The Ten Commandments - Critical Review - Essay Example

Number] The Ten Commandments: A Critical Review ‘The Ten Commandments’ (Cecil B. De Mille, 1956) isa motion picture based on the biblical biography of the life of Moses. Although I have watched it before so many times but this time I have watched it with a critical eye. I kept my focus on the way this movie has depicted the life, lessons and teachings of Moses, and were they or were they not in-line with the Christian beliefs. In any film of biographical nature it is of importance to know what has been kept and what has been erased from the real story the film is narrating. This movie is basically based on the Hebrew book ‘Exodus’ which narrates the complete account of how an adopted Egyptian prince, Moses, who was Hebrew by birth, rescued the enslaved Jews from the clutches of a cruel ruler, Pharaoh. The movie was given a very realistic feel with its on location filming and very strong and appropriate cast, by the director De Mille. But it should be taken in consideration that the movie was told with its very intriguing storyline both to educate, in a religious manner, and to entertain, in a people friendly and aesthetic fashion too. There are some basic flaws or probably involuntary mistakes in the story line, for example it is shown in the movie that the infant Moses was rescued from the basket by Pharaoh’s sister, in fact, in biblical text, he was rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter and she knew it at that time too that he was a Hebrew. (Exodus; 2: 5-7). De Mille’s version of the Biblical story of Moses, is a class act, he has given it his own flavour where he deliberately emphasized on some of the aspects of this story right from the Exodus version. Like he portrays how the divine being of God engulfs Moses, how God speaks to Moses and a burning fire surround Moses which will not burn him, which in reality could easily overwhelm and tarnish a person in seconds. De Mille’s such metaphors are very clearly seen all through the movie, which shows the true heart of the film as biblical in nature. This Divine radiance of God which inhibits Moses is illustrated many times in the movie, which is seems to be the foundation of De Mille’s belief in the story. In contrast to above, a lot of biblical facts are altered just for the viewer’s better understanding and attraction, for example, there is a point in the original story where Moses killed an Egyptian for brutally beating a Hebrew slave, but in the movie that Egyptian was replaced by Pharaoh’s cruel master builder. It is understandable that such changes are made just to hook the audience and keeping them intrigued. Such form of narrative alteration are not new, but when someone is describing a biblical history, which has obviously a religious background, one should be very very careful in doing such or any kind of changes, since people’s beliefs and emotions are always very attached to these topics and are often volatile. Another very critical alteration that we can see is the intense love affair between Moses and Pharaoh’s daughter, Nefertiti, which was so un-called for, and which later turns in to a love triangle between Moses, Nefertiti and the Pharaoh Prince. Such gimmicks to hook up the audiences in a movie with a holy background is not very flattering to see, it could have easily be avoided without making any difference on the impact of the movie. De Mille’s cinematographic excellence should be praised too, his very well chosen cast, immaculate costumes and filming mostly on true location, gives the movie a very true feel to it, and keeps the viewer engaged and in an awe of that era all throughout the movie. The film-maker himself claims that his script depends on the writings of various historian writers such as Josphes and Philio, their writings are used where there was some historical facts missing of the early years of the life of Moses. However, it is noted that a biblical filmmaker should present true story in its true sense, there is a difference between a biblical film and a spiritual film, De Mille claims himself to be a biblical film maker then a spiritual film maker. But in the end the impact of the film is not so biblical as well as spiritual. It seems like a fact file where a true story is told with all the colours and drama without any heart in to it. It failed to lift a person’s spirit in religious terms. (Kinema, 2014) In my understanding making a biblical movie is not an easy task; a film maker has to be extremely creative without hurting anyone’s spiritual and religious beliefs, in interpolating and extrapolating when the holy text is missing some facts. Everyone, in the absence of such facts, finds it very easy to criticise the writer and film maker equally. What is controversial is the way De Mille has narrated, modified and invented the plot, when he has claimed in the introduction of the movie, (where he himself appeared; a very unusual for a film maker) and claimed that his depiction of the biblical story is accurate in every sense and it follows the writings of biblical historians.( Patheos, 2004) As for the case of the movie being a Jewish or a Christian version of the story? Since it is known that the movie is Jewish based narration of the religious story, but it also narrates through out of a ‘Saviour’, is the director trying to give it a Christian flavour? For example he depicted through the sign of a star the birth of Moses who will redeem the Egyptian from a cruel ruler Pharaoh; it is similar to the prediction of the birth of Jesus by a sign of star. Why was he trying to give it a Christian flavour? Probably for the sake of American culture their religious history and the ever changing and often pressing political scene. At the time of its release the World War just ended and the world was still divided on lots of issues, this has influenced the writer, narrator and director De Mille deeply, he also announces it in the end when the Ten Commandments were bestowed upon the Hebrew people, that it is an ongoing battle between freedom and dictatorship”. In our society, Judaism is widely accepted because it is a known fact that Jesus was born and raised as a Jew, and as the history develops it is learned that Judaism develops in to Christianity as an after effect. In the Christianity beliefs it is believed that Jews are errant Christians as they do not believe in Jesus to be a precursor of Moses. De Mille’s interpretation of the biblical event which has phenomenal impact on the society in general are of great importance, depictions like the burning bash which inhibits Moses, The heavenly carving of The Ten Commandments on the stones and the splitting of River Nile and later engulfing of the Pharaoh‘s army are all scenes of epic proportions and have deep rooted influence in all our lives (CT, 2007) A religious film maker should not be a narrative story teller, the aims of such films should not be to dramatized the historical events of holy origins and it should not address any religion in particular, but such movies which have an impact of a global kind should be able to present these powerful scripture themes such as forgiveness, sin, sacrifice, hope, redemption and revelations. Thus, I believe that De Mille’s version of this biblical story has fallen short to evoke any such sentiments in a regular person of the society who doesn’t have a very deep religious background. Moreover, we should be thankful to De Mille for teaching our kids the basic knowledge of our religion through his films, the children of our generation has learned a lot about our religion through films like these then any Sunday church sermons. A religious film maker should be truthful in narrating the story to the point of cruelty if required; he should portray truthfulness, forgiveness, perfectionism, sacrifice and love just to show respect to God. De Mille is surely ‘the’ religious film maker of our time, through movies like The Ten Commandments and more of the same sort he was able to influence previous generations and will continue to do so in the future. Works Cited “The Ten Commandments”, Director Cecil B. De Mille. USA: paramount pictures, 1956.Movie CT - Christianity Today ‘The Ten Commandements’ Review, 2007. Web April 25,2014 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/octoberweb-only/tencommandments.html Kinema, A Journal for Film and Audiovisualmedia, ‘Scripture Film-maker Cecil De Mille’by Anton Karl Kozlovic. Web April 24, 2014 http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/article.php?id=511&feature Patheos, The Review ‘The Ten Commandments’. 2004. Web April 25,2014 http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2004/03/review-the-ten-commandments-dir-cecil-b-demille-1956.html Read More