The Ten Commandments

I would say the title of "biggest" epic ever would go to either MGM's "Ben-Hur", 20th Century Fox's "Cleopatra" or Paramount's "The Ten Commandments". What separates "The Ten Commandments" from the former two films is its director, Cecil B. DeMille. William Wyler, director of "Ben-Hur" was an extremely capable Hollywood veteran, he had even served as an assistant director on the 1925 version of "Ben-Hur", and handled the immense production about as well as could be expected of something so physically and financially big. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, director of "Cleopatra", was a sophisticated writer-director who almost immediately was swallowed up by the soap opera of making such an epic film. The end result, while extremely competent, bears the mark of a troubled production, albeit one funded with a blank check. That leaves "The Ten Commandments", directed by legendary showman Cecil B. DeMille. DeMille's strategy on his films was to anticipate problems, a sentiment which served him extremely well as he was almost always undertaking a film of prohibitive cost and scope. Thus when the day called for the frame to be filled with thousands of extras, human and animal alike, as the Exodus sequence does in "The Ten Commandments", DeMille was perfectly in control, and no matter what drawback, such as the heart attack he suffered while scaling a ladder to examine a mounted camera for this very scene, the production would continue. Nearly all of his films are big, but this is clearly his biggest, and would also be his last film, and what a fitting epitaph for his career that he would go out having made arguably the "biggest" epic of them all.

While not "the greatest story ever told", that distinction going to the life of Christ (a subject biblical auteur DeMille had already tackled once before with "King of Kings" in 1927, and would be revisited by fellow gargantuan filmmaker George Stevens in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" in 1965), the story of Exodus is still quite compelling and DeMille, through his own opening introduction, puts a contemporary spin on the biblical tale, citing this as the beginning of the fight against slavery and inequality. The story really is quite perfect (whoever was writing down these stories really knew some good ones): a prophecy warns the Pharaoh, Sethi, that one among the enslaved Jewish people will rise against him, destroying Egypt. An order goes out that all newborn slave babies be killed, but one is spared, Moses, who is put adrift in the Nile, washing ashore at the palace of the Pharaoh himself, where his mysterious arrival is kept secret by his adoptive mother, Bithiah, Sethi's sister. Raised as "Prince of Egypt", Moses is completely ignorant who he really is, yet he is markedly different from his "brother" Ramses. Moses, played with conviction by Charlton Heston, is compassionate (he gives the slaves the Egyptian grain surplus and allows them to observe their Sabbath day), a stark contrast to the cold, cruel Ramses, played by the physically imposing Yul Bryner. After learning of his true identity Moses refutes Sethi's decree that he pledge himself to the Egyptians and not the Hebrews, and is put into exile by Ramses. He stumbles upon a kindly desert chieftain, Jethro, and marries his oldest daughter, Sephora. While in exile, Moses keeps hearing stories of Ramses' crulety to the Jews, his people, in Egypt, but refuses to believe he is their deliverer. Only after scaling the summit of Mount Sinai, where he encounters the burning bush, does Moses dare return to Egypt, filled with the power and (this being the Old Testament) wrath of God.

The final third of the film is the most powerful and impressive. It is here where DeMille truly earns his title as master showman. Upon his return to Egypt, Moses issues his famous decree to Ramses: "Let my people go!". Ramses scoffs at him, dismissing the omen of Moses staff turning into a snake and swallowing that of Ramses' whole. Though it clearly breaks his heart, after all, Moses still considers Ramses his brother, even if Ramses has long forgotten it, Moses imposes the ten plauges of Egypt, via God's might. He turns the river Nile into blood, sends flies, locusts and pestilence that kills all the Egyptian animals and crops, and launches a hailstorm that turns to a massive fire. Throughout all of this, Ramses' stubborness to be bested by some "heathen" god, prohibits him from letting the Jews go free, despite the growing concern among his people that maybe Moses really is the administrator of a force more powerful than their own heathen gods. The final plauge is the worst and cows even Ramses' fierce pride. Believing he will crush the Hebrew's faith in Moses, Ramses states that the first born of every Jewish family will be put to death. The final plauge, Moses warns, will turn into whatever Ramses threatens, thus the Angel of Death (portrayed by a streaking white light) comes into Egypt, leaving a trail of wailing and crying. Sparing only the Jews (who marked their homes with lamb's blood, thus creating the Passover ritual), the plauge has now personally hit Ramses, whose young son was killed.

Wracked with guilt, he permits Moses and the Hebrews to leave Egypt. DeMille fills the Exodus sequence with thousands of extras, throwing a cameo to his old friend H.B. Warner, who was his Jesus almost 30 years before in "King of Kings". The Hebrews make it to the Red Sea before Pharaoh's forces, in one last attempt to impose the might of their Egyptian gods, corner them. Moses famously parts the Red Sea (a sequence which single-handedly won the special effects supervisor an Oscar), then closes it on Pharoah's army. Ramses returns in shock to Egypt, where he utters my favorite line of the entire film "His God IS God". The Hebrews now free of the pursuing Egyptian army almost betray Moses while he once again climbs Mount Sinai to collect the Ten Commandments. The Jewish traitor Dathan (played with suitable ham by Edward G. Robinson, in my opinion equivalent to having Dennis Hopper appear in "Schindler's List") nearly convinces the Hebrews to return to Egypt, constructing a massive golden calf to offer to Ramses to sate his wrath. When Moses returns (the Ten Commandments sequence is equally impressive, the writing etched in stone by lightning) he deplores the Hebrews actions, and finally leads them from their ignorance to the Promised Land. I realize that this post has been extremely long, but I feel it is fitting for a 220 minute film, one that, if not the greatest story ever told, is surely the "second"; but also for my money the "biggest" story ever told!