I’m not sure why, but I have DeMille’s “Ten Commandments” on at the moment. Maybe I have masochistic tendencies. Holy Moses, this is a bad film (wah waaah).
If you’ve read along with my entries, you are probably aware that I try to be a faithful Catholic. I feel it important to say that I am thankful that the Lord saw fit to pass His Word along via the Bible, not through film, and most especially this one.
Time for a little film critique. How good can a film really be when the best performance within it is that of Vincent Price for about 7 minutes? Apart from the horrendous overacting displayed by star and extra alike, we are “treated” practically every 5 minutes to DeMille himself, trying to expand on Scipture with his blasted narrative. I can’t tell if he’s trying to assume some farty self-righteousness; if he’s jealous of the writers of the Pentateuch for having better “copy”, or if he’s trying to sell me a high-fiber cereal! Oi vey.
How about my subject heading?
That phrase is relative to a running joke between my “adopted little brother”, Ben and myself. Charlton’s beard couldn’t be any more obviously fake if it had a thick black chinstrap. We developed the mental image of one of the extras going up to Holy-go Heston and, with a chirping, “Hey, Moses!” giving him a good beard-snapping, to which he responds in typical strained, self-righteous fashion, “Don’t touch my beard! Don’t touch my beard!”. After this exchange, DeMille would bluster in with some bogus phrase like, “And it was the mightiest beard to be found in all the nation of Israel; in the lands of Midian and Miraba; in the great flows of the Nile… blah blah blah, yakity schmackity!”
Here’s another “scene” for you to ponder: As Moses is brought before Pharoah in shackles, he turns to his Egyptian guards and barks, “Take your hands off me, you damn dirty ape!” (thanks, Brent.)
Well, I thought it was funny.
If I don’t talk to you sooner, have a safe and blessed Passover.