Yearly however one for the final half-century, one of many greatest, baudiest, most extreme motion pictures ever made graces the small display screen, courtesy of the ABC community. As absolutely because the seasons change, come spring Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments returns to TV in a large four-and-a-half-hour block of ad-supported non secular tv… and individuals are nonetheless watching. As just lately as 2023, it topped broadcast TV viewership for the week of Passover. It’s a time of 12 months I look ahead to immensely.
Not that I’m watching it on ABC… who wants that many Ozempic commercials interrupting the ten plagues of Egypt? However I nonetheless stream it simply earlier than Easter yearly, simply as I’ve since I used to be a bit child and it was on TV the Saturday night time earlier than all of us obtained dressed up in our Easter finest the following day.
1956’s The Ten Commandments will not be a great film, however it’s a massively necessary one, and it’s actually one among my favorites. Its hammy, generally wood, deeply pretentious and overly involved with itself, with lengthy pseudo-biblical narration in pretentious King James-ish tones. However it’s additionally enormous, bawdy, violent, sensual, filled with Hollywood legends, and stunningly entertaining due to its colossal scale and its extraordinary dedication to exploiting its viewers.
Now I need to be very clear right here: I’m not notably speaking concerning the Exodus story. I’m speaking concerning the movie. I’m a Quaker, and I take Exodus with lots of theological weight: Even when I doubt a lot of it ever occurred traditionally, the story itself nonetheless says some very highly effective, significant issues. It lays a basis for 3 nice religions, and establishes the extraordinary character of Moses, a deeply flawed, deeply reluctant, and empathetic cultural hero. And The Ten Commandments themselves symbolize one thing fairly highly effective traditionally… a authorized code that, whereas theistic, endeavors to be actually simply, selling a peaceable and civil society.
The (Covertly Exploitative) Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments is an epic, actually, and a feat of filmmaking at scale. However greater than anything, it’s an exploitation flick. I believe that within the trendy world, when many people hear “exploitation flick” we immediately journey to the Seventies grindhouse aesthetic. However exploitation flicks have existed for much longer, and The Ten Commandments is definitely the most important, costliest, and most brazen ever made.
What makes an exploitation flick not simply one other film is its overt attraction to a really particular viewers; on this case, folks of religion and “household” moviegoers on the lookout for a ethical and moral play to verify their very own biases. And as soon as the viewer is within the seat, a correct exploitation movie delivers sufficient sordid, tantalizing materials to maintain them invested.
The ethical and non secular trappings of The Ten Commandments are the brilliant paint and swan facade on the doorway to the Tunnel of Love. The theological and patriotic nuances absolutely justify a ticket buy for even probably the most prudish. However as soon as by means of the doorways and within the darkness, our riders sail over a world of temptations, sins, and horrors: homicide, political intrigue, lust, intercourse, dancing women, kidnapping, assault, infanticide, sorcery, and revolution, all culminating in probably the most well-known and spectacular Hollywood particular impact of all time.
The Hays Code had neutered film storytelling for over 20 years, forcing filmmakers to create largely sanitized universes of cold cowboy violence and gee-gosh-darn-it language. Sexuality was nonetheless current, however closely curtained, hidden behind layers of innuendo… Lauren Bacall’s well-known “You simply put your lips collectively, and blow” in To Have or Have Not being the very best instance.
However The Ten Commandments was no Republic Photos cowboy flick. It was a Large Vital Film about Large Vital Issues, like God, a morality play the place good is rewarded and evil is punished. And that framing allowed DeMille to get across the Hays code in some completely wonderful moments. Moses’ story in scripture is loads violent and miraculous, however it lacks what audiences at all times need: intercourse attraction. And Cecil B. DeMille had completely no issue rectifying that omission on the a part of the Bible.
