Cecil B. DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: Blu-ray (Paramount, 1956) Paramount Home Video
“Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you
a picture.”
-
Cecil B. DeMille
The single
costliest and highest grossing film of 1956 was Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments; an elephantine
Bible-fiction spectacle designed to dwarf all others that had gone before it,
including DeMille’s own 1923 silent version. That the resulting film is
eye-popping and star-studded is little wonder. On a purely visual scale, few
epics before or since can lay claim to as much staggering wealth in production
values. After a lengthy career, this proved to be DeMille’s final cinematic
gift to the world, and what a whopper it is and has remained in the intervening
decades since its theatrical release; perennially revived every Easter as a
right of passage for the young and old. DeMille’s approach to movie-making, even in the era of 'stereophonic sound', Technicolor and widescreen VistaVision, nevertheless heralded from a theatricality in his lengthy tenure during the silent era that never quite left him; also, an innate passion – nee,
respect – for his interpretation of the ‘will
of God’ – or some would add, the will of DeMille for which DeMille made absolutely zero apology. "You are here to please me," he often shouted at his extras, "Nothing else on earth matters!" In researching The Ten Commandments DeMille could be heavy-handed and philosophical.
Yet he instinctively was a showman at heart, never above letting a good story
go to waste. Once asked about his ‘exploitation’ of the Holy Scriptures,
DeMille coolly replied, “The Bible has been a
bestseller for centuries. Why should I let two thousand years of publicity go
to waste?”
And yet,
Paramount was not entirely certain DeMille’s pitch to remake one of their
biggest silent epics would do for the new-fangled fifties. It was largely on
his reputation, the Oscar-winning success of the picture that preceded it
(The Greatest Show on Earth, 1952)
and Adolf Zukor’s say so that DeMille was granted the privilege to pursue this
passion project a second time around. And pursue it he most certainly did. Mind-boggling
are the statistics trumpeted by Paramount’s publicity department; as lengthy
and involved as the film’s main title sequence. Consider just one fact: 60,000
extras dressed in as many costumes to perform the exodus scene against the largest
free standing set (Seti’s city) ever built for a motion picture. The strain of
micromanaging such a colossus took its toll on DeMille who suffered a major
heart attack while on location in Egypt, necessitating some quick subbing in by
no less than the film’s star, Charlton Heston – briefly seated in the
director’s chair. DeMille recovered from his coronary in a record three days
and was back on the set, in charge and most definitely in command. But it was
bittersweet. His ailment had gravely weakened him. A scant three years later,
DeMille was dead.
As film art, The Ten Commandments is not without its
flaws – some of them glaring. As far as historians and Biblical scholars are
concerned the research conducted has yielded an inconclusive screenplay by
Joseph Holt Ingraham, Arthur Eustace Southon, Dorothy Clarke Wilson, Aeneas
MacKenzie, Jesse L. Lasky Jr, Jack Gariss and Frederic M. Frank in which many
artistic liberties were taken. I'll bite. So what? Given the task of distilling one of
the most pivotal passages in the Bible into a manageable movie, the screenplay
is a veritable wonderment in both its comprehensiveness and its concision. If
artistic liberties have been taken, and – no doubt, they have – then these have
nevertheless produced a superlative text book example of the meticulously
crafted classic Hollywood narrative. While the scope and size of the project is
undeniably impressive, DeMille becomes a tad too preachy, too reverent as it
were, and too ensconced in the factoid information he crams into the film’s voice
over commentary to truly see The Ten
Commandments for what it is – or rather, what it aspires to be: pure
entertainment for the masses and a spectacle for all ages. And then, of course
there is the acting to consider – and reconsider. Stylistically, The Ten Commandments is straight out of
the silent era with extras and stars alike prone to grand gesticulating. This
lack of subtlety arguably serves our modern perceptions of antiquity. We never
think of people from the ancient world as just people going about their daily
business the same as ourselves, but see them as stoic, artfully placed
caricatures of human beings, more articulate than we and infinitely more
thought-provokingly inspired. DeMille’s
epic falls into that misconception and as such, tends to lack in genuine heart
and soul. His story is a moving tableau, populated by waxworks with the most
fabulous oratory skills this side of Dale Carnegie. As such, The Ten Commandments becomes the
ultimate example of style trumping substance.
