible performances, the epicness of this biblical story-based film is obvious even as it starts.

The Ten Commandments tells most of the story of Moses and the mission that God commited to him. Its long runtime is a great excuse to tell the story in a big hollywood scope like this. The movie manages to give story credit to most of the characters without having them dissapearing for long periods of time (The Hobbit anyone?) as well as telling the story as written in the Bible. The movie has an imponent force that keeps going all the way through the nearly 4 hour runtime without losing its majesty at any moment, masterfully telling this epic story that I have faith it happened. It manages to make the characters what they're supposed to be: Moses is this wise, faithful and amazing man, Rameses (played by the great Yul Brynner, or as I like to call him, Mister Magnificent Seven) is this greedy, ambitious and evil pharaoh that ends up as a miserable being with nothing else to lose. All characters and biblical events perfectly represented in Cecil B. DeMille's epic masterpiece.

The Ten Commandments does everything right, and surely is an easely recognizable classic of epic proportions, which special effects and size are impressive even today. A master film and a huge event in movie history.

Seriously, the only way to make Rameses more obviously evil is to write "I'm evil" on his head.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS REVIEWS PART 05: The Ten Commandments (1956).