Not less than six-and-a-half of The Ten Commandments are damaged within the story of The Ten Commandments. Close to the movie’s climax, a golden idol is crafted and worshipped… that’s one and two. Rameses bears false witness towards Moses. There’s lots of killing originally (infants) and once more on the finish (extra infants and the Egyptian cavalry). Dathan and Baka covet what they don’t but possess. Theft and graft are integral to the plot. And whereas we don’t see overt adultery, Egypt is very thirsty, with affairs and alliances closely inferred.
If this looks as if a cynical tackle a well-known movie, I ask you to think about the historical past of exploitation cinema. Take, for instance, the cautionary tales and well being movies of early Hollywood, which overtly engaged sexual materials underneath the guise of ethical educating. Reefer Insanity might be probably the most well-known instance of this bit; there have been loads of others. The Ten Commandments is exploiting morality and religion to get butts into theater seats… then utilizing intercourse and violence to maintain them there.
The movie is extremely attractive. The Ten Commandments weaves a lust triangle between dreamy, chiseled Moses, his a lot hotter adoptive brother Rameses, and the princess Nefretiri, performed by the sultry Anne Baxter. Whichever of the 2 rival males turns into Pharaoh will marry her. Nefretiri is group Moses all the best way, however the sexual pressure between the 2 males and Nefretiri is palpable. Contemplate this dripping change when Nefretiri and Rameses are lastly alone:
Shirtless Yul Brynner: “Keep in mind, my candy, that you just have to be spouse to the following Pharaoh. That you’re going to be mine, all mine, like my canine or my horse or my falcon. Solely I’ll love you extra, and belief you much less. You’ll by no means do the issues to me you’d have carried out to Moses.”
They kiss.
Anne Baxter, wearing a clear robe: “Did you suppose my kiss was a promise of what you will have? No, my pompous one. It was to let what you’ll not have. I may by no means love you.”
Shirtless Yul Brynner, now smouldering: “Does that matter? You can be my spouse. You’ll come to me each time I name you, and I’ll get pleasure from that very a lot. Whether or not you get pleasure from it or not is your individual affair… however I believe you’ll.”
See what I imply? There’s much more stuff like that all through the movie. Displaying off see-through wedding ceremony night time style equipment. The ladies of Midian dancing for the leisure of the boys, who will select one to be a bride. A startlingly overt suggestion (for Nineteen Fifties America) of interracial romance between Moses and the Princess of Ethiopia, delivered masterfully by the proficient actor Esther Brown (who sadly appears to vanish from Hollywood quickly after).
There’s homicide by knife, homicide by balcony, homicide by strangling, loss of life by angel, loss of life by dart, a large magic pillar of fireplace, a parted sea, legal guidelines drawn on stone by the finger of God, and naturally, a Golden Calf orgy. This isn’t a boring movie. Stuff occurs.
However there could have been one other ingredient at work within the movie’s ethical storytelling composition, and act of political relatively than viewers exploitation. For extra background on this, you need to take into account simply how completely different our nation was at the moment, and in addition how highly effective Cecl B. DeMille was.
An Overtly Conservative Time
The mid-Nineteen Fifties had been a darkish time for America, an period of racial animus and anti-communist paranoia. On Capitol Hill, Senator Joe McCarthy openly flaunted his baseless lies earlier than the Senate, and within the Home the Un-American Actions Committee unfold worry and suspicion. It was additionally the age of the Hollywood blacklist, when stars and writers suspected of leftist sympathies had been barred from work.
It was a tense interval in Hollywood, a spot at all times present between the calls for of business success and inventive expression, now infected by the regular gaze of Washington. And within the midst of this uncertain atmosphere, no film was a safer industrial wager than The Ten Commandments, one thing DeMille understood extremely nicely. In any case, he virtually invented moviemaking as we perceive it. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Cecil B. DeMille created Hollywood. And whereas right this moment we could consider a 1956 film as historic, by the point he produced this movie, Cecil B. DeMille had already been making movies for over 40 years. He’d seen two world wars, the silent period, the silver display screen period, and now colour movie. He was a pioneer, and his movies made financial institution.