And DeMille,
for all his reverence, cannot help but occasionally transgress into
pontificating. Even in interviews to promote the movie, DeMille ostensibly saw
himself as Hollywood’s undisputed authority on the Bible. “Man has made thirty-two million laws since the Commandments were
handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai more than three thousand years ago,” DeMille
explained, “….but he has never improved
on God's law. The Ten Commandments are the principles by which man may live
with God and man may live with man. They are the expressions of the mind of God
for His creatures. They are the charter and guide of human liberty, for there
can be no liberty without the law.... Our modern world defined God as a
‘religious complex’ and laughed at the Ten Commandments as old-fashioned. Then,
through the laughter came the shattering thunder of the World War. And now a
blood-drenched, bitter world — no longer laughing — cries for a way out. There
is but one way out. It existed before it was engraven upon Tablets of Stone. It
will exist when stone has crumbled. The Ten Commandments are not rules to obey
as a personal favor to God. They are the fundamental principles without which
mankind cannot live together. They are not laws — they are The Law.” And to
many a God-fearing/Bible-thumping mid-westerner of a certain generation,
DeMille appeared as God’s emissary in La La Land, using the medium of motion
pictures to disseminate the gospel on the largest canvas in the world.
Very loosely
based on the Holy Scriptures, our story begins in the time of Ramses I (Ian
Keith) who declares that ever Hebrew man child shall be put to death to stave
off rumours that a Messiah has been born among them. One child slated for the
slaughter is Moses (a role played as an infant by Heston’s newly born son,
Fraser). To spare his life, the child’s
mother, Yochabel (Martha Scott) casts Moses upon the Nile in a floating basket quickly
discovered by Egyptian princess, Bithiah (Nina Foch), who also happens to be
Seti’s sister. Bithiah’s lady in waiting, Memnet (Judith Anderson) spied the
Hebrew cloth the child is wrapped in and tells Bithiah she will not see this
son of slaves reared in the royal house as one of their own. But Bithiah is a
compassionate widow who orders Memnet to sink the basket and swear an
allegiance to their secret or die for divulging the truth. Fast forward: an
adult Moses (Charlton Heston) returns triumphant to Egypt to honour Seti II’s
(Sir Cedric Hardwicke) jubilee. Although the aging ruler of the two lands has a
son, Ramses (Yul Brynner) he favours Moses for his humility and compassion.
Whoever rules Egypt will also marry Nefritieri (Anne Baxter), a sultry temptress
who also prefers Moses to Ramses and who kills Memnet to keep Moses birthright
from him. Through a merciless twist of fate Moses comes to realize he was not
born to the royal house and vows to seek out his people and his real family.
Meanwhile, the
wily overseer Dathan (Edward G. Robinson) is seconded by Ramses to snuff out
the true identity of the Hebrew’s ‘deliverer’. After Seti’s master builder
Bacca (Vincent Price) is found murdered the Egyptian guard launch into a
manhunt to find the stone cutter Joshua (John Derek), the last man to have
supposedly seen Bacca alive, having come to the rescue his beloved water girl,
Lilia (Debra Paget). But Dathan was hiding behind a pillar when Bacca was
murdered by Moses. He relays this message to Ramses who exposes Moses as a
fraud at Seti. The benevolent patriarch is crushed by this discovery, ordering
that Moses’ name be stricken from every book, tablet and obelisk. Nefritieri is betrothed to Ramses and Moses
exiled into the desert where presumably he will die. Instead, he receives his
true calling from God and is discovered by Sephora (Yvonne DeCarlo); a lowly
peasant girl tending flock with her sisters. Moses and Sephora are married and
Moses returns to Egypt after Seti’s death to challenge Ramses supremacy as
supreme ruler. Moses is commanded by Ramses to prove that his God is God. In
response, Moses transforms his staff into a serpent. A court mystic challenges
the transformation as a cheap magician’s trick by transforming his own staff
into another serpent. However, when Moses’ snake devours the mystic’s the court
is horrified. Ramses, however, is unmoved and unimpressed.
