The Ten Commandments (1923)
Directed by: Cecil B. DaMille
Starring: Theodore Roberts, Charles de Rochefort, Richard Dix, Rod La Rocque
Length: 136 min
I had been wanting to see this movie for awhile. The 1956 Charleton Heston "The Ten Commandments" was one of my favorite movies growing up, and it still is. Maybe that's why I was so let down.....no, that wasn't the reason.
The reason was because the Moses story, where the plagues infect Egypt and he leads his people out of slavery to receive the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, all happens in the first 40 minutes of the movie. This wasn't one movie, it was two. For an epic, that's cheating.
The first 40 minutes were fine, but when the film STARTS right after the 9th plague, I got suspicious. And then when Moses parted the Red Sea a half hour into the movie, and was receiving the Ten Commandments at the 35 minute mark while his follows had a massive orgy, I was confused as to how the rest of the 100 minutes of movie would be filled.
That's when a modern times story began, and where the movie started to seriously suck. It was a morality play about the importance of the Ten Commandments in everyone's life. And that would be fine if everyone weren't such an insanely and comically over the top, one-dimension, cardboard cut-out character and the plot wasn't extremely predictable.
Getting back to the biblical story, the effects were nice. As can be seen in the clip above, I was a bit impressed with the parting of the Red Sea, considering it was 1923. Yeah, after the sea is split, it looks like two jello molds with a bit of water pouring over the sides, but like I said, 1923. It wasn't how pretty the effect is, it's about how resourceful it is.
Entertainment Rating: 4/10
Historical Rating: 6/10