Post by moviemouth on Apr 9, 2021 0:54:46 GMT
Watching DeMille requires some mental adjustment: it's like a children's church pageant blown out to a tremendous, cast-of-thousands scale. (According to the commentary track, he was going for a retro-epic look, evoking the pageants of his youth). Although I can be moved by Bible films (see David and Bathsheba (1951) and Ben Hur (1959)) this one is just too stiff and pompous to be more than spectacle. But as such there is nothing like it. I don't know how many of the subplots are mined from the midrash or other ancient texts.
That is part of what holds the movie back. It doesn't hit on much of an emotional level in the way Ben-Hur does.
William Wyler is also a much better director than Demille imo. Ben-Hur is a masterpiece, while the Ten Commandments is just a good movie.