Next, Moses
uses his staff to turn the Nile as red as blood. The inhabitants are petrified
and plead with Ramses to release the Hebrew slaves from bondage. But when
Ramses learns of a mountain in the Cataracts that spewed red clay into the
river, he blames the Nile’s redness on a natural occurrence. Moses returns to
Ramses court, declaring that forty days of darkness shall fall upon the land.
Indeed, after a brief interlude the skies become dark. Hail falls to the
ground, turning to fire upon the earth. Ramses threatens Moses, declaring that
if another plague comes to Egypt he will turn the Nile red with the blood of
first born Hebrews. Realizing that Ramses has brought about the ultimate death,
Moses instructs his followers to smear lamb’s blood across their doorways to
prevent the pestilence from entering their homes. Instead, the plague murders
Ramses and Nefritieri’s only son. Emotionally destroyed, Ramses releases the
slaves from bondage. But as Moses leads the Israelites into the desert,
Nefritieri goads her husband with the promise he once made to her – to destroy
Moses. Inflamed by her words, Ramses calls the Egyptian guard to amass for the
slaughter of the Hebrews who have been led to the edge of the Red Sea.
Dathan
attempts to woo the terrified masses to his side with promises of clemency. But
Moses draws his staff against the waters and parts the sea so that they may
escape to the other side. Ramses forces are consumed when these walls of water
tumble back onto the ocean floor. He returns alone to Nefritieri, humbly
declaring that Moses’ “God is God!” Yet,
all is not well within the camps made at the foot of Mount Sinai. While Moses
is up in the mountains receiving the divine word, his followers are seduced by
Dathan to build a golden calf for worship. They indulge in all forms of
debauchery. Repelled by what he sees, Moses raises the stone tablets given to him
in anger. He casts the word of God to the ground, the tablets shattering and
creating an earthquake that swallows up all the nonbelievers. Unfortunately,
Moses actions have also displeased God. He is instructed to show the Israelites
the path to the Promised Land but is not to follow them himself. At the
crossroads of the past and the future Moses bids farewell to Joshua and
Sephora, telling them to go forward with God’s blessing.
The Ten Commandments is a monumental achievement by
any standard one may chose to ascribe to it. DeMille’s perfectionism was, in fact, in overdrive throughout,
though especially during pre-production, reportedly flinging an early draft of
the screenplay onto Jesse L. Lasky Jr.’s desk, saying “What I have crossed out I didn't like. What I haven't crossed out I'm
dissatisfied with.” And yet,
Biblical scholars have been particularly tough in their criticisms and
condemnation of the picture ever since – even as an entertainment. DeMille’s
interpretation of God’s voice in particular (actually Charlton Heston’s in
slo-mo) has incurred their wrath. John L. Jensen and Arnold Friberg’s costume
design also gets picked apart these days as a nod to fifties chic
re-envisioning of ancient Egyptian clothes. And then, of course there is the
narrative structure to consider. Many historians feel the first half of the
picture plays like a Peyton Place retrofitted for the
chariot and toga sect with palace intrigues, family incest, and other sundry infidelities
abounding in glorious Technicolor, while the latter half is slavishly devoted
to pure spectacle, capped off by the parting of the Red Sea, achieved using a full
scale miniature photographed in long shot using two clear glass
boxes filled with blue tinted water. By gradually removing the side panels from
each box and photographing the spillage at very high speeds (later played back
at a regular 24 frames per second) the effect proved utterly complete and jaw-dropping.
