When the action moves to medium shots of Moses (played by Heston’s infant son Fraser) being rescued from the Nile, Israelites working in mud pits, or the alleys of Pithom, there is little sense of scale, depth, or dirt these studio sets fall flat. The score by Elmer Bernstein, soaring and heroic, also raises the film up but sets it as a mid-century production. But the staging, perhaps inadvertently, goes beyond ‘authenticity’ –the lingering sense of Hollywood grandiloquence generates suspicion that the next day Gene Kelly might stage a gigantic dance scene on the same set. The Egyptian sets are magnificent, enormous, glossy and detailed, populated by hundreds of costumed extras. One of the two water tanks built on the Paramount back lot for the Red Sea was reportedly 300 feet on each side. The location sets in Egypt were the largest ever built. The widescreen format provides a scale rarely seen today, a fitting tableau for the enormous sets and masses of extras. But this provides an ironic sort of authenticity an elite ancient Egyptian vision is translated into a dynamic expression where the king and his minions are the bad guys.Īn epic product (a posterior numbing 3 hours and 40 minutes worth) also required an epic scale of production. In effect Rameses III’s Medinet Habu wall carvings come to life, with scenes of the Nile, Egyptians and their foes. Noerdlinger even produced a book, Moses and Egypt, which detailed the Biblical translations, Egyptian sources, and other materials behind the film, down to analyses of the thread counts in ancient Egyptian linen. Noerdlinger, consulted numerous Biblical scholars and Egyptologists, and the film’s visual details were rendered faithfully according to the scholarship of the day. One way that DeMille strove for epic dimensions was through historical accuracy, which also became a canny marketing point.ĭeMille’s researcher, Henry S. The top grossing films of 1956 included The Ten Commandments, Around the World in 80 Days, Giant, War and Peace, and The Searchers. The newly developed VistaVision technique, which exposed a 35mm negative sideways, produced a widescreen experience in finely detailed and lush Technicolor.Īmerican film and public tastes had changed in the three decades since DeMille’s first film and the industry’s ability to create epics – in terms of storytelling and visuals – was at its height. Allegory was jettisoned in favor of a mostly literal retelling of the Exodus story. When DeMille undertook to remake the film in the early 1950s his own fame was long established. The Americanization of the Exodus story juxtaposed Biblical and “modern” values but proved popular with audiences. The story of the two McTavish brothers, one a poor carpenter, the other a rich contractor, and the construction of a church with substandard concrete, the collapse of which (spoiler alert) kills their poor grey haired mother, was heavy handed allegory and awkward storytelling. ĭeMille’s original 1923 version of The Ten Commandments saw the Exodus story paired against a modern tale of corruption and redemption. Though he directed at least 80 films he is, perhaps unfairly, best known for his Biblical epics, Samson and Delilah, Sign of the Cross, King of Kings, and two versions of The Ten Commandments. But for over four decades he directed, produced and wrote a bewildering assortment of films frothy comedies like Madam Satan, potboilers like The Cheat, historical dramas such as Cleopatra, and high dramas like The Greatest Show on Earth. Today DeMille is rarely thought of as one of America’s leading directors. The Ten Commandments must first be spoken of in terms of its director, Cecil B. ASOR-AFFILIATED RESEARCH CENTERS FELLOWSHIPS.FELLOWSHIPS FOR EXCAVATION PARTICIPANTS.
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