An Americanized retelling of Exodus was an ideally palatable movie for an age of political orthodoxy. Mother-and-apple-pie values had been all there within the cloth of the story: the elevation of non-public freedom, denouncement of bondage and tyranny, a cursory reverence for some Abrahamic views on God, and an emphasis on household throughout Moses’ life, from his Egyptian brother, mom, and father, to his Hebrew beginning household, and but once more to his adoptive household in Midian. Don Draper would have been comfortable to cynically espouse all of those virtues in print and radio for a nominal free.
Was The Ten Commandments a deliberate bending-of-the-knee to McCarthyist tendencies? DeMille was famously conservative, and a few components lend themselves to decoding a political dimension to the movie. The primary is DeMille’s theatrical spoken intro to the movie in theaters (not usually included on streaming cuts). Within the transient intro, the director evokes some potent language, calling the movie “The story of the beginning of freedom.” He goes on to say:
“The theme of this image is whether or not they’re to be dominated by God’s regulation, or whether or not they’re to be dominated by the whims of a dictator like Rameses? Are males the property of the state, or are they free souls underneath God? This similar battle continues all through the world right this moment.”
Whereas there are many flags within the manufacturing and story of The Ten Commandments that help a McCarthyist interpretation, additionally be aware that two formerly-graylisted people contributed considerably to The Ten Commandments, with actor Edward G. Robinson and composer Elmer Bernstein serving to make the movie with DeMille’s blessing.
Once you evaluate The Ten Commandments to a different profitable sword-and-sandals epic launched simply 4 years later, you get a way of simply how overtly conservative and covertly exploitative it’s. Like The Ten Commandments, 1960’s Spartacus sported a world-class forged, a legendary director (Stanley Kubrick), and colossal setpieces rivaling the parting of the Pink Sea. Each movies heart on enslaved folks revolting towards tyranny. However the place The Ten Commandments loudly espouses Americana orthodoxy whereas promoting titillation, Spartacus makes no qualms about its extra liberal politics. It’s a narrative of a preferred rebellion towards a longtime nationwide authority… a nation masquerading as a republic however the place solely the privileged and highly effective are free. It proudly credit two blacklisted writers (novel and screenplay).
However that was 4 years after The Ten Commandments, when Joe McCarthy was useless. In 1956, what we obtained was the lifetime of Moses filtered by means of the 2 veils of the hour: the Iron Curtain, and the filter of American sexual repression.
Watching the Movie Right now
There’s not a terrific deal that’s suave about the best way The Ten Commandments is constructed, however its straightforwardness really makes it sort of timeless. As admirer Martin Scorsese suggested, cease trying on the plot and attempt to observe the imagery and spectacle as a substitute. It’s virtually a horror film in a number of locations: The picture of an Egyptian soldier pulling a bloodied sword from a cradle subsequent to a wide-eyed, useless mom within the opening sequence is haunting, and the approaching of the Angel of Loss of life like a cloud of poison fuel is genuinely disturbing.
Every thing earlier than Moses meets God is just about Charlton Heston at his hammiest finest, however as soon as he encounters the burning bush, he type of walks round trying stoned. The Pink Sea parting is a really cool impact, and Vincent Worth completely slays as Baka, a really sinister and gross grasp builder who turns in the very best efficiency of the film.
This Ten Commandments is nearly 70 years outdated, but I can consider few movies I’d relatively watch. The factor is, the traps DeMille set labored. All that intercourse and violence actually is rattling entertaining. It’s enormous for the sake of being enormous, opulent, indulgent even.
Simply perceive the film for what it’s: a movie exploiting a divine story. It’s there to entertain, not instruct. If you’d like one thing much less lurid and extra non secular, the guide of Exodus is a brief learn, and supplies the identical story in its a lot older kind, a story that particulars a significant chapter within the historic lives of the Hebrew folks.