Despite these
academic criticisms, most film critics of the day were kind to The Ten Commandments as highly
fictionalized movie art. Audiences too were overwhelmed by the spectacle and
flocked to see the movie over and over again. Adjusted to today’s inflation, The Ten Commandments has earned roughly
$446 million worldwide, making it the fifth highest grossing film of all time.
It remains among the most beloved movies ever made and a perennial favorite on
Palm Sunday TV broadcasts. But DeMille, who wrapped principle photography on August
12th, ironically a date to coincide with his own 74th
birthday, never entirely recovered from the strain of making it. Arguably, his
reputation never did either. While evangelist, Billy Graham regarded DeMille as
Hollywood’s “prophet in celluloid”,
movie critic Pauline Kael rather murderously referred to DeMille as a “sanctimonious moralizer”; …and she
should know! The most ingratiating of the backhanded compliments came from
DeMille’s contemporary; director, William Wellman who suggested that “…I think his films were the
most horrible things I’ve ever seen in my life. But he put on pictures that
made a fortune. In that respect he was better than any of us.” Yet, perhaps
the most astute and heartfelt of these eulogized observations are those from director, Martin
Scorsese, who in hypothesizing upon the kernel of endurance in DeMille’s legacy,
summarized that in spite of his sermonizing, “…the marvelous superseded the sacred. He presented such a sumptuous
fantasy that if you saw his movies as a child they stuck with you for life.” Had
he lived, DeMille would have likely concurred with this posthumous accolade.
Regrettably, on January 20th, 1959, DeMille, experiencing chest
pains, was attended at home by his family physician who suggested immediate
hospitalization. “No,” DeMille
quietly replied, “I think I’ll go to the
morgue instead.” The next day, he did.
It took
Paramount Home Video a while to get around to this hi-def release, but the
results continue to prove rewarding some six years later: a deluxe Blu-ray, easily to
eclipse all previous incarnations available on DVD. At long last we get to see The Ten Commandments in its glorious
VistaVision motion picture high fidelity. Spread across two Blu-ray discs –
broken at the intermission – The Ten
Commandments has never looked more spectacular on home video. This is a
reference quality presentation with rich, bold and fully saturated colors. Fine
detail abounds. Contrast levels yield extraordinarily velvety blacks, and
pristine whites minus all the ugly edge enhancements that plagued the DVD. Some of the matte work remains transparent and obvious as, indeed, it must have in 1956. What can I tell you? Audiences were more forgiving of SFX back then.
Paramount’s
restoration effort is complete and breath-taking. The audio has equally received
an impressive upgrade in 5.1 DTS with a refined sonic quality, particularly in Elmer Bernstein’s underscore and effects that are spatially satisfying. As for dialogue,
it’s crisp and clean. Extras are another reason to celebrate: a brand new 75
minute ‘making of’ takes an intimate
look at the larger-than-life figures of DeMille and Heston with fascinating
back stories to tell. We also get the six part ‘documentary’ that accompanied
the DVD, an audio commentary and theatrical trailer – plus DeMille’s 1923
silent version. The elements on this earlier film are badly worn. It’s still
watchable, but just barely. Finally, Paramount has fleshed out the extras in
flashy collectible packaging. The case parts down the middle – just like the
Red Sea – revealing two faux stone tablets housing five discs – three Blu-ray
and two DVD. We get a handsome booklet brimming with factoid info and original
art and stills, and reproductions of telegrams from Paramount and DeMille, plus
costume design inserts. Wow! What a class act! Bottom line: Paramount Home
Video has outdone themselves on this presentation. As such, The Ten Commandments on Blu-ray remains
a ‘must have’ for every film lover! “Behold,
His mighty hand!” – indeed.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
5+
EXTRAS
5